Who comes up with these questions? Actually, the Chamber of Commerce Governmental Affairs Committee does. Here are the questions they prepared for the candidates:
| School Board | City Commission |
| What is your opinion of the school's scheduling (trimesters, calendar, "first Friday" in-services)? | What are your plans to expand opportunities for the community? |
| What is your opinion of Tablet PCs in the classroom? | What are Madison's greatest strengths, and how would you capitalize on them? |
| What is your opinion of increased pay for teachers in specialized, hard-to-hire fields? | What's the biggest challenge facing Madison, and how would you address it? |
Notice the specificity of the school board questions compared to the city commission questions. The school board questions probably just felt harder since I had to answer them in front of everybody. Arguably, it might be harder to come up with a focused answer to any of the open-ended questions directed at the city commission candidates.
Oh, so teachers don't get the summer off? In response to the computer question, Jay Niedert suggested we need to give teachers the summer to work some more with the Tablet PCs, get some more training, work on more ways to incorporate them into the classroom. [sarcasm] Wait a minute -- I thought teachers got to lie around all summer sipping mint julep and enjoying their massive salaries. [end sarcasm]
Madison Central Sports Board: You might have thought that was the name of the organization Jay, Tammy Jo, Paul, and I are running for, given the focus of the audience questions. Both Kevin Jaspers and Ron Barthel asked us about supporting competing gym proposals. Kevin wrapped his gym proposal in an omnibus plan to combine HS and gym renovations with a public fund drive (that last part -- a great idea!). Ron brought up his smaller plan to knock out the north wall and add 60 feet of seating now. Alas, both gentlemen used the word "need" to describe their gym visions.
Surprisingly, every candidate seemed to say the same thing: a new gym would be great, but we have to balance that idea with other educational priorities. I have yet to hear anyone make the case that expanding the gym increases educational opportunities. Paul Weist may have made the point more directly than I: the school board's main goal is education, and passing a bond issue for business benefit is not an appropriate school board action. Weist said he'd "rather see better books." There's a school board perspective if I ever heard one.
Fun exchange of the night: In my response to his gym question, I told Ron I wouldn't promise him a bond issue just to get his vote.
Ron: "Well, then I'm not gonna vote for you."We both got laughs from the audience... and had a good face-to-face talk about the issue afterward. We agree that a big new gym project is unlikely to get voter support, and that whatever sports project bubbles up needs support from private donations and other entities besied the school board.
Cory: "One down, 6000 to go."
Now we know who's responsible: In his comments, city commission candidate Dick Ericsson noted that he "was the guy who incorporated" the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. Ah! Maybe I can get him to explain to me whether the LAIC is a public or private agency and whether it can charge $250 for access to a housing study funded by tax dollars.
Long view on natural resources: Dick Ericsson offered one of the best long-view answers on the city commission side. Talking about Madison's challenges, he acknowledged the shared concern about economic development, but he then noted that we need to look ahead at our water and power needs. I liked that answer: it looked at the bigger picture and a fundamental issue that might require every community on the prairie and elsewhere to change the way it grows and does business.
Freudian slip of the evening: City Council candidate Scott Delzer offered opening and closing statements that sounded the most like good traditional candidate speeches. He had his clear list of talking points, repeated them in both speeches to make them stick, and asked for the deal -- the vote -- multiple times (those Credit Soup guys know their marketing!).
But his closing line did elicit a murmur of amusement from the attentive crowd:
Well, President Coolidge did say "the business of America is business"... well, sort of....
Heidelberger takes the mic... to the woodshed! No fisticuffs broke out last night, but I did get a little rough with the audio equipment. While gesturing in response to a question, I managed to whack the KJAM microphone off its legs. Matt Groce (The Voice of Madison!) said he didn't hear anything go haywire. Nonetheless, I apologize to all of you out in radio land for disruption of the signal. Sorry -- talking about education just gets me excited.
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Thanks again to everyone who came and listened and asked questions! The blog is always open for more questions, so fire away!
But his closing line did elicit a murmur of amusement from the attentive crowd:
Delzer: "That's why I want to be your representative on the Madison Chamber of Commerce."
Well, President Coolidge did say "the business of America is business"... well, sort of....
Heidelberger takes the mic... to the woodshed! No fisticuffs broke out last night, but I did get a little rough with the audio equipment. While gesturing in response to a question, I managed to whack the KJAM microphone off its legs. Matt Groce (The Voice of Madison!) said he didn't hear anything go haywire. Nonetheless, I apologize to all of you out in radio land for disruption of the signal. Sorry -- talking about education just gets me excited.
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Thanks again to everyone who came and listened and asked questions! The blog is always open for more questions, so fire away!
One question I wanted to ask last night, but time constraints didn't allow was, "How would each candidate promote more inflow of students to the district under open enrollment rules or stem outflow of students to other districts?" Is there something we can do or are these all just personal family decisions? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGood question!
ReplyDeleteFirst, the quick, easy answer: the best way to attract and retain open enrollees is by being the best district in the state for academics. If enrollment is a competition, then we compete by being the best. Period.
The longer answer: The business of competing for students can be a distraction, but under the rules the state sets, we're forced to play that game. Rutland markets aggressively, and I respect that. They're a really small school, and they need to get the word out about what they have to offer.
As a bigger school, Madison maybe doesn't need to worry so much about marketing as about continuing to expand the educational opportunities it offers kids. We lost Coach Shaffer last because, according to him, the school didn't offer enough cultural opportunities for his kids. Yikes.
Parents looking at the bottom line know that hitting the books and doing a wide range of activities will best prepare their kids for college (and for the scholarship competition). Other parents will appreciate our vocational programs. That's the most important game for us to play: recruit the best teachers, offer the most academic programs and activities, make it clear that going to Madison is the best way to get your kids ready for college or whatever comes next.
I know that isn't the most specific answer... do you have any specific student recruitment ideas? I'll keep thinking... I hope you will, too! Your suggestions here are welcome.
That'll be $200 for the microphone, please. Payable to KJAM! LOL
ReplyDeleteIf KJAM's microphone is one of the same ones they had decades ago, like most the equipment, you should get a better deal than $200, Cory! Ask for "depreciated" value, unless they are charging you for "antique" value?
ReplyDeleteKevin Jaspers' idea for private donations for part of the gym shows they are on the right track, sort of. By my reckoning though, if private donations total about $500,000 to $600,000, and the total cost of the gym is over $6M (actually with interest about $11-12M), that is a very small percentage of the total cost.
ReplyDeleteGet private donations up. Solicit alumni. Sell alumni T-shirts Sell name bricks on a donation wall. Name locker rooms or equipments rooms for the biggest donors. Think outside the proverbial box.
Use capital outlay funds. I wanted the capital outlay issue addressed, but I assume most of these new candidates for the school board wouldn't know too much about this fund yet anyway. Its mil levy is at 3%, property values are continuing to rise, and it continues to grow. When the elementary school is paid off, which should be sooner than planned, then tackle the high school renovation and gym project and allot capital outlay monies to that. After all, that is the main purpose of the capital outlay fund.
Then get the city to kick in. I like the idea of a community center approach. Tack on a penny sales tax and use it for this as an economic development plan. That way the cost is spread over everyone, not just property owners.
As I said before, I personally liked the proposed gym idea. Just not the way it was proposed to be paid for by the same people who already pay the most for education. And some members, not all, of that committee were arrogant in their statements that sorry, that's the way it is, and you will pay. That attitude won't fly. It will take cooperation and understanding of how the cost needs to be shared equitably in a manner other than a bond issue.