Inside New Berlin

On March 14, Mary Lazich had a Conservatively Speaking blog entry titled “State Budget Watch: Provision in Governor’s Budget Puts Children in Harm’s Way”.

But speaking of putting children in harm’s way, what about drunk driving?  Men, women, children and unborn children have been injured or killed by drivers operating vehicles while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

What is Senator Lazich (R-New Berlin) doing about it? What has she done to reform Wisconsin’s lenient OWI laws? What bills has she introduced? What legislation does she support?

And on the topic of children in harm’s way, what about victims of sexual abuse?

Recently, we’ve been reading about Daniel Acker of Waukesha, the part-time aquatics program coordinator suspected of sexually assaulting young boys and teens for over 30 years.

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial titled "Helping the victims" contends that stigma, shame, and fear result in sexual crimes being notoriously underreported. It argues that’s why serial predators can operate so long without detection.

The editorial states, “It’s time for legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations in civil cases for victims of past child sexual assaults.” It notes that SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), an organization familiar with the reluctance of victims to step forward, pushed to get the State Legislature to change laws. Indeed, in the previous legislative session, Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) proposed a Child Victims Act. It would have opened up a 3-year window for victims to file a suit against their perpetrators, regardless of how long ago the crime was committed.

The Journal Sentinel has expressed support for the Child Victims Act.

Does Sen. Lazich support the Child Victims Act?  What action has Sen. Lazich taken? What is she doing to help victims of sexual predators get closure and justice?

She has a blog and should clearly communicate her positions on these issues.

Certain actions can put children in harm’s way, but so can inaction.

New Berlin School Board Policy states:

Board members and administrators have an obligation to provide educational leadership. The public expects the best in educational expertise, communication, decision-making and planning. However, all decisions and policies of the Board - Administration team must be gauged and tested against two facts: SCHOOLS ARE FOR STUDENTS AND SCHOOLS BELONG TO THE PEOPLE.

School Board candidate Susan Manley talks a lot about tax dollars, ie: tax levy freeze, taxes, controlling spending, cost-benefit, etc.

But it’s troubling that $ terms are abundant in Mrs. Manley's campaign rhetoric but there is little or no mention of students or educational matters, academic programs, student performance and achievement, student services, or students’ health and safety. 

SCHOOLS ARE FOR STUDENTS.  One would think students' education and safe schools would be a School Board priority.

Apparently, not for all board members, though:   

At the Oct. 8, 2007 School Board Meeting, Superintendent Paul Kreutzer presented a slew of facility projects he called “dire”, important and immediate needs, but which had not been budgeted for. He informed the School Board of a hazardous situation at Orchard Lane Elementary School. Because the district and board had failed to allocate necessary funds, the asphalt at that school had deteriorated, endangering children. There was uneven pavement, huge holes, loose stones, standing water. The School Board was told by administration that children in wheelchairs were “catching and flipping over”, children were tripping and falling, at least one child had been injured because of the asphalt conditions, and loose gravel on kids shoes was being dragged into the school building. See my January 16, 2008 blog entry. 

Dr. Kreutzer urged the School Board to take care of the “dire” facility needs pronto. A motion was made to “ To approve commencement of work on the asphalt project at Orchard Lane at the lowest possible bid, and (friendly amendment) to fund an amount not to exceed $270,000 to identify maintenance projects this year.”  It passed 4-3.   Who voted against it? Susan Manley, Matt Thomas and John Kegel.

In a letter recently published in the Waukesha Freeman, John Kegel endorsed Susan Manley, claiming that she has the experience to “prioritize” spending.

Susan Manley served on the New Berlin School Board from April 2005-08. Instead of running for re-election, she took a year off. Now she’s running for one of the seats that will be vacated when Jennifer Eitel and Keith Heun’s terms expires in April. 

I emailed Mrs. Manley during her 3-year term on the School Board. She never responded in any way to my emails.  Not surprisingly, I concluded that being responsive to a member of the public/taxpaying constituent was unimportant to her.

Today is American Diabetes Alert Day.

There are 23.6 million children and adults in the United States, or 7.8% of the population, who have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

An estimated 17.9 million have been diagnosed with diabetes. However, 5.7 million people (or nearly one quarter) are unaware that they have the disease.

Are you one of them?

To determine whether or not an individual has pre-diabetes or diabetes, health care providers conduct a Fasting Plasma Glucose Test (FPG) or an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). The American Diabetes Association recommends the FPG test.

With the FPG test, a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125 mg/dl signals pre-diabetes. A fasting blood glucose level of 126 mg/dl or higher indicates diabetes.

In the OGTT test, the blood glucose level is measured after a fast and two hours after drinking a glucose-rich beverage. If the two-hour blood glucose level is between 140 and 199 mg/dl, the person tested has pre-diabetes. If the two-hour blood glucose level is at 200 mg/dl or higher, the person tested has diabetes.

Tony Evers received the most votes in February’s Primary for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Second place finisher Rose Fernandez will be his opponent in the April 7 election.

Evers’ 34 years of experience as an educator, including 8 years as Deputy State Superintendent, has been touted by various groups.

Evers has garnered endorsements from:

• School Administrators Alliance      SAA represents more than 3,000 public school principals, special education directors, business officials and superintendents throughout Wisconsin
• Wisconsin Education Association Council       WEAC is the state’s largest teachers union.
• Wisconsin Library Association      WLA is a statewide organization of approx. 2,000 individual and institutional members
• Wisconsin Alliance For Retired Americans  (Announcement by Evers campaign,see http://tonyevers.com/pdf/WARA_Endorsement.pdf ) WARA represents over 89,000 retirees

Virtual schools advocate Rose Fernandez has been described as an outsider or reformer.

But in an interesting report called the Five Million Dollar Pyramid, One Wisconsin Now/OneWisconsinNow.org raises concerns about our tax dollars and a network involving Rose Fernandez, private education advocates, lobbyists.  

The Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now contends, “ Rose Fernandez is part of a well-financed network to keep our public tax dollars going to for-profit companies like K12,Inc. Wisconsin education tax dollars should stay in Wisconsin and not go to out-of-state, for-profit companies.”

The site says, "As president of the Coalition of Virtual School Families, Fernandez headed up a movement that worked to push through legislation authored by Rep. Brett Davis (R-Monroe) to guarantee virtual schools continue here. The Virginia-based K12, Inc. was the for-profit company contracted to create curriculum for the Wisconsin Virtual Academy. In its prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, K12, Inc. anticipated $5 million in 2008 revenues from Wisconsin taxpayers. [K12, Inc. SEC Prospectus, 12/12/07, pg. 69]

One Wisconsin Now's Executive Director calls it a “vast network determined to push as much of our public education tax dollars to private companies as they can.” “Their goal is to reduce accountability, erode confidence in public education and put our children’s futures in the hands of companies whose only concern is profit.”

Today’s Miwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that New Berlin Eisenhower took second at the State Academic Decathlon in Madison yesterday.

Powerhouse Waukesha West High School came in first place again-- winning its eighth straight state decathlon title. Wow. It will compete in the national competition in Memphis, Tennessee next month.

Twenty teams compete in the state competition.

Among those competing,  Menomonee Falls took fourth place, Pewaukee came in eighth , Brookfield Academy finished 12^th.

For more about the Wisconsin Academic Decathlon, click here.

Alderman Dave Ament was sitting in the audience at today’s candidate forum at New Berlin West School.  Isn‘t that rather hypocritical?   Dave Ament, you may recall, was one of four New Berlin aldermen in 2006 who voted to limit the use of City Hall facilities to government units, thus barring citizen groups from using them. Their action put an end to voters forums at City Hall.

Whenever I think about voters forums in our community,  I remember Jean Crotty, who died last year at age 82.  She ran candidate forums for many years. Several years ago, Ms. Crotty asked if I would assist her with an aldermanic forum she was having and moderating at City Hall. The forum would be broadcast on the City cable channel. Ms. Crotty simply wanted me to operate the camera.  Although this task was unpaid and meant giving up some hours of my time on a Saturday, I was happy to help her out and said yes. A few days later, Ms. Crotty called again.  Sounding terribly distraught and apologizing multiple times, she told me that Ted Wysocki, who was mayor at the time, objected to my assisting her with the forum and told her to get someone else. I felt very sorry for Ms. Crotty, who seemed so distressed and hastened to assure her that it was ok. I thought it was very petty of Ted Wysocki, though.

In 2002, as an incumbent, I participated in a candidate forum held at one of our District elementary schools. Rules were announced at the onset of the forum. We were instructed to give a brief opening speech, stick to issues and not make personal attacks. I listened and complied with those rules. My speech was about what I had accomplished on the School Board and hoped to achieve if re-elected. Then came my opponent Jennifer Eitel’s turn to give her opening speech. Did she obey the forum rules, concentrate on issues, present facts? Heck no. She immediately launched into a vicious personal attack against me--even accusing me of harassing our church pastor to get dirt on her! Needless to say, Mrs. Eitel’s accusations were untrue. But that didn't stop her from including them in her campaign fliers and on a radio broadcast. Ironically, Mrs. Eitel and her running mates had earlier signed a pledge against making personal attacks.  My father-in-law had suffered a massive stroke at the beginning of the year, continued to deteriorate and died in April on election day. Dealing with my family’s grief at his suffering and loss was of far greater importance to me than Mrs. Eitel’s false allegations and shenanigans.

The next year, Jennifer Eitel was elected to the New Berlin School Board and became Board President. Not long afterward, she contended she wanted to “get politics out of our schools” and promoted a School Facilities Use policy change that prohibited political speech in school facilities and specifically banned candidate forums. The School Board (by majority vote) approved that atrocious policy change.  By the way, when Jean Crotty requested the use of the district cable channel to announce a voters forum she was having at City Hall, New Berlin Public Schools denied her request, citing the policy. The District’s lawyer maintained that the cable channel could be construed as a “facility”.    The School Board stubbornly clung to their awful policy which trampled on people’s Constitutional rights of free speech and assembly, despite a public outcry--- until the District/Board was ultimately sued. And guess what? When the School Board was legally required to respond to the lawsuit, it backed down and rescinded the policy.

So, Jennifer Eitel participated in voters forums in District school facilities when running for office. After election, she decried “politics in our schools” and took action to get political speech/candidate forums banned. Today, not only was Mrs. Eitel sitting in the audience at the candidate forum at New Berlin West Middle-High School, she actively participated by submitting a card with a question for the candidates.      Quite a flip-flop.  

Drug Testing is on tonight’s New Berlin School Board Meeting agenda.

At the Feb. 9 School Board Meeting, there was a lively debate regarding a random drug testing for students administrative proposal:

Jennifer Eitel called drug testing an unnecessary step that sends the wrong message. She reminded the School Board that in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty.

Random drug testing creates an atmosphere of mistrust among students, parents and school district.

Eitel stressed educational options, asserting that drug awareness programs and bringing in good speakers to talk to kids is a better plan than random drug testing.

The drug testing proposal presented by administration on Feb 9 targeted student athletes and may extend to kids involved in other extra-curricular activities. That irked Eitel, who contended the proposal’s focus was on the wrong kids: Eitel argued that in her 6 years on the Board, students coming before the Board in expulsion hearings were not usually the ones involved in athletics/co-curriculars,

Eitel denounced the drug testing proposal as a “feel good” policy that makes it sound like the District/Board were doing something---but which wouldn’t really accomplish what they want.

There are studies indicating that drug testing has little or no positive impact on drug use that back up her claim.

The threat of random testing might actually cause some kids to avoid school/ extracurricular activities, increasing their risk for drug use.

Some kids may turn to drugs that aren’t included in the testing.

To avoid detection, some marijuana users might switch to a “harder” drug that doesn’t stay in the system as long.

Testing is not fool-proof. False positives and other errors can occur.

There are also other issues with random drug testing----such as privacy, confidentiality, and cost. Hopefully, those will be given careful thought and adequately addressed. 

Some basics: 

Who: Officers from the New Berlin Police Department will give the presentation

What: Topics include internet safety; social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; tips on how parents can monitor their children’s online access.

When: Saturday, March 7 at l:00 pm

Where: New Berlin Public Library, in Community Room

*Registration is not required