Six candidates vie for three spots on the Stevens Point school board
Part I
Compiled by the League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters of the Stevens Point Area is committed to providing voters with education about issues and candidates for local elections. On April 6, voters in the Stevens Point Public School District will choose three candidates to serve a three-year term on the school board.
The league solicited responses to a list of questions from all candidates. If a candidate is not represented here, they did not submit any responses to our invitation. All candidates were invited to participate. Six candidates are running for a spot; following are the responses from the first three.
Responses were not limited in length, nor were they edited by the league or the Portage County Gazette.
Meg Erier
What made you decide to run for school board? What qualities or past experiences will contribute to your effectiveness as a school board member?
I have served as a member of the School Board since 2014. I have gained considerable knowledge of our District during my time on the Board and that will continue to enhance my effectiveness as a school board member. I believe that education is the key to the future success of each of our students and to the future of our community. I will continue to do my very best day by day as a school board member to help move our District Forward.
What do you believe are the most important issues facing the Stevens Point Public School District and what qualities do you have to help address those goals?
I believe the most important issues facing our District right now are: 1. providing our students with the best education possible – which has become much more difficult during this past year due to COVID-19; 2. providing our District with the financial resources necessary to support and enhance student achievement – which continues to be incredibly difficult due to the current State of Wisconsin funding formula for public education; 3. continuing to recruit, hire, and retain the best teachers and staff we can, and providing them with opportunities for ongoing support and professional development; and 4. continuing purposeful strategic planning and implementation of adopted plans throughout the District – we will be into year five of our most recent five- year strategic plan in school year 2021-22 and will need to update this plan beginning in the fall of 2021.
The Stevens Point Public School District will pay $1,592,653 in the 2020-21 school year in support of private school vouchers. What do you think are the benefits and challenges to the community of having a voucher program?
Under current Wisconsin law, the Stevens Point Area Public School District (SPAPSD) is required each year to collect taxes from our District taxpayers to support private school vouchers. The amount that we are required to levy has grown each year. This past year, the District was required to collect $1,592,653 from District taxpayers and send these funds to local private schools to support student vouchers. Since 2016, the District has collected and sent $4,416,633 in taxpayer dollars to support private school vouchers. Students receiving vouchers and their families benefit from this state program by having local taxpayers fund their private education. Local District taxpayers are required to pay additional taxes to support this state program. Because public schools receive our funding based on the number of students enrolled in our public schools, every student who chooses to attend a school system other than SPAPSD results in less financial support for our local public schools.
How does the Stevens Point Public School District provide quality education during a pandemic while keeping students and staff safe? Please be specific.
COVID-19 has presented considerable challenges for our students, staff, families, and community members. This past year has clearly demonstrated that the vast majority of our students do better in terms of educational achievement when they are able to attend school in person. It is essential for our District to get our students back in school with their teachers, supportive staff members and classmates, ultimately five days per week. This has to be done deliberately and thoughtfully, with guidance from federal, state, and Portage County public health authorities, and with ongoing up-to-date information on what COVID-19 is presenting within our local community. The District needs to continue to require the essential safeguards of masks, frequent hand washing, social distancing of 6 feet as much as possible, cohort groupings, contact tracing, and getting vaccines in the arms of all District personnel interested in being vaccinated. The District has to continue to enhance safety within our schools and buildings by using plexiglass shields where needed, enhancing ventilation, providing ongoing cleaning and disinfection in all District buildings, and reconfiguring classrooms and other educational spaces to provide for the maximum square footage to allow social distancing. COVID–19 is like an onion. Our District needs to continue to peel back layer after layer with each challenge presented, focused on our Mission to prepare each student to be successful and our priority of keeping our students and staff safe.
The Stevens Point Public School District serves students with a wide variety of abilities, backgrounds and learning styles. How does the district address diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools so that all students can be successful?
The School Board has adopted a priority focus of better supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion within our District. At our Feb. 22, 2021, Board meeting, we voted unanimously to approve the creation of an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Coordinator position for our District. The main function of the position is to support students and staff to address issues and opportunities of equity that impact student learning and foster a culture within our District of community, diversity and inclusion. The coordinator will also provide leadership in systemic equity and instructional practice. The District is currently sponsoring a Culturally Responsive PLC that is putting out a monthly newsletter and hosting meetings for District staff who are interested in reading, studying and discussing this priority focus. The District has also enlisted the services of Lyndsay Bernhagen, the Director of UWSP’s Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, to provide a professional development educational series over the next two years to all District staff – all staff recently completed the first module of this series. The School Board will be setting up a workshop after the April 6 election so that School Board members also receive this professional development. Finally, it is my hope and belief that this priority focus will be an integral part of the strategic planning process the Board will be embarking on this fall of 2021. As noted by Drexel University School of Education (drexel.edu), “Fostering inclusion and awareness around multicultural education and taking a culturally responsive approach to teaching benefits all students. Not only does creating greater multicultural awareness and inclusion help students with different backgrounds and needs succeed, but it encourages acceptance and helps prepare students to thrive in an exponentially diverse world.”
Robert Larson
What made you decide to run for school board? What qualities or past experiences will contribute to your effectiveness as a school board member?
I have lived most of my life in Stevens Point. I spent four years in the United States Air Force. After service I went to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. After graduating from the University I went to work for Kraft Heinz. I retired from Kraft Heinz in 2001. During this time I married and had two children. During my retirement I ran for a seat on the Stevens Point School Board. I was successful twice, so I have six years of experience on the School Board.
What do you believe are the most important issues facing the Stevens Point Public School District and what qualities do you have to help address those goals?
A school board member is to implement school policy. It is not a job of the school board to micro manage the school district.
The Stevens Point Public School District will pay $1,592,653 in the 2020-21 school year in support of private school vouchers. What do you think are the benefits and challenges to the community of having a voucher program?
Stevens Point School District taxpayers, the question you should be asking all candidates: Are you going to support the realignment of our schools? I believe the answer is yes, so we can make our district more efficient and lessen the impact of tax increases.
The voters in the Stevens Point School District passed two referendums in 2018 totaling 79 million dollars. My property taxes from 2016-2020 went up 22.7 percent. How much has your taxes for the same period gone up ? We will see another tax increase due to poor decisions from past Mayor Gary Westcott and the City Council. Our leaders took $6 million from the state of Wisconsin and assumed ownership of Business 51. How many millions will we the tax payers have to pay for this foolish decision?
The information I will discuss is not my information. This comes from the Stevens Point School District. 2011-12 Facility Committee Final Report and third Friday, Sept.18, 2020, student count Stevens Point School District.
Student enrollment in 2020 is down 183 students from 2019. Let’s look at some numbers. Ben Franklin student count is 896. The student usage of building is 42 percent. P.J. Jacobs’s student count is 618. The student usage of building is 44 percent. SPASH student count is 1485.The student usage of building is 60 percent. Point of Discovery formerly Jackson elementary school student count is 106. The student usage of building is 6 percent. The Fernandez Center student count is 67. The student usage of building is 32 percent.
The growth of Plover in recent years has put pressure on our Plover elementary schools. Why not take sixth grade elementary classes and move them into Ben Franklin. Make Ben Franklin 6-7 School. Make P.J. Jacobs 8-9; plenty of room.
Consider selling the Bliss Center and the Fernandez Center. Move the administration and students to Point of Discovery. This building is 52,537 square feet; plenty of space.
If elected to the Stevens Point School Board I will push for changes that would make our district more efficient.
Ed Morganroth, Jr.
What made you decide to run for school board? What qualities or past experiences will contribute to your effectiveness as a school board member?
I like to be involved in my community and believe I can make a positive difference with my experience and ideas. I want to work together with all the district constituencies to help keep the district moving forward in these difficult times.
I have had the privilege of serving as a school board member from 2007-10 and again in 2019-20 for about eight months. I believe my school board experience including hiring and working with several superintendents, plus my extensive prior board committee service as a citizen provide an excellent background. I also have strong business and financial experience which I think is an asset.
What do you believe are the most important issues facing the Stevens Point Public School District and what qualities do you have to help address those goals?
One critical issue is how to keep the district this semester and go forward continuing to operate in their blended learning model supplemented by the OLC Online Learning Center, or move to full-time in school learning as the COVID/vaccine situation permits (preferable), while keeping students and staff safe and protected from COVID. Related to this is the need to develop educational/instructional plans to try and get the learning deficits caused by COVID and remote instruction reduced and get all students caught up and brought back to where they should be academically, and identify and attempt to remedy any other negative impacts from not being in school full time.
Another critical issue is there are expected to be a number of significant administrative and other staff retirements in the next several years, and the district needs to ensure we have the high-quality, experienced staff needed.
The Stevens Point Public School District will pay $1,592,653 in the 20-21 school year in support of private school vouchers. What do you think are the benefits and challenges to the community of having a voucher program?
The benefits of a voucher program from what I understand largely go to the Catholic and other parochial schools and parents in the district. I understand that a significant number of these students already attend these same private schools. The challenges the voucher system presents to the community and its public school system are that this private school voucher funding reduces the funding that our public school district has to run the district and to educate any student that resides in the district that wishes to attend, regardless of ability or special need.
How does the Stevens Point Public School District provide quality education during a pandemic while keeping students and staff safe? Please be specific.
1.Have policies and practices in place in order to provide as safe an environment for students and staff as is possible so that all students can have in-school learning at least half-time, with the goal being full-time in-school learning four or five days per week. 2. Work with Portage County public health offices and local providers to prioritize teachers and other staff to get the vaccine. 3. Provide all students who are doing remote learning the technology and other educational support to function as well as possible while in remote learning.
The Stevens Point Public School District serves students with a wide variety of abilities, backgrounds and learning styles. How does the district address diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools so that all students can be successful? What ideas do you have to help address this issue in our schools?
Presently the district has schools that have different educational models and serve different student needs such as the Fernandez Center and PoDS. The district has students with a wide range of abilities and needs, including special education students. The board needs to work to allocate resources to meet all these students’ needs as well as possible.