SF School Board Member

Sioux Falls School Boundary Decision should be immediate without special accommodations

l3wis June 14, 2020 11Comments

I have told people that once the boundaries are set it should be implemented like ripping a bandaid off, all at once. There should be only ONE accommodation made, if you are a Junior at one of the High Schools this fall, you should have the opportunity to finish as a Senior at that HS if you choose to. I don’t think any other accommodations should be made. Once we start giving special treatment to one sector (like honors students and Spanish immersion*) others will follow, and the special treatment will continue for years. If you stop it at the beginning, parents will be mad for a year or two, but they will get over it. Let’s face it, not everyone is going to be happy about the boundaries, but I’m willing to bet 80-90% of parents will be fine with it. Rip off the bandaid and move on.

*I have thought for awhile that the school district should also start a Mandarin (Chinese) immersion program. China is #1 trading partner, it makes sense to give students the choice to learn either or both languages.

Legislating Policy and Open Government make things a lot easier

l3wis June 13, 2019 2Comments

One of my biggest arguments for open government is that if you apply it consistently it not only saves taxpayers money, but it prevents a lot of headaches and butt hurt. So the SFSD has spent $181K on a consultant, kept the findings secret and wonder why teachers and parents are upset?

“It’s like we’re shown a product, we give feedback, and then they go behind a curtain and do stuff,” Tony Martinet, president of the Sioux Falls Education Association said. “You don’t get to see the mess. …If from the start, they would have simply said, ‘We are cutting minutes to music, P.E. and art because we’re trying to equalize across the board,’ and just owned it from the start, then I mean, the frustration and the arguments would have not have been there.”

First off, I have never been a fan of consultants in the public sector. They usually charge to much to tell you what you want to hear. The administration usually has an expectation and if you pay someone for that expectation, guess what, you get it.

But what is even more frustrating is the lack of leadership by our School Board;

Martinet and others also urged the Sioux Falls school board multiple times to consider weighing in, but administrators have continuously said the board would not make a decision because the process is an administrative function.

While I partially agree that the School Board, as a part-time elected body doesn’t get involved with sitting in curriculum meetings, they do have the ultimate authority to tell the administration they can or cannot move forward with something without their blessing, that’s kind of their job. And when parents and teachers are telling the school board they feel the process is screwed up, the School Board needs to sit their employee (Super Maher) down and explain to him that they are the legislative body that determines how money is spent and what programs move forward. Simply telling them it is not their ‘function’ is unacceptable. When governing the school district, whether that is budgets, new schools, elections or tax op-outs, that is their job, and thye best do it. We elect them to represent us, the people and parents who fund the district. Public Schools are NOT some fascist regime that can do whatever they want to.