"Leadership" at SWC 833????

The following is a video published on the South Washington County District 833 Schools website. It was filmed at the "Back to School Event" prior to the 2013-14 school year.  Included in the video is Superintendent Jacobus, several school board members and Dr. Jacobus's administrative cabinet, along with presumably the entire District 833 teaching staff attending teacher workshops prior to starting the school year.

This video leaves me shaking my head in dumbfounded disbelief that the very school district that had so many controversies last year would begin this new school year with this performance.  If the vision of the very short man surrounded by what is only to be assumed to be a group of...bodyguards? Secret Service? Thugs? Goon Squad? - isn't enough, three of the men are also sporting large Afro-style wigs, for absolutely no apparent reason. Ironically, or perhaps, intentionally, one of the Afro-wigged men also happens to be the East Ridge High School Principal, who was at the center of one of the major controversies last year when he failed to vet a school-wide presentation commemorating the Black Panthers on Valentine's Day.  But here he is, sportin' a huge wig, "protecting" his superintendent's walk into ERHS's gymnasium.

What exactly was the goal of this performance? What was the district leadership attempting to portray with this stunt? And how could the members of the school board sit there and watch this without serious concerns over the image or perception such an act was producing of the district and its leadership, especially when there are five school board seats opening up this fall, with thirteen challengers running against four incumbents, and the district is asking the voters for more money in a levy referendum as well? 

Controversial Black Panther Commemorating School District has 18 Filing for 5 Open Board Seats

Who says that the American people aren't invested in their government? In South Washington County School District 833 (Cottage Grove, Woodbury, Saint Paul Paul and Newport, MN), home to East Ridge High School and the controversial Black Panther Schoolwide Commemoration, an unprecedented EIGHTEEN (18) candidates are running for five open school board seats this year.  Of the eighteen, four are incumbents: Laurie Johnson, David Kemper, Katy McElwee-Stevens and Tracy Burnette.  Laurie Johnson is running for the only open two-year seat; the others are going for the open four year seat terms.  Marsha Adou is the only incumbent who declined to run again.

From Left-Right: Superintendent Dr. Keith Jacobus, Board Members Katy McElwee-Stevens, Jim Gelbmann, Tracy Brunette, David Kemper, Laurie Johnson, Chairman Ron Kath, and Marsha Adou

The four-year term challengers are: Frederick E. Hess (Woodbury), Katie Schwartz (St. Paul Park), John P. Griffin II (Woodbury), Molly Lutz (Woodbury), Leilani Holmstadt (Cottage Grove), Sharon H. Van Leer (Woodbury), Raj Gandhi (Woodbury), Mike Thissen (Woodbury), Wayne A Johnson (Cottage Grove), Michael P. Edman (Cottage Grove), and Safiyyah Cummings (Plymouth).

Three others have filed to challenge Laurie Johnson for the two-year term seat: Girma Dinssa (Woodbury), Susan Richardson (Woodbury) and David W. Firkus (Woodbury).

With a field this large, it will be hard for the challengers to overcome the name recognition advantage of the incumbents, but one can only hope that some of them do, since it is time for new faces on the school board. However, given that there is also a levy renewal and increase along with a new bond request going on this year's ballot, the voter turn-out should be higher than usual for off-year elections, which should play into the favor of the challengers.

Ironically, this spring the district released survey results that painted the general public's view of the job the school board and administration were doing as largely positive.  Somehow, it would seem that those results may have been misinterpreted when fourteen people file for school board; it is hard to believe that everyone sees the current board and administration as all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns.

Let the campaign season begin! It will be a very interesting ride between now and November.

District 833 Ignoring the Voices of the People Again...

Back in March, South Washington School District 833 voted to eliminate 22 teaching positions, increase walking distances for middle/high schoolers and eliminate four administrative support positions in order to save $2.2 million from the budget.  They will vote on the final budget in June, after they see how much taxpayer money Governor Dayton and his DFL cronies will be giving to the insatiable school districts this year and next.  The district recently presented a survey to 400 residents that was meant to gauge the community's feelings about the district, the superintendent, the board, the teachers and whether or not the community would support a levy renewal this fall and/or an increased levy renewal this fall, as well as community support for providing all students with personal computing devices such as tablets or iPads.

Even though the survey revealed that only 6% of the people support individual computer devices for students in the district, the powers that be have just rolled out a new initiative: "T3=Transforming Thinking Through Technology."  This should be no surprise to anyone who attended Superintendent Keith Jacobus's "Parent University" forums, which basically are a sales pitch for balance balls and more "movement" in the classrooms (exercise miraculously increases test scores; active kids do better in school; if that's the case, my kids should all be geniuses, but I digress...) as well as how iPads will add to the children's learning experiences in the classroom.  Not only add to it, but also (not completely of course...) replace traditional teaching methods, like books, since everything can now be in digital formats and teachers will be able to add content as they please.

The concept, from an education standpoint is interesting, so it is unsurprising that the district is preparing to roll out this initiative, especially considering that Keith Jacobus, Ron Kath, Jeff Jorgensen and Randi Anderson enjoyed an all expense paid (by Apple) trip (except for airfare) to Apple, Inc. in March.  It makes one wonder - if the district agrees to purchase, say, MacBooks for all the teachers, then they get a trip to Apple, Inc. (in California) to learn "How to Bring Common Sense Back to Their District," then suddenly they roll out an initiative that will put iPads in the hands of students in 4K - as in the District's PRESCHOOLS - as well as in select elementary, middle and high schools, with the goal to eventually have iPads available to all 17k+ students in the district, how expensive to the district taxpayers that all-expense paid trip to Apple really was? It would seem that it would be to the tune of about $7 MILLION, which in the end, isn't really a free trip for four administrators, is it? And where does that include "bringing critical thinking back to the district"?

The irony is that if these four administrators were anything but part of a school district - say they were in any other public office - that all-expense paid trip would actually break the State's Gift Ban law, which makes it illegal for state officials to accept anything worth more than $5 from anyone.  Somehow, school officials are not included under that law even though Apple, Inc. is a registered lobbyist in the State of Minnesota.

Once again, our District is happily ignoring the people and what they want - remember the Budget battle where keeping teachers had the most support of the people and that was the first thing the Board and Administration decided to cut? - and are pushing forward with their plan for iPads for students regardless of the fact that 94% of the people in the community said they didn't support that initiative.