Kochanowski: Communication, Bullying & the Media Topic of Wednesday Talk
Alex Kochanowski at Wednesday’s public gathering. (City-Times photo)
By Brandi Makuski
Stevens Point School Board Member Alex Kochanowski held a public gathering Wednesday night to address concerns both from himself and from his constituents.
Kochanowski, who is serving his first term, announced the meeting earlier this week via email and again during Monday’s school board meeting. The intent, he said, was to allow for the free exchange of ideas outside of the formal board meeting environment and answer questions from residents or district employees.
The school board on Monday agreed to consider Kochanowski’s suggestion of holding regular public listening sessions so residents don’t have to attend regular board meetings, which commonly run several hours in length. Under state law, public comment is not required to be heard during a meeting of a board, though it is typically permitted locally.
Kochanowski aired some grievances with his experience on the school board and hinted that he had no intention of running for reelection, also repeating several talking points made during his campaign earlier this year, including his work and education background and the bullying his son encountered being the catalyst for his school board run.
He also told the audience he was surprised by the amount of work involved in public service.
“Being on the school board, I’ve realized it’s a 40 hour-a-week job to do it correctly; I don’t think any board member is putting in those kind of hours, but you think about it constantly going through your day at your normal job, writing down notes when you can, trying to talk to people or answer emails nonstop,” he said. “One thing I also knew, going into the election, is I didn’t plan on re-election because if you’re going to do a job right, you’re going to make a lot of people upset. But you leave it out there for them to decide; if they want to do a write-in, that’s fine.”
He also told the audience he should have held the public gathering sooner.
“I want to make sure there is transparency with the public; that was part of my campaign, to keep people involved,” he said. “To give people the opportunity to reach a board member. Now, some people took me up on that offer and called me, and I was dealing with it before I was even on the board.”
But his experience on the board, he said, is more restrictive than he’s comfortable with.
“Being on the board actually ties your hands; I would actually be a much more efficient person for the school district probably not being on the board and being just a public member,” he said, admitting that would mean he would lose his ability to vote on behalf of constituents, but added, “but still, speaking is a lot better than having your tongue tied. And that’s what I find is happening on the board.”
Kochanowski, who said multiple times he was not speaking on behalf of the school board, said he still didn’t agree with the construction of the Life Skills Center moving forward, suggesting a public hearing should have been held prior to approving the project.
“The distance of the new center from SPASH- I was just looking at it today- this is the furthest children with disabilities are going to have to walk from one building to another,” he said, comparing the new building to the former detached lunchroom facility at PJ Jacobs Junior High, which he said eventually was connected to the main building for safety reasons. He sees the same thing happening to the new Life Skills Center- especially if the district adopts any recommendations to integrate 9th grade students into SPASH.
“So what happens to this new building (the Life Skills Center)? It’s probably going to be the new Bliss Center; it’s 30,000 (square) feet so that makes sense to me. Why else is a culinary kitchen being installed there? It doesn’t quite add up for me,” he said.
When asked by an audience member if that was the district’s intentions all along, Kochanowski said he’s asked for clarification on that “several times” but has never received a response, saying that lead him to believe it’s the district’s secret motive for the new building.
Kochanowski, who works for the city’s transportation department, also laughed at nicknames he’d been given- such as “the bus driver”- in some circles and on social media. He joked that he and fellow board members Lisa Totten and Kim Shirek- who he said all are originally from Junction City- could be referred to as “the three musketeers”.
The meeting was largely a time for Kochanowski to showcase his own personality and opinion, where he also took the City-Times to task for an Oct. 5 story on his removal from a school board committee that negotiates with unions due to his own involvement with a local union. Kochanowski read part of the article aloud, discounting some of the verified information as “second hand” or “incomplete”. Kochanowski refuted the City-Times report that his membership in the same union as district bus drivers was reported to the board by a third party and not himself, something City-Times staff verified with Board President Angel Faxon prior to publishing.
According to Kochanowski, school board members would not be subject to negative news reports or negative comments on social media if people behind those reports and comments just got to know each member individually, but also recognizes that closed-session meetings are part of the culprit.
“Why base your opinion of someone’s character on second hand information? Get to know the person before you speak ill of them, otherwise others will speak poorly of you,” he said. “And that’s happening a lot; people who make comments or blog about any board member- they have never stood next to that person and got to know them, or talked, or heard the things this person knows they cannot talk about because it happens in closed session; which I am not a fan of. What you miss out on is bits and pieces of information that we can’t talk about.”
Kochanowski said he and other board members are commonly misrepresented by the media, which gives a “poor perspective of what’s going on if this is all you do, and you don’t pay attention to meetings and just go on hearsay”.
Board Member Chris Scott was present for the meeting but no other representative of the district was in attendance, something Kochanowski himself requested so as not to make members of the public uncomfortable.
Kochanowski took a few questions from area residents, including queries about bullying policies and possible future public listening sessions. Kochanowski encouraged the audience to reach out to other board members with their concerns, or attend a committee or board meeting to voice their opinions as well. About 20 people attended the event.
Kochanowski did videotape the gathering and said he would likely upload the video to YouTube, though he did not say when.