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