Left, Sam Levin is running for County Board simultaneously with his School Board Candidacy. (City-Times photo)

City-Times Staff sat down with each candidate for Stevens Point School Board for intimate, one-on-one conversation regarding their experiences and thoughts behind their school board campaign. The following is a verbatim transcription of each conversation.

Questions by Brandi Makuski

How many times have you run for school board now?

“I don’t know- four or five.”

If you had to guess, why do you think you haven’t been elected yet?”

“I think a lot of people don’t really know me. They know I’m outspoken on certain things and maybe they think of me as, for lack of a better, word, a rabble-rouser. But that’s completely opposite of what I am. You should see me on the county board and see the work I do there.”

How would your work on the County Board benefit you in your role as a School Board Member?

“Well, the first thing is, I try to get as much information as I can on anything. One thing I’m very well-versed on is Robert’s Rules of Order. I don’t think the school board is; the school board isn’t even close. As a matter of fact, the head of the ADRC (Portage Co. Aging & Disability Resource Center) gave out little cheat sheets for our meetings. I thought they were very beneficial and I took it over to Phil Idsvoog (chairman, Portage Co. Board of Supervisors) and now I think we might be getting them for all the supervisors. Every year we get a presentation on Robert’s Rules from the county’s corporation counsel.”

You’re also on the board for the Village of Whiting. How long have you served there?

“This is the end of my second year.”

So with everything you’ve got going on the county and village boards, why are you running for School Board?

“I want to stop all the craziness and chaos. It’s time we started thinking about what we need to do for the school and in the school, and not worry about each other so much.”

How would you describe the media coverage of the school board and superintendent?

“I don’t think it’s covered enough. We’re arguing over stupid things, and some of the great things being done are getting the coverage it should. There was a clear violation of the Open Meetings Law that Terry Rothmann did when he placed sanctions against members of the public, and it appears we have a district attorney and attorney general who don’t care. I understand they have a lot of things to do, but still, the law is the law.”

What’s one mistake you think the board has made over the past year?

“There’s so many. At the top of my list is communication: they have cut the public out of the school board and they’ve gotten rid of community input. They’ve made their meetings go longer because of that.”

How does the board regain public trust?

“You have to include everybody. You have to be transparent, you have to be open. You have to be open to letting the people come to you and talk to you. You’re there as a direct representative of the public; you’re there to represent their views, not push your own agenda.”

Some administrative and executive positions are given a certain amount of leeway when it comes to purchasing. Is $20,000 too high for Attila Weninger to approve without prior board approval?

“Yes. We’re talking about public funds. It’s not a question about micro-managing, but a question of is the school board in charge, not the superintendent. I don’t think the superintendent should be making any charges without approval from the board.”

How accountable to the public do you think our current board is?

“I don’t think they’re accountable at all. I know I sent a letter to every school board member about what they were going to do with Plover-Whiting (Elementary). I got responses back from four or five of them saying ‘Attila’s going to take care of this’. That’s all I got. When I asked Attila why I never got a response back from him, he said, ‘Oh, I thought the others replied to you.”

You seem to view that as a case of plausible deniability.

“Yes. Maybe if the superintendent was working on his job, instead of trying to do the jobs of the school board and the HR (Human Resources) department. Right now we’re talking about hiring an HR person, and I don’t understand why. Other districts have combination of business manager/HR. Why can’t do that- we’d save of salary and put it back into classrooms where it belongs. Years ago we had two or three people doing the jobs that now they’ve got seven or eight people doing. Why? Why do we need so many people in management when the important part is in the classroom? That’s where the money should be going to.

We’re in a post-Act 10 transition, where there’s still some bad feelings and resentment from the teacher’s union. Is part of the negativity towards the superintendent stemming from that? Are people misplacing their anger or resentment on the guy who just happened to be in that seat at the time?

“I don’t think that’s the situation. Act 10 said you don’t have to negotiate; it didn’t say you can’t sit down to talk. From what I’ve seen, Attila has cut everybody off. He makes the decision; he doesn’t sit down and talk with people. He makes the decision and doesn’t ask for any input. He says, ‘if you don’t like it, tough’, and that’s not the way to get anything done. That’s why our morale is the way it is.”

So it’s not necessarily what had to be done- it’s the way those changes were communicated?

“It’s like I said; Attila may be a very, very good man. But I don’t think his personality fits this district. The way he does things is not the way we’re used to. It’s not the way things should be done. And it’s not going to improve the morale and retain teachers, which we need to do.”

Do you think the School Board made a mistake when it hired Carlson Dettmann?

“Yes. We’re spending a lot of time and money hiring consultants that could have been used another way. If you elect somebody to do a job, why can’t they do the job? When the County Board wanted to do a pay study, I asked why we needed to pay $70,000 to do a pay study when you’ve got all these counties around you that have the same problem. Why don’t you sit down with them and get their information? Then we’ll put together a database for a lot less money. If you can get 10 or 15 different counties together, then each one of you can have a study. Saving money but getting the same results.”

Shouldn’t the School Board have gone to City Council meetings to observe the city’s dealings with Carlson Dettmann? Isn’t it important a candidate at least sit in on other municipal meetings to get a common frame of reference?

“I think it’s very important as they long they realize the meeting isn’t about the individual, it’s about the school board. They absolutely need to know what’s going on. With the Life Skills Center, I kept saying, ‘why are we rushing?’, when there’s so many other things to consider. We’ve got redistricting, grade realignment; they’re probably going to have to build an addition on the Plover-Whiting School. Why don’t you get these things taken care of, because they’re more important?”

Do you feel like the School Board has over-legislated itself? Are there too many policies to operate effectively?

“You know what? I’ll tell you something: when I sent my letter in to the district attorney, I sent in a list of attachments of board policies. Half of them say something different than another policy does. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. That’s why the need to come back to the committee setting. They’ve got to have the legislative committee come back to deal with policy and legislation. They need a student achievement and curriculum committee and the finance committee back. Because nobody knows what the hell is going on anymore. They’ve spent two years now arguing over the gifts that were given. It states right here in policy 840-1:

Student teachers and other district personnel are discouraged from giving and/or exchanging gifts of significant material value.

“Then you go to the end and it reads:

The receipt of any gift, gratuity or item, service or of significant value, as noted above, is contrary to current policy of the Stevens Point Public School District. Any person violating this policy may be subject to disciplinary action.

“That tells me a $250 gift to your secretary whose retiring isn’t appropriate. Why are we still arguing about it? I don’t think half the school board knows that policy.”

You lost me, Sam. But if half the school board doesn’t know that policy, then who’s doing the arguing? And is it really possible to know all the policies the board has?

“Exactly. The one thing they have in here that they don’t really utilize is a policy for the superintendent of the school board, and if they read that and apply it to themselves- it says something to the effect of you have to have a good environment for good relations. It involves a sincere desire to work in harmony and a willingness to be accountable. I think the school board ought to have those policies for themselves.”

But isn’t that awfully subjective?

“It is, but when they sit there and scream at each other and yell at each other, and Terry Rothmann looks out at the public and says it’s their fault, we’re going to have sanctions against them, when he’s done worse on the board- he’s called out members by name, he’s called out members of the public by name, and refused to let them talk by saying they didn’t have the floor. There’s a lack of trust, there’s a lack of communication, and the easiest way to stop that, if I was on the school board, is very simple- when they start going off the subject, when they start arguing about something, it’s four simple words: I call the question. And then you vote, as long as everybody’s had at least one opportunity to speak on it. You’ve got to stop the infighting and start to focus on the important things, which is the education of the children in Stevens Point.”

The School Board should embody the best and brightest representatives from the city. What kind of message should the board be sending to the community- and the children of the district- through its actions?

“There was a woman who came forward about a month ago and say her children were asking why they board was fighting. That’s the message they’re getting now. The message they should be sending is one of debate, taking all the different opinion, weighing them, and then coming to an understanding. Then they have to have cohesiveness; they have to support what is voted on. That’s the way it’s supposed to be done.”

If you’re elected, will you maintain your seats on County Board and the Village of Whiting Board, provided you’re reelected there as well?

“I’ll try to, but it’s going to depend on my efficiency. If I find out I’m not being efficient, I’ll have to give something up. Hopefully I can do it all.”