Letter to the editor: former school employee

Letter To the Editor:

This letter is in response to numerous letters and articles submitted to the DCI regarding the bullying issue that is plaguing the KM School District, I have kept still til now....but the more I read of courageous and concerned former district employees coming forward, the more I feel led to come forward also and, stand with them. You see, I too am a "survivor" of "the good ol boys" tribe of bullies. I worked for the District as a para in the middle school for almost four years....I know that doesn't seem like a long time, but trust me, those years seem like a lifetime when you endure the kind of poor treatment that I, as well as many others, received from our administration. I also hope that by my letter, joined with the others who have already written in, that those other silent voices will also speak up and share their stories.....there are many more out there. I won't bore you with the long version of my story....but I will tell you that I claimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2010 as my day of freedom. After resigning, I made a couple of visits to the middle school...two visits in a two week period to be exact. While there, I did not disrupt classrooms, but did greet students, who were under my care during my years as an employee, while they were having lunch or passing me in the hallway. As I was leaving after the second visit, I was stopped and told by Alan Hodge that I couldn't be there.....that seemed really odd to me considering that I am a parent of a student in this building......so I went to Peter Grant. Mr. Grant informed me that Mr. Hodge was right in telling me that I couldn't be there....he went on to tell me that I had to limit my visits to once a month or once every other month, and that I was being a nuisance.....yes....you read that right. In the student handbook, it clearly states that parents, as long as they sign in and wear a visitor’s badge, are welcome anytime. I guess this isn't the case anymore. As a parent, this concerns me, not that I don't have trust or respect for our teachers and support staff (who by the way are wonderful and dedicated professionals with our students’ best interests truly at heart), but because a healthy parent/teacher team effort is crucial in a student's education. One would think that instead of limiting our parental visits to school, that we would be encouraged to visit as often as we can. After my visit with Mr. Grant, I took my story to a school board member. He seemed surprised at the time about what I told him and said that how I was treated didn't seem right, he would investigate it and get back to me.....weeks went by with no follow up. A few more months went by before I saw this school board member out in the public sector and asked him about what he found out.....funny....you would have sworn I had a deadly contagious disease because he power walked away from me so fast, that all I could see was nothing but air under his feet and a vapor trail behind him as he mumbled something inaudible under his breath........... He didn't even wait long enough for me to tell him that he left his spine back in the High School Music Room where the board holds its meetings. (I think that the board members are required to check their spines at the door or whenever Mr. Grant is around....and tie on their puppet strings.) For many of us, Peter's puppet show stopped being funny long ago.

Seriously now.....The board has asked the public for funds to provide some remodeling projects to our District's facilities...The last referendum failed miserably, Kasson/Mantorville residents spoke loud and clear.....and I think that before the school board worries about remodeling any of our facilities that they need to look at remodeling our administration....if they are unable to accomplish that, then I am sure the public will be looking into remodeling our school board.....tax free.

                Silent no more,
                Sheri Lorentz

Letter to the editor: school bond referundum

Letter To the Editor:

Poor leadership.  Unethical and unlawful behavior.  Lack of critical thinking skills. Fiscal irresponsibility.   These are thoughts that first come to my mind when I think about some of KM’s school administrators and some members of our KM school board.  I hold onto the hope that a few of the new school board members will work to clean up the mess our past school board has left behind.  However, I know only too well that it may take more than a few new people on the board to make things happen and bring about positive change.   

Last week I read Dan Root’s letter to you describing his wife being bullied by school administrators and how, after a 20 year career at KM felt she was being harassed to the point where she needed to resign.  I just want your readers to know that her incident was not an isolated one. You see, almost seven years ago my wife, a high school counselor, also experienced horrific harassment and unethical behaviors from those who were suppose to be leading our school just because she was doing her job in an ethical and lawful manner (as did several other employees before her).  The K-M community came out to support my wife through petitions, calls/letters to the school board and local news, and the students organized efforts to demonstrate with signs along the school sidewalk to get her contract renewed.  The worst part is that my wife (and others since), have tried to get the school board to sit down to view their evidence of corrupt leadership to no avail.  Even after all the evidence and public outcry, members of the school board never questioned the administrators.  They failed to utilize any critical thinking skills whatsoever. 

Critical thinking is defined as: “clarifying goals, examining assumptions, discerning hidden values, evaluating evidence, accomplishes actions, and assesses conclusions.”  Because the school board fails to question and examine our administrators’ actions at times, many good professionals over the years have been victimized and their professional careers damaged by their experiences at K-M.  This is like a bleeding wound that won’t stop. This has led to a toxic work environment with low staff morale.  (The low staff morale was mentioned by a board member pertaining to a staff survey at the February 8, 2011 meeting).  When I hear veteran teachers say they try to fly under the radar to avoid attention from their administrator(s) I know we have a problem in our district.  Low staff morale effects how our teachers teach.  There is no doubt this trickles down to our children’s education.  Right now many of the staff at KM follow our building administrators because they HAVE to, not because they want to.  We need administrators in our school district who are leaders; administrators who our staff WANT to follow through respect and trust.  Only then will our teachers work to their full potential while experiencing more job satisfaction.   

If bullying and harassment isn’t being addressed at the higher level at KM, how can we expect it to be addressed with our kids?!  Much damage has been done.  The district faces potential lawsuits from not just employees who have been mistreated, but now they are facing upset parents who are trying to protect their children because the school leadership didn’t take the bullying problem seriously.   Other school districts including Triton and Byron have been proactive in this area and are way ahead of KM.  Is the general public even aware of previous litigation the district has faced or the money that has been spent to do damage control because of the actions of our district leaders (almost $30,000 in attorney fees in my wife’s situation alone and she didn’t even sue)!  How much has this cost us taxpayers so far?  How much more will it cost in the future?  The pattern of bullying and harassment exhibited by our school administrators have been going on for years because past school boards have failed to address it. 

Since my wife left the school district, she shared with the school board in the spring of 2004 and more recently this January - a “General Harassment” policy and asked them to adopt it.  This general harassment policy was taken from and mirrors the General Harassment policy adopted by the State of Minnesota that covers close to 40,000 state employees.  Many other private companies have also adopted harassment policies similar to this.  This policy spells out what harassment is and is not (just because your disciplined you can’t claim harassment, there’s a difference).  It also spells out how to report the harassment, how to investigate it objectively, and how one will be held accountable if they are indeed harassing a fellow employee or subordinate.  This could easily be amended to include bullying by students as well.  To date the KM board has NOT adopted a policy like this.  Adopting a policy like this for our district will ensure some accountability – that is if the school board is providing the oversight like they should.  That accountability will go a long way in dealing with harassment in our schools.  It would also expose the KM district to huge liability if some of our administrators don’t correct their behavior.  The wound is still bleeding and the school board is going through a lot of Band-Aids!  Here’s a thought.  Let’s deal with the problem and treat the wound effectively.  The board should stop the bleeding by taking corrective action with our administrators. 

Thankfully, the recent referendum vote failed by an almost 3 to 1 margin.  It showed that the KM community had enough critical thinking skills and financial sense to see what this referendum was for - what it was, a WANT and not a NEED.  The distorted need for a “high school redesign” was clearly seen by the taxpayers and even our high school students as misuse of our tax dollars.  I would like to take it to the next level and challenge the school board to take the message they are hearing from the public and reconsider the TURF stadium project!  The board needs to stop buying into the superintendent’s rationale of building a turf field as a selling point to bring families to KM.  It’s like “build the field and they will come.”  This argument isn’t just a “Field of Dreams,” it’s absolutely ridiculous!  Will luxuries like “a turf field” bring families in or will a school’s reputation of academic excellence with a balance of athletics, music, art, theatre, and an all day kindergarten program bring families in?  I’d rather be known for the later.  I’ve heard the argument that the field may bring in revenue to cover the cost.  There is no evidence of us regaining the cost in our rural community.  A twin cities suburb has a turf field.  However, they are in a much richer tax base with a much larger metro population around them to use the field.  It’s comparing apples to oranges.  Also, turf fields are very hard on an athlete.  Many athletes suffer from a higher proportion of knee and ankle injuries, get bad carpet burns from the turf and some suffer from staph infection as a result of the germs and bacteria that grow on turf.  Many college programs are switching back to grass for safety and health reasons.  No ground has been broken and no money spent yet – the board needs to go back and CANCEL that project and use those funds to fix the leaking elementary roof!   The superintendant is also proposing a wage freeze for our staff for the next two years while we propose adding this expensive turf field.  Again, it’s a WANT not a NEED.  In the middle of a recession, let’s keep our priorities straight! 

In case the general public is not aware, consider what we are spending on administrators per year in our district and ask yourself if we are getting our money’s worth.
•Superintendent  WAGE:  $123,670  BENEFITS: $49,841
•Building Principals HS WAGE: $104,243 BENEFITS: $41,009; MS  WAGE: $93,511 BENEFITS: $34,914;  ELEM WAGE: $95,000  BENEFITS: $37,147
•Special Education Director  WAGE: $71,907  BENEFITS: $11,945
•Curriculum/Testing Coordinator WAGE: $69,723; BENEFITS:  $19,974
•Business Manager  WAGE: $79,979; BENEFITS:  $42,291

And by the way – did the superintendent use a personal day to lobby at the capitol for teacher salary freezes on behalf of this professional association or did us taxpayers pay for that too?  I didn’t see or hear of any lobbying for superintendents’ salary freezes.

In spite of our poor leadership, our KM schools are great because of the rank and file teachers, support staff, and our kids and our families.  Yet our district could be so much better.  It could be a much more enjoyable place to work, teach in, and attend if all our administrators were ethical and led through professional relationships based on trust and respect.  The potential is there, we just have to have people on the board who are willing to ask tough questions and make hard decisions.  I realize being on the school board is very hard work and offers little to no pay.  However, if you run for that office you should to be courageous enough to think critically, do what is right, and be competent.  Anything less is a disservice to the public and most importantly our kids. 

I recently spoke to one of the newly elected board members who were willing to listen and even asked for my feedback.  The board member recognized that we do have some major issues to address and seemed very intent on tackling these problems to improve our school district.  This board member also mentioned that there are also a few other members who share these views.  This was a breath of fresh air.  I would like to commend these board members for their willingness to do what is ethical and right. 

At this time I am announcing, in advance, my candidacy for the next school board election in 2012.  I am also looking for several principled, hard working people to run with me to effect real and positive change in our school district.  I will be running for the board with an emphasis on ethical behavior, critical thinking, positive and strong leadership, transparency to the public, and fiscal responsibility.  I will work toward creating and maintaining a better work environment for ALL staff.  Harassment in the schools should not be tolerated.  In our current economic situation, financial decisions should be vetted thoroughly and well thought out based on want vs. need, and return on investment.   If anyone is interested in running with me or would like to talk about how we can work together to effect change, I would like to hear from them.  Please email me at:  kometforchange@gmail.com

Respectfully,
Eric Bormann
Mantorville

Letter to the editor: prom and schedules

Letter To the Editor:
With respect of all who are involved in prom and post-prom planning, we want to apologize for this information seemingly not being known until now.  We feel that it is necessary that the correct information, and not rumor, be published since this has now become a public issue. We have created a Q & A to help others understand our thought process during a meeting that was held at the school in September, 2010. As you read this, we hope you will notice the amount of thought that had been put into the decision made last September to keep prom on May 14th, 2011.

Q: Who scheduled prom?
A: May 10th, 2010 the event coordinator at the Rochester Athletic Club (RAC) called a co-chair of post-prom asking if K-M was going to have prom the second weekend in May of 2011. Please note that events such as this must be scheduled and the sites booked a year in advance. The co-chair called the school and asked for the date of K-M’s prom in 2011 and was told it was May 14th. Since the prom date had already been set by the school, the RAC was then reserved for KM for that same day, May 14th, 2011. Of note, K-M’s prom/post-prom date was set in May of 2010, four months prior to the HVL conference track date being set. After the annual HVL meeting held in September, it was brought to our attention by a track parent that the conference track meet and K-M’s prom were on the same day. Also of note, this year is the second year the HVL conference track meet is scheduled as a one day event on a Saturday. Last year, 2010, the HVL conference track meet was held on the third Saturday in May, the 15th. 2011’s date was scheduled and approved at the Annual HVL meeting in September of 2010.

Q: When did K-M start doing a post-prom party?
A: In 1987, post-prom was started by a group of community members led by Janice Borgstrom-Durst. For the past several years it has been held at the RAC. Students have been surveyed to see if they wanted to have post prom at a different location and the answer has always been overwhelmingly “no”. Since then, the importance of having prom and post-prom together, for the safety of our students, has been a priority.

Q: When did prom 2011 become an issue?
A: In September, numerous emails were sent out amongst parents stating their concerns that the HVL conference meet was the same day as KM’s prom. This was brought to our attention and the decision was made to promptly hold a meeting to see what the options were. As this information got out, we were also approached by parents of other student athletes who were concerned that prom would be changed at the request of one sport when that hadn’t been done in the past. The meeting was held in September with members of prom committee, post-prom committee and school leadership. The idea of changing the date was debated.

The limitations were:
·$500 non-refundable deposit
·The location of prom and post-prom were set
·The DJ was already scheduled
·Other available dates for post-prom at the RAC were April 2nd and 9th and May 28th.

1. May 28th was considered to be too late in the school year, may conflict with state events for many sports and it was too close to the end of school and graduation.
2. The dates in April were a concern because of Easter involvement in future years (RAC is not available Easter weekend). The April dates that were available for the post prom party at the RAC were not available at any of the locations to hold the prom dance.
3. The post prom committee offered to not have a post-prom party this year so prom could be moved to any other date that a place was available. Because of student feedback from past years and for the safety of our students, it was felt having a post-prom party was important.
4. Last year the first weekend in April was an ice storm and prom likely would have been canceled had it been scheduled that weekend in 2010. Some people have said it is no big deal if it is a little colder in April, we have also had just as many students say they would not want prom that early.
· Section speech, Solo and Ensemble Regional Music Contest (affected a large numbers of students), State High School League Art Contest and Show in Rochester (has been a conflict every year except last year), State High School Congressional Art Show and Contest (students have come in their prom dress/tux to pick up their awards.), softball, baseball and track have all had events scheduled on prom in the past and the prom date has never been changed. How do you prioritize when prom should and shouldn’t be changed? Should we base it on the number of students it affects? Should we base it on the importance of the event (section vs conference vs state). So out of fairness to all students, we decided it was best to leave as is.

Q: Why not hold prom at the School?
A: The cost of lowering the ceilings and decorating the school is more expensive than holding prom at a rented site and the funds are just not there. Also, volunteers to make an event happen at the school do not match the manpower needed.

Q: Has there ever been other requests to change the date of prom?
A: Yes, area businesses have approached the school and asked for the date to be changed to a day other than Mother’s Day weekend (traditionally the second weekend in May) because it is one of their busiest weekends and student employees were not available to work because of prom. So a group of eight plus parents went to the REC Center and YMCA and discovered they are not large enough to accommodate the number of KM students and their guests, although we are very happy to have that problem! Other considerations were the fire hall or the school but the event would have been more expensive to decorate and rent games and activities than to have it at the RAC.  For the same considerations as above, it was felt the second weekend in May still was best for all KM students. Another important point of discussion was that the community support of prom and post-prom is absolutely necessary and how could we decide that a sport is more important than a local business request?

Q: How many kids attended prom and post-prom in 2010?
A: Approximately 276 students attended prom and 240 attended post-prom. There are approximately 40 track participants for 2011 so we felt there were still 140 KM junior and senior students (does not include guests) that we needed to be considerate of.

Q: Will the HVL conference track meet always be the second weekend in May?
A: We discussed this at length at the September meeting and it was brought to our attention that the change to an all day Saturday event may not even work and that there may not even be an HVL conference in the upcoming years as things may be restructured. So the future of the HVL conference track meet on the 2nd Saturday of May is unknown. Since this issue has resurfaced in the past couple of weeks, an email had been sent to the HVL coordinator who responded that it is set for this year only and the 2012 date will be discussed at the annual HVL planning meeting in September of 2011, and a proposal can/will be made for the track meet not to be the 2nd weekend in May 2012. Only one year is set, it is not set for the next nine years!

Q: Can’t the tradition of having prom on the second weekend of May be changed?
A:  The tradition is not the date of prom but having a prom and post-prom together. This is important not only for the safety of our students but having it at the RAC is their request and after all, isn’t this about the students? By all means, yes, changing the date can be considered.  But because of the above information, we do not feel it is possible to change the 2011 prom date.

Q: What did the group who met in September do to assure no track participant would miss the prom events?
Answer:
1. The K-M Athletic Director went to an HVL meeting and explained the K-M prom dilemma and asked to have the track meet start one hour earlier. This was unanimously supported.
2. We discussed the fact that track participants who want to attend prom can leave the track meet (held in Hayfield) after their track event is over.
3. Possibly a bus could bring track students back or they could ride back with parents.
4. The Grand March will be held later in the evening to allow the track participants to be involved.
5. Allowing those in track to enter the dance beyond the lock down time if necessary.
6. Those who choose to participate in extracurricular activities are always at risk of experiencing conflicts. We discussed that not everyone would have the entire day to have their hair, make up and nails done but feel the importance of prom is as the meaning states in the dictionary, “A student formal dance in celebration of graduation”. All of this conflict is taking away from the purpose that prom should serve: one last chance to all be together before the seniors graduate. Every student will have the chance to participate in prom.
   
Other thoughts:
·More and more schools are choosing the RAC to have post-prom parties because there is more to offer and it is less expensive. Of note, the school who uses the RAC on a certain date is offered that same date the following year. The second weekend in May is reserved for KM until we give it up! 
·If K-M prom is held in early April and it falls on Easter (which will happen again in 2015 and would have happened in 2010 ), we would not have the RAC available which then could potentially mean we do not have a date “reserved” the following year to host post-prom. Again, students are saying they want a post-prom and they want it at the RAC.

We want to thank Janice Borgstrom-Durst for being the founder of K-M’s post prom party and her support and request to be included in this letter.  Janice was contacted and was made aware of the facts above and said she wished she would have had those facts prior to submitting her letter to the editor in the DCI on 1/26/11.

We can assure you; none of us were intentionally trying to discriminate against any track athletes but were trying to make the best decisions for the KM student body as a whole. For those students who have to decide, either this year or in future years, between spending all day getting ready for prom or participating in their sport, as parents, we can help them learn how to evaluate and prioritize choices. This will be a life skill as it is very likely this won’t be the last difficult decision they will have to make in their lives.

Most importantly, we want to thank the support of our community for the funds and gifts donated and for supporting our past Fiesta Dinners, this year’s dinner will be held on March 20th. Please save the date and we hope to see you there!

Addendum: Since this all resurfaced again in the last couple of weeks, all of the work that was done back in September was looked at again, calls were made and the limitations of time and the reasons previously listed in the above letter still hold true, therefore, 2011 prom/post-prom will remain on May 14th, 2011. Let’s please be respectful of everyone’s effort in this matter.

Respectfully submitted, KM prom, post-prom and School Leadership
Cindy Nelson       
Lisa Mundy 

Letter to the editor: school referendum

Letter To the Editor:

It’s been called a BOND issue, school improvement, redesign project and an upgrade project.  What it REALLY is... It is a 21 year mortgage (debt) on every parcel of real estate in the K-M School District.  This debt, IF PASSED, would just be added to other levies, debts and mortgages already in place for the school district, the county and the state. We in the private sector have already lost most of our retirement and the children’s inheritance.

A NEW ENTRANCE, another GYM that seats 1600 and a NEW FITNESS CENTER. Oh yes, ARTIFICIAL TURF too.  How can these highly educated, captains of finance even think of proposing such crap to the public in the name of EDUCATION.

VOTE NO!

Jerry Snow
Kasson