What was supposed to be a one-hour discussion on the proposed Crossroads Academy charter school with a vote to pursue, or not to pursue, turned into a three-hour debate over numbers.
Both Joe Carlson and Kris Beaver insisted the Charter School must have success GUARANTEED in two years; otherwise, they would not approve.
Lest they forget:
Living Word Lutheran (Jackson) opened in 2001 with 39 students, 2002 -2003 = 81 students, 2003-2004 = 102, 2004-2005=131, 2005-2006=153, 2006-2007=157, 2007-2008=162, 08-09 = 166, 09-10= 145 and then in the midst of a recession Living Word bounces back 2010-2011 = 194.
And Kettle Moraine Lutheran, who opened with 9th & 10th grades only in 1974 with 35 students; in 1980 = 230, 1994 = 315, 199=390, and 2010=400.
*Proof that West Bend parents do, indeed, want a CHOICE.
Ted Neitzke had spelling and math mistakes in his presentation (several mistakes).. NO MISTAKES by Pastor Dunford and his reps. Just sayin'.
Pat Herdrich stated, "The challenge of entering a fixed contract with the assumptions (enrollment & state aid, etc) and the actual (numbers) haven't happened the way they were projected from the state." (Convenient that now state numbers are inaccurate when we're constantly bombarded with unsubstantiated numbers that the district is growing)
Picture this: Joe Carlson jabbing the pastor for not outing his school location and the perceived accusations that the church will be the site and the pastor will pocket a lot of $$$$. Pastor denied all accusations and then Joe threw them out there again and appeared to insinuate the pastor was lying. Shame.
Pat Herdrich, et al, harped on Pastor Dunford to come up with solid numbers, yet they spent one hour listening to Ted Neitzke rattle off ESTIMATES. How does that work?
The FAB FOUR: Stepanski, Weigand, Marquardt and Koenig - All kept the conversation going with positives that were being ignored by Carlson, Beaver and Miller.
The gem quote for the night came from Joe Carlson:
" I don't agree with Charter school because it's a short cut with Lutherans & Catholics using taxpayer money. It's private school disguised as a charter school".
The obvious included:
1. Pat Herdrich attempting to hijack the charter school idea with an instrumentality (district-controlled) school suggestion and.....
2. Kris Beaver's drama over the curriculum which had been given in outline form to the board by Pastor Dunford when everything else had failed and....
3. The District's attempts to stall the entire process, refusing to accept financial information from Pastor Dunford's team because they did not get their information from the same DPI personnel and, therefore, their numbers did not coincide. As Ted kindly pointed out, this was because there were those that "went to the DPI for answers" as opposed to those who "WORK for the DPI". Nice way to say that he thinks the charter school team is full of it.
I'll leave you with this to ponder:
Kris Beaver made mention of the "values-based" education references in the Crossroads Academy literature, and demanded to know what the Academy would teach about values that were not already being taught at the existing public schools. Yeah, he actually did.
Celebrity attendees: Waring Fincke (who, for some reason, kept hiding behind a pole from my blatantly obvious videotaping session) and Bob/Barb Deters. Interesting: Barb Deters was knitting something throughout the entire session. She made pretty good headway, too, from what I could see!
FINAL OUTCOME: Pat Herdrich insisted that Pastor Dunford's team go along with Ted Neitzke to the DPI and work on numbers....AGAIN. No vote was taken concerning the charter school.
I'll be adding some video of the meeting shortly. Check back in a while if you're interested.
UPDATE: Camera problems. Sorry 'bout that.
Someone emailed me a comment as the posts are not working today: Found it amusing:
Mrs. Deters knitting during the discussion? Sort of like the woman in A Tale of Two Cities knitting while heads were rolling in the French Revolution, or Nero fiddling while Rome burned.
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