2024.03.04 School Board Candidate Forum

001Schoolboard candidate for him this evening so I'd like to welcome all of our candidates and I want to thank everybody for coming today so appreciate it thank you all right well welcome to the candidates forum for the whitel School Board Race sponsored by the whitel high school student council my name is Julie s and I will be your Forum moderator uh I'm joined by some volunteers here from the from the school some members of the student council uh and their adviser who are helping out today thank you very much because the league was a little short staffed unfortunately um so they're going to help me out tonight so the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee county is a nonprofit nonpartisan Grassroots organization that promotes informed and active participation in government as a nonpartisan group The

002League never endorses a political party or candidate a healthy democracy relies on engaged citizens so we thank you for taking time to learn about the candidates the general election will be held Tuesday April 2nd polls are open from 7:00 a. to 8: p.m. and with proper documentation you may still register when you go to vote you may cast an in-person absentee ballot from March 19th to 29th and check with your city clerk for specific times and locations you may request absentee ballots for all or specific 2024 elections online at myvote.wi.gov uh we have information on how to register to vote and photo ID requirements at the table uh near the back entrance information on voting and elections can be found at the state run website myvote.wa.gov and please also visit vote411.org which is run by

003the National League of Women Voters with help from from hundreds of local leagues the vote 411 website has election information as well as a candidate question and answer section where local leagues ask candidates questions and their responses are printed verbatim vote 411 is updated about three weeks prior to every election we want your vote to count so be sure to let us know if you have questions we also welcome you to join the League of Women Voters which despite its name welcomes all the league was formed in 19 20 after the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote the league was formed to educate women on voting and public policy matters our mission is unchanged and we keep the name to honor our Founders but now our efforts are directed at

004all citizens and not just women if you have a question for tonight's Forum please write it on the cards uh the students can come around just raise your hand if you didn't get a card and they'll bring you in uh questions cannot be directed to just one candidate every question will go to all candidates and we'll focus on questions pertinent to the elected office some questions have also been submitted in advance by the whitel community you may see me marking duplicate questions which is very common or sorting by category I may also write on cards to combine questions or to reward for brevity or just to improve legibility um so we ask that the audience refrain from cheering or other demonstrations in support of or against any of the candidates please also refrain from any

005distracting activities including the use of electronic devices tonight's candidate Forum will be streamed in its entirety and available for viewing on the whitel school district YouTube Channel please refrain from any videoing or recording of this event so tonight we present four candidates seeking election for two seats on the school board on the ballot are uh Sarah blansky Sean Flynn Quinn brunette and Ronda Perry the candidates have chosen to be addressed by first names we'll begin with two-minute opening statements from the candidates followed by questions with 90 seconds allowed for each answer and then 90 second closing remarks the candidates Drew numbers to determine the order to determine the order of speaking the order of first response to question will rotate amongst the candidates all right your timer will let you know when you have 30

006seconds remaining 15 seconds and when you must stop um all right so let's begin with opening statements in two minutes or less tell us why you are running for office and we will begin with Sarah hi my name is Sarah blansky I'm an educator a Greenfield Homeowner of nearly nine years a disability Advocate and a parent of two Monty and CeCe prior to having children I taught kindergarten as a licensed educator in New Berlin and before that I was a teacher with Head Start in 20 2016 I had my son Monty who is now a first grader at ederton elementary Monty has Down syndrome and it's medically complex as a family care caregiver I discovered that the disability Comm Community was constantly faced with extra barriers and red tape I worked hard to learn everything

007I could about the services and supports available and hone my advocacy skills I have completed multiple rigorous training programs like Partners in policymaking which focuses on nonpartisan advocacy in the legislative process for the past seven years I have been helping hundreds of family from all different background and not and get services and advocate for their family members helping them to navigate the complex disability services and the school systems additionally I co-founded and run a support group for children of parents of children with Down syndrome and I spent countless hours as a volunteer with local n nonprofits I also am active at ederton elementary and am a participant in the PTO and this past school year I've attended nearly every school board meeting I helped co-found the whitel resident engagement Network which is is a Grassroots

008network of community members devoted to holding our school board accountable and making sure our community is educated I believed an informed Community is a strong Community as a board member I will aim to improve communication and collaboration between the board and all stakeholders as a school board member I'll bring my passion for supporting all students and staff as well as a lens for inclusion and accommodations I have a wide breath of background knowledge and training that will really help me support our school board and make me an asset thank you all right next we have Sean good evening my name is Sean Flynn um I am running for school board as a fairly new member to the community uh my wife and I moved here in about 2020 uh we have four daughters one that

009is a freshman at the middle school one who or two I'm sorry that are uh at the middle school and then one who is at hce um I really what I bring to the table here is I was a 14-year Air Force veteran I worked as a recruiter for about four and a half years work directly with schools counselors and really trying to give kids a path and an idea of where they're going and and what best fits their needs so the reason that I'm running for school board is is I'd really like to see the whitall community be able to come back together um really work as one to drive our school board forwards and and be able to get us really into the top 10 um I think of the state I think

010that's a place that we could really be and if if we can work together as a school board and give some good direction we can definitely get ourselves back into that position thank you moving on next to Quinn well first of all thank you all for coming out on this crazy weather night I'm sure some of you got caught in some hail but uh you braved it I'm seeking my fifth term as in reelection uh my wife Kelly and I moved here in 2007 we have two daughters that went through ederton whitel Middle School in the high school and went on to uh University of Oshkosh and University of Madison and they were well prepared from their education here at whitel to succeed at the next level my wife uh Kelly has been involved with

011their education in the schools volunteering all the way through I have been involved in many things uh whitel youth baseball with uh ederton uh spaghetti night uh with their fundraisers uh my company I I Kelly and I founded a company a painting contracting business in 2000 and uh we successfully sold it recently we had about 15 full-time employees and we also had summer help where we get up to about 25 people and probably state that many of those PE many of those summer helpers were whitn no High School seniors and graduates that uh learned somewhat of a trade uh they were all pretty pretty good employees we didn't have to fire anybody one Gentleman on the first day said to me yeah this is not for me so at least he had the gumption to

012talk to me and say that that was it was very good so uh We've offered that to the community I've also been involved with the uh Whit no cleanup of the of the forest I got 30 seconds huh okay uh the reason I'm running is because I care I care about every student every student should have the opportunity to succeed I care about every staff member every staff member should have the tools to succeed and I care about every taxpayer that they are their money is being well spent and I've proven it at over 12 years of being on the board I've proven it every night I've been here I ask for your vote on April 2nd thank you thank you and last to Rhonda uh like Quinn said thank you for coming out in

013this uh little bit of a fun weather so as mentioned I am Rhonda Perry I'm a mother of two children who are in third and fourth grade at hailes cornner elementary and where I'm currently the PTO co-president in addition to that I have also served on the Parks Edge preschool board of directors my husband and I have been living in this community for 16 years we started our life together here we started our family and we want to continue to raise our family here in my day job I work in a fast-paced everchanging corporate setting myself and my team are held accountable to hit our goals and metrics every day we have to answer to many different teams but the largest and most important is our customers I collaborate with different teams every day and

014I'm constantly growing Partnerships the culture I work in is extremely candidate candid excuse me it is also one of the Strategic pillars that we pride ourselves on but the key is being professionally candid in my role I'm expected to get results when there are differing opinions involved these are characteristic characteristics of what I think makes an effective board member and that's why I am the candidate you want for Whitnel I want to see whitel become the destination District we all know it can be where students want to learn and grow and in order for that we need to be held accountable and focus on results around academics where teachers and staff want to make their careers we need to partner and collaborate with them to understand understand their needs and their feedback where parents feel

015their children are safe and receiving a high quality education we need to listen and again we need to collaborate I want whitnell to thrive for my kids all whitnell kids and the community and with my experience I the candidate you want for whitel thank you all right so now we'll take questions that have been submitted by our audience or the community you'll have 90 seconds to respond and we'll begin with Sean so the first question what do you think is our school's greatest strength and our greatest challenge or opportunity for growth so I excellent question I I I think honestly the the greatest strength that we have honestly for Whitnall as a community I this is a community that like I said my wife and I moved to in 2020 um because it was a

016small tight-knit community we were very much looking forward to to being here and having our kids in the school system um that's absolutely a strength I think you know really when it comes down to it we've we've found a lot of division and at least that seems that way but I I think we have more in common than we we really understand and if we we start talking to each other and communicating properly uh I think the board can really lead in a direction of of good communication and drive for whitall to get us back to where we were once and for me I you know I think working with other people and hearing what they have to say and considering all of those options is is a strength that we have in this community

017and that is something that we should really look to achieve to be able to move forwards thank you next to Quinn uh what do you think is our school's greatest strength and our greatest challenge or opportunity for growth well our greatest strengths is our staff and our financial position we have wonderful staff that care they have passion that care about the kids every single day our financial position is strong has been strong for many years I was I've been on the board for 12 years and I learned from a banker named Bernie Shaw he taught me I listened and we have we have a double A2 rating only two maybe other three school districts in the whole state have that Bond rating that tells you that we are strong our financial position is strong our

018fund balance is wellmaintained our our areas of improvement Schoolboard no doubt if you watched it you've seen it the leadership on the board in the past year has failed us my experience on matters has not been taken I can only give what I have I I will stay committed to doing that but that has to change that's all I got thanks next to Rhonda would you like me to repeat the question no that's okay um uh I'll Echo what both Quinn and John said some of our greatest strengths in Whitnel I would say is the community I think we're all involved look at the turnout at a candidate Forum as well as the teachers and staff I do generally think that they care about our students and we have some of the greatest staff educating

019our children for an opportunity challenge I think there needs to be a little bit more collaboration amongst everybody I think there's an opportunity to dig in deeper into some of our results and collaborate with each other as a Schoolboard as staff as teachers as parents as a community I think we really need to come together and be that one team thank you and then last to Sarah so just like everybody else said our greatest strength is definitely the people we have here in our district I think our district has really shown a commitment to educating all students we are known as a destination for special ad students we also on our latest scores show a de uh shrinking gap between our students who are struggling and our students who are on the higher end which

020is not something that most districts can say we're really on a great upward trajectory um that's also our greatest opportunity we have room for growth in our student achievement we definitely need to keep devoting that to to that um we are have a new curriculum that's really showing some great results and our staff has been really been doing a fantastic job implementing it at levels that are higher than even expected um I think the company said we should get through six units and we're going to get through all of them and so really our staff and students are really our greatest asset in our community and our community members as well we have really great Community connections we have a great trades program and con nections with businesses and MATC and I think that really

021puts us in a unique position here and of course our finances the ability to go to referendum for facility improvements is a huge um opportunity and it's huge strength this spring alone there are 66 districts going to um referendum and many are going to operational budget um referendum and that is not something that we are facing so we really have a lot of great opportunities and if we have a strong School Board backing that up we can go really far great thank you so the next question we'll start with Quinn what are your key priorities that you want to accomplish during your time in office and how would you go about achieving them so I I I've we have accomplished a lot of things in the 12 years I've been on the board and we

022will continue to do that again it is the cohesiveness of our board we need to get that straight we need to get that right if we do that we will have the support of the community the community sees it Community sees it every every other Monday that we're on YouTube they see what's going on the is function on our board I'm part of it and I and I have and will continue to try and improve but it takes all seven of us if I am not elected we will have five first-term members and two second term members coming into a referendum a new superintendent you want someone that's been through them I've been through two referendums I've been through and hiring a new superintendent and onboarding that superintendent I have the experience I have to

023convey that every meeting to the rest of our members and it's not always easy I get emotional there's no doubt about it because I care but that's our big that's where we need to go thank you thank you next to Rhonda what are your key priorities that you want to accomplish during your time in office and how would you go about achieving them so I'm going to break these down a little bit I think there's a short-term priority and that becomes around the referendum and the superintendent there's a heavily referendum that is we are really trying to get on the November ballot and there's a lot of work to be done and education that needs to be done with the community so that's the short-term priority the long-term priority for me is going back and

024looking at those test results looking at those results and seeing how can we get back to where whitnell was years ago yes we've seen improvement over the last year but we really need to dig deeper into the state report card and what's driving some of these numbers I think we still have some opportunity to improve um so after the referendum gets passed and we have a superintendent the next priority would be then looking at the academics and how do we close that Gap thank you next to Sarah so just like we have spoken about we definitely need to address the dysfunction on the board um if we do not improve the functioning on the board they're we're not going to be able to really accomplish anything else that's got to be the first priority and

025I think a big part of that is bringing calm and listening and um doing your best to build those relationships it's a heavy ask and everybody has to do it together the next would definitely be the superintendent in the referendum we are going to have a new superintendent that we're going to need to make sure we form good relationships with and make sure we're collaborating with and so that's going to be a very important piece and then of course the referendum that is potentially going to be proposed um we need to make sure that we are doing something that the community supports because there are some really critical facility needs that need to be addressed that are safety issues and learning issues and then um longterm again looking at that student achievement but for me

026it's really important to look at what metrics we're using and how we're judging achievement because I think that it's easy to say we need to be in the top 10% but we also have a district that is very diverse we have a higher percentage of students with special ed we have 13.9% special ed students we also have a higher percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged with 30% economically disadvantaged and we're a small District so sometimes we need to look at all the metrics and all the key input pieces and I want to make sure that we're looking at Equity as we discuss these issues and as we Implement new curriculums and continue to grow I want to make sure we're talking about all students and all areas of improvement great thank you and then

027finally to Sean would you mind repeating yes what are your key priorities that you want to accomplish during your time in office and how would you go about achieving them um for me I I think the top two priorities are are fairly clear clearly we need a new superintendent everything runs through the superintendent it's it's not the board's job to to really be out there and and and doing the in the weeds work right it's the board's job to hire hire somebody that's going to be able to do that job and continue to do it uh secondly I I I agree with everybody here that you know there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the Whit all schools and things to to get us back to you know a a

028place where kids can learn and they can learn in a comfortable environment that will suit their needs for moving forwards no matter what their goals are after school you know we need to be able to hit all of those things and present as many opportunities to the students as we can um so really those are my big first two after that is how do we maintain these things you know we've we've put things in place how can we get to a point that we're able to maintain the facilities and we're able to maintain them without having to go back to referendum all the time we're a able to maintain teachers and be able to continue to have those those people in place that are going to be able to guide our students to the best

029possible outcome for that so that is what I think our priority should be and and that's where I think we should go all right thank you so the next question we'll start with Rhonda in the board's decision-making process how do you plan to engage and incorporate feedback from teachers and staff students and parents well I think their feedback is very important I think we can all sit up here and think things are going great that everything's going smoothly but if we don't have the feedback of the teachers the students the staff we don't really know what's going on and we're just going to be working with blinders on so I would like to think that teachers students would feel comfortable coming to the superintendent coming to the board having open communication having transparency again we

030can think that we're doing a great job but if the feedback of the people actually in the district working it the students learning if it's if they feel differently then we need to know about that and we need to know how to fix it thank you uh next to Sarah in the board's decision-making process how do you plan to engage and incorporate feedback from teachers and staff students and parents so I think it's really important to think about how the board's function has affected this um right now the dysfunction in some of the comments that are made at board meetings has really created a hostile environment for both community members and staff to come forward with their ideas um there's been times where myself have been disregarded when I've brought feedback um and so I

031think it's really important that the board is listening um I think our district does a really great job of doing different surveys and collecting data and if we have an environment that's not hostile to feedback then that we'll be able to actually get accurate answers on those surveys and be able to really look at that data so I think it's really important that we continue that and I think we really do have to maintain some of the um the chain of command because just from a chaos standpoint we need to make sure that people are able to go to their managers and their well not managers in school but to their principles and to the superintendent and bring their feedback forward and a lot of that is making sure that every body from top down

032is collaborating and respecting each other and we haven't really been seeing that lately um and then I just want to make sure that when people come and speak at the board we're listening and we're listening to their opinions and we're not just making our own decisions and going off of what we think is best in our own agendas we're making sure we listen to everybody's feedback thank you um next to Sean um so really with open communication I think you with with teachers clearly they're they are on the ground um they're the ones that are going to be there you know seeing the day-to-day things and and you know really that is something that is important to hear from those people that are experiencing that day-to-day but you know what what we also can't Overlook

033is the parents feedback um you know parents are with these kids and can really give feedback as to how they're seeing their kids adjust and and move throughout these these school years and you know I I think that's something that to be perfectly honest in my experience has been a little bit lacking in the whitall community parent feedback is very very very important involved parents uh produce better students they produce better community members that's something that we need to do a better job of communicating back and forth between parents and and the school board you know I I feel like Schoolboard members should really be somebody that can can walk throughout your community and you can go out to them and feel like they're just a member of the community you can ask a question

034you're going to get an honest honest answer and that answer may not always be well I know this answer I know that this is the way it's going to go it may be I don't know the answer but you know what we'll look it up together and we will figure this out I think collaboration with the community is probably the most important thing that you can have and especially with parents uh thank you and then last to Quinn I I think we have uh really good communication lines with parents with staff we do a lot of surveys that give us information we recently had a policy brought to the policy committee that wanted to eliminate the chain of command that any student any staff member could come right to the board and tell us what

035they think luckily it was rescinded you need to have a chain of command student goes to the teacher student doesn't get it there student goes to the principal and then to the superintendent and then to us if it doesn't get resolved there you we have to have trust in the system we get plenty of feedback hopefully the students that are giving us feedback the staff that's giving us feedback feel that there's trust and allows us to get the information that we need I've seen the questions on the surveys they're not pointed to any one way they're they're there to give good feedback to us and it's how we handle that we have acmis we have workshops where parents can come in and learn about our district that's where they can get involved any parent can

036come to any school board meeting and ask a question ask it get an agenda item on the agenda thank you thank you our next question will start with [Music] Sarah how will you constructively collaborate with other board members when facing top ICS or problems in which you may have opposing opinions or fundamental differences can you give an example of a time uh that you remained open-minded during during a challenging discussion so I think it's just really important to listen um and to be respectful and to hear what people are saying um there are obviously always going to be times where you disagree with other people that's part of working together in a diverse environment in a diverse community and um I really respect that and I've really learned and grown a lot um because I

037work as a disability Advocate and I've helped so many families I've helped families from all different backgrounds I have training with parent to parent Wisconsin on listening skills and being non-judgmental and making sure to support people where they're at um and I we practiced that we were trained in it and so it was something that I learned and I had specific training on and then took and practice with those conversations and so there's been many times where I've had to do that that I don't always agree with even family members and it's really important to be able to say well I'm not necessarily going to agree but how can we move forward where is the compromise where is the things that we're not going to compromise on but how can we move forward and get

038what we need to get done done because there's a lot of times where those disagreements can then derail every other aspect of our work and that's really not helpful or going to move us forward as a district thank you next is Sean how will you constructively collaborate with with other board members when facing topics or problems in which you may have opposing opinions and fundamental differences so I coming from my background in the military I spent 14 years in the Air Force um you know especially during my time as a recruiter I was I was working with the other branches we had an office that had both the Marine Corps the Army the Navy and myself as the Air Force recruiter and you know we were looking at bringing in kids that maybe the Air

039Force wasn't the best fit and everybody in that room had a differing opinion of course everybody thought they Branch was the best but how do you best address the needs of that particular individual and and and that's what we really look to do and that's where we work together between branches to make sure that we were meeting the needs of the individual and what their goals were um so I do have a a very solid background in in working with other people and honestly listening you know one of the beauties that you have with the United States military is you're you're bringing people from all different backgrounds in the United States together to accomplish One mission and I I think that's something that we can really bring to the table for Whitnall is that you

040know everybody has a different story everybody has a different background but there's no reason that we can't all come together to accomplish the mission which is really setting these students up for Success later on in life great thank you next to Quinn in my professional life I had to deal with my my employees I had to deal with contractors I had to deal with customers and much like the school board it's some an area that I can always improve on we just had recently open enrollment we had a certifier open enrollment and there was a a surprise brought to us that night and at times it got animated however with the help of the administration coming forward and and speaking their mind on the situation and and everybody all the ball board members speaking their

041mind on the situation we got it resolved it took a while but it got resolved so I do have the skills and it goes back to my emotions and my caring that I get I get going there's no doubt about it if you watched it you see it but it's out of care and it's always something I can improve on and I will continue to improve on it can't guarantee I'll be perfect but I will I will always strive for that that's all I got thanks and last to Rhonda can you read it one more time please how will you constructively collaborate with other board members when facing topics or problems in which you may have opposing opinions and fundamental differences can you give an example of a time that you remained open-minded during a

042challenging discussion so similar to Quinn I collaborate with different teams every day as part of my as part of my day job I lead a team within supply chain but we work with sales we work with our distribution Center we work with other areas in supply chain and there's a lot of differing opinions every single day and we're but what makes this what makes what helps us and what drives us is that we ultimately are trying to provide our best service for our customer so that's the goal now granted we're not always going to agree we're not always going to agree about how to get to point a or point B but it comes back to the listening and it comes back to remembering that ultimately we're all on the same page we're all trying

043to get to that same goal um we just sometimes have to act like adults and make sure that excuse me we're talking in a professional candid manner we all have differ in opinions and that that's great we all want different perspectives we just need to make sure that we're listening to each other thank you so our next question will'll start with Sean how would you ensure transparency and accountability in the board's decision-making process uh so I think you know transparency comes down to you know really we need to be open with what we're talking about if if we can communicate as a board um in a professional manner with each other whether you're disagreeing or not if we can communicate in a professional manner um that that opens us up to be able to have

044more discussions and and have more open discussions with the community um you know that that's really something you know the community voice needs to be able to be heard and and they need to be able to see a board that is that is functioning and and is honestly listening and honestly taking people's concerns to Heart and and trying to find a way forward and trying to you know find a way that we can all come together and once again you know accomplish that mission of of great students with great chances of success later on in life can you repeat that please yes I can uh how would you ensure transparency and accountability in the board's decision-making process well I think we are very transparent there's things that we can't speak about that has to be

045taken care in Clos session but there's things that we can speak about the the only accountability we have the only employee we have is a superintendent that's who we need to hold hold accountable for all for all the actions of the district we we do not operate the district we are supposed to be at a 30,000 foot level overseeing the district hold the superintendent accountable for whatever it may be yes we do need make decisions but it's the individual superintendent that runs a district and right on down through the through the ranks transparency I hear that word a lot it seems to be a buzzword sometimes people don't want to know everything sometimes they do we have to get information from our leaders from our president vice president in order to be trans transparent and

046if we don't get that information how can we be transparent we can't but going back our only employee is a superintendent and that's who we have control over that's all thank you next to Rhonda sorry can you read it one more time sure how would you ensure transparency and accountability in the board's decision-making process so within the transparency I think we have great um I I think the parents are in the no about what's going on and I think we really try to do that I would say I think we have an opportunity with transparency within our community that don't have kids in the school district we have a lot of students we have a lot of families we have a lot of individuals that live here that don't have students in the uh school

047anymore so how do we get them involved how do we under how do they know what's going on with the district um and there's a few different ways that we you know that I've started to think about is how do we get them involved um holding accountable like Quinn said we need to hold the superintendent accountable and that makes some tough conversations But ultimately the Board needs to be aligned and we need to understand that the superintendent is being held accountable for the expectation and that starts with the board setting the vision setting the Strategic goals of the district thank you and last to Sarah how would you ensure transparency and accountability in the board's decision-making process so I think it starts with being open and honest in your conversations when you have the meetings

048I think there's been a lot of things that have been happening in closed session that um sometimes that even Quinn has said this maybe isn't a close session topic and there we also need to make sure we have a communication director who is informing our community and our um parents and families and everybody involved about what's going on in our district and so it's really going to be important that the um leadership on our school board is really being open and honest and making sure they have clear agendas and that are giving out in time and not being vague and then making sure that we are being honest in our conversations and not and when people ask questions answering the questions and answering honestly and I've been trying to do that as I campaign as

049well I want to be open and honest I want you to know who I am and what I stand for and whether you agree with me or disagree you know who I am and you know what I believe and so I think it starts with us being open and honest and encouraging everybody else to be open and honest and I don't think that's been happening right thank you so for the next question we'll start with Quinn in your campaign have or will you accept any type of campaign support or endorsements from special interest groups or political parties no definitely no it's nonp and position I spoke about this at at a board meeting oh probably two years ago where members where two members were going to a meet and greet with a political party it

050was a meet and greet for school board members and it was a one of of the two political parties and I spoke out against it I spoke out I I said that we need to keep that stuff out of the boardroom those two members chose to go that's their choice I would never take a dollar from anybody I think it's wrong I said it then no matter what party it was and if the other party would do it I wouldn't go to either way because when you let that in it's not about the kids anymore it's about their ideology that's wrong it's about the kids it's only about the kids that's all thank you to Rhonda in your campaign have or will you accept any type of campaign support or endorsements from special interest groups

051or political parties it's a nonpartisan race so no I've been funding this with um the help of some individual supporters some family but other than that it's been my own um my own support so again it's a nonpartisan race or nonpartisan campaign we're here ultimately for the community for the district we want to see Improvement and that's my ultimate goal thank you Sarah no I will not I have been accepting individual donations to help with supporting the campaign but I am not um taking any donations from PS or political parties because again it is nonpartisan thanks and Sean well I'll just go ahead and Echo what everybody else has said no I'm not accepting any campaign donations from anyone else uh you know really at the end of the day I I agree with Quinn

052when he said you know getting political parties involved with this makes it not about the kids and and and really at the end of the day this this is designed to get us to a position where we are all working together and and you can't do that once once you start dividing things on political lines so for me no I have not accepted any i' I've funded most of this campaign myself uh gotten a couple other donations from specific people but um beyond that you know we're really running with this and I don't think it has any business being involved in the school board all right thank you uh just a reminder to the audience if you have any questions you'd still like to submit just hold up your hand and one of the one

053of the students will bring you a card or pick up your card so um all right so the next question we'll start with Rhonda the whitel school district is currently searching for a new superintendent what criteria are most important to you in evaluating the district's next leader I think one of the most um most important there's many um having a background obviously in education and um even a background with a referendum but I think what stands out to me is looking at a trustworthy partner and collaboration again they run the district but I would like that they work with the board on transparency um trustworthiness that they trust the board um and just ultimately want the best for the district so I really think that it's it's a trustworthy and collaborative person to fill the

054shoes of the superintendent thank you next to Sarah the whitel school district is currently searching for a new superintendent what criteria are most important to you in evaluating the district's next leader so I do believe that um the plan is to have a superintendent before we would take office um so just to be clear on that but as we evaluate them I would want to make sure they have experience and that they're really um focused on the goals of our district making sure that they are being open and clear communicators with their staff and making sure they're forming really great relationships so that we can retain staff because I think that is a crisis happening in our country right now with um teaching staff and leaving the profession and so I really want to make

055sure they are strong at doing that and then I also want to make sure that they are really focused on um all of our students students and really being a collaborative and diverse Community um I want to make sure that we continue to support every single child in our district thank you next to Sean um so I would say you know the biggest things that we're we're looking at with a a super intended is is a track record you know a history of success you know maybe not necessarily in that role but in a similar role um you know something where you can you can fall back on the experience that you have in being able to put people in place that are the subject matter experts and able to run with that um you

056you're essentially the leader of a large organization at that point I've been in that position where I've I've been you know leading larger groups and I've seen other leaders that were very good at it I think uh you know the the best thing that you can do as a leader is be a follower honestly um that is one of the things that that we were taught and and you learn from those people that know the most in those positions so you know what I would look at is somebody that has a history and a track record of being able to put the right people in the right spot so that we can be successful moving forwards thank you and Quinn well this is a really hard question to answer because we had one of the

057best superintendents in the state Dr Lisa Olsen and because of nonsense on the board she retired she had all the qualities qualities all the all the experience that you just spoke of can be very hard to replace that very hard I don't see a real experienced person walking through that door what I do see and I don't I don't have any inside information as to who's who's applied but it's going to be a younger person I would think looking to looking to cut their teeth which is which is not bad they need they need high energy because you don't know what happens every day when you come in here you may have a SK a set schedule but stuff happens and you've got to be the leader so if you ask me for one quality

058leadership leadership with her staff or with his or her staff with the students and with the board and in the community there's a big vacuum out there Lisa was huge in the community and it's showing this person's going to have to move into the community and be a part of the community and show leadership thank you thank you the next question we'll start with Sarah the board considered a new policy recently that would allow parents and staff to take issues or complaints directly to board members what are your thoughts on this policy um we already can do that I you can already email the school board if you have an issue but I think it's much more effective to go um directly to the your child's teacher if that is where this problem is and

059then after that to the principal and then to the superintendent um I think it's really important for building that relationship your child um should respect and work with that teacher and if you respect and want to work with that teacher you're modeling that behavior for your child so if you go above the teacher to start you're kind of cutting their legs out you're not even giving them a chance to fix the problem um as a teacher I had parents come to me with issues all the time if it was something I could solve I solved it if it wasn't I went to my principal and so there really is a chain of command for a reason and that is so that we can solve problems where they need to be solved not every problem is

060going to be solved by a superintendent some problems need to be solved by the classroom teacher some problems need to be solved by the principal and so it's really important to know where and to who to go for a problem and that's something that I've helped families do for the last seven years as an advocate I talk to parents about well you have an issue did you talk to the teacher what did they say oh did you then talk to the parent did you go to the director of pupil Services because in special education that is the next step and so there's really an chain of command for a reason and it really helps us solve problems where they need to be solved in an effective and efficient way and it gives everybody a chance

061to be respected and heard thank you next to Sean could you repeat the board Ed a new policy in January that would allow parents and staff to take issues or complaints directly to board members what are your thoughts on this policy so I you know I I don't have an issue with with being open to to taking complaints comments everything you know if there is a forum out there that that people can communicate directly with the board I I think that's a great thing I the board should be open to hearing and getting a gauge of where the community feels that they're at um personto person I clearly there's a chain of command coming out of the the military I I totally understand that there is a chain of command and that should be followed

062to the best of your abilities but it's not a bad thing to have another line of communication to be able to present ideas and present issues so that the board remains more aware of you know really what is the temperature going on in the community where we can we gauge where we sit um so I I don't think it's a bad idea to have as many open lines of communication as you possibly can thanks next to Quinn so I spoke about this before community members by all means if you see me stop me talk to me whatever you want there's no problem there staff yes staff and students need to go through the chain of command we can't have staff coming to us saying Johnny did this or J whatever it may be that's not

063good they need to go through the command as well my daughter my younger daughter had an issue and I will tell you it's not easy for a high schooler middle schooler or even a preschool or Ed um elementary style student to go up to their teacher and say I got a problem that's not easy we had to do a lot of encouraging with our daughter and we went through the command all the way up to the superintendent but she grew from that but that initial part is really hard and that's what we have to get better at we have to figure that out for a for a staff member to do it it's probably a lot easier but for a child whether it's a High School St child or not or right on Down the

064Line it it is hard and that's something we need to figure out thank you thank you and last to Rhonda would you like me to repeat it yes please uh the board the board recently considered um the board considered a new policy in January that would allow parents and staff to take issues or complaints directly to board members what are your thoughts on this policy I think there needs to be a balance I think there um it sounds like I'm going to talk out of both sides of my mouth but it's really about a balance there needs to be a chain of commands and there needs to be a a procedure to be able to follow that in in hand we need to make sure the expectation of that policy or procedure is known when

065to go to this person I wanted to go to this person I don't want to manage the teachers they they do their job I am not a teacher I'm not an educator I'm not trying to be one let them handle the dayto day let the principals handle the dayto day if things can't get if things can't get handled then use the chain of command the proper way and go up through the superintendent to the school board but there has to be a balance we have to make sure that people feel comfortable following that chain of command but we have to also make make sure that the Educators the teachers that they feel comfortable being able to handle the day-to-day on their own thank you okay thank you so the next question we'll start with Sean

066what is your stance on the pronoun policy that was recently brought before the whitel school board this policy places restrictions on pronouns and names that staff may use without parental consent uh to be perfectly honest I think parental involvement is is is probably the biggest key to this uh you know for me I think you know parents should be involved in every step of everything that is going on with their children if there is something that is is discovered that is is going on then you know parents should be involved in that decision- making it is not something that I think the staff should should have to deal with or or really even be burdened with if if that is something that a child is going through that is your child you have parental rights

067to to take care of those things and and work through that as is needed so um personally I I don't think that a blanket policy is necessarily the best thing in the world I think that should be taken on a Case by case with every student um what their situation is should be taken into account but you know at the same time I don't think that there's any reason that a school district should be cutting out the parents at any point um as to what is going on with their child so thank you so I think the conversation needs to start at home you you you have to have that openness with your child right and if I don't think that we need to en encourage it or regulate it if a child or a

068staff member wants to have those things behind their name I don't have a problem with that that that's up to them converation conversation needs to start at home with your child and again I don't think the district needs to be promoting it or regulating it it's up to the child it's up to the staff member that's that's all thank you uh next to Rhonda I'll just read through the question again what is your stance on the pronoun policy that was recently brought before the whitel school board this policy places restrictions on pronouns and names that staff may use without parental consent well I'm going to Echo what Sean and both Quinn said and again I'm going to say the the hot button the hot word right now transparency I think the parents need to be

069involved and the parents have the rights to know what's going on at school again if that child is wanting to go wanting a pronoun wanting to go by a different pronoun I just ask that that teacher keep the student keep the parent involved it's our right and I would like to know what's going on in the school so that we can be dealing with it on an individual casis thank you thank you Sarah um so I am not in favor of any policy that limits the use of preferred pronouns or student names and um of course in an ideal situation a parent would already know if a student is using a different pronoun or name than what is on their birth certificate however sometimes that is not the case and so I think it is

070really important for staff um to protect the child first and so they we have Professionals in our school who are devoted to the well-being of our student we have school psychologist we have school social worker we have school counselors and it's really important for them to take the lead on this they need to talk to the individual student find out why maybe their parents don't know find out maybe what is going on and at the end of the day once you know the wise behind it you can then help that child facilitate it coming out and using a different pronoun or a different name than you were given at Birth is a very personal and individual decision and it is not something that somebody else should decide for you and so we should not be

071making policies that would force us to out children to their parents and the reality of it is children who have um who are queer or transgender they are much more likely to have mental health issues they're much more likely to have bullying issues they're much more likely to face suicide and violence and they're also like more likely to be abused and so we need to protect those students first and foremost and we should not be outing students without their permission thank you so the next question we'll start first with Quinn what do you think the district policy should be for resp responding to parents who want to restrict access to or remove certain books from District Libraries or classrooms well we have a we have a policy and procedure in place as we speak and

072it it came up oh maybe a year ago where a parent had a problem with a book it was referred to the media specialist they reviewed it went through the went through the chain of command and that book was uh put behind the desk in the library so I think that's a great policy policy that's all thank you uh Rhonda what do you think the district policy should be for responding to parents who want to restrict access to or remove certain books from District Libraries or classrooms I think it's a case by casee study or Case by case I don't want to say we don't want to blanket a policy about we just ban all these books but I think it needs to be reviewed I think we need to have a policy and I

073think we need to make sure that if a parent does have a concern there's a way for them to bring it there's a process around what needs to happen and um it can be reviewed and appropriate action taken I think we have to review it Case by case thank you uh Sarah so we have policies in place already we also have media and Library Specialists who are in place already and the process for putting books into our libraries is a well vetted process that has been happening for a long time so they're already age appropriate books in our library we come from a diverse Community we have people from all different backgrounds all different viewpoints all different political beliefs if we start Banning books because one or two parents has an issue with it or

074even 10 parents have an issue with it we're disregarding the other parents so I think it's really important to remember that um we need to follow our policies and there's policies to review books and it's really important that we remember we're a diverse community so we need to respect everybody's viewpoints and we can't just be banning books that one person doesn't like because then you're taking the rights away from somebody else and some of these books that have been up for bands in other communities are books that are about Equity things about um students who come from the lgbtq community um books that address issues of race and gender and sexuality and these are topics that are part of our world and it's important for our students to have a well-rounded education and I think

075if you as a parent have an issue with your child having access to a book then you need to speak to your child's teacher and to your child's principal and address it on a basis for your child thank you Sean would you mind read that to me what do you think the district policy should be for responding to parents who want to restrict access to or remove certain books from District Libraries or classrooms so I I believe in a situation like that we should really be looking at first you know this this is a learning institution correct um what do these books have as far as going forward as an educ ational purpose um if if they're not really serving a purpose towards educating people then you know we have a public library there's there's

076plenty of things online that you could go out and you could you could check out those books and you could see them um you know really I think the focus of of our libraries in in the school as as that is is you know really it it should be things that are focused on education um it doesn't matter what that education is but you know really at the end of the day if it if it doesn't serve a purpose towards education it's probably not something that we really need to have sitting around in a library thank you so the next question we'll start with Rhonda with the large Capital Improvement projects the district is considering explain any relevant experience you might have related to negotiating or overseeing large projects um with the referendum with the

077referendum okay um so I would say my experience is more fitting into a budget um I oversee a lot of projects within my day-to-day I don't think anything is at the capacity of a referendum however I do know what it's like to have a to stick to a budget and how to prioritize within that budget so that we are getting the needs of everything that we want versus everything we want and need so um in my previous career um I balanced essentially a checkbook in a buying office so um very familiar with sticking to the budget and prioritizing what is needed um versus what is wanted thank you next to Sarah um with the large Capital Improvement projects the district is considering regarding the referendum can you explain any relevant experience related to negotiating or

078overseeing large projects so I am a teacher by trade and then I also am a homeowner so I don't have business experience however in my own home I've done many remodeling projects we recently redid our both our kitchen and our bathroom and due to our budget limitations I was the general manager I made sure to go out and find all of the different people that I needed to work with and I needed to make sure that we stuck within our budget and so of course it is not at the level of a of a referendum I think most of us aside from Quinn do not have experience with a budget the size of the referendum that's being proposed however um I do feel very confident that I would be able to lean on the experience

079of the experts in our district and make some um really wise choices and critical thinking and I have a math minor and so I'm not and I'm a Savvy person in my own home in my own life thank you next to Sean um so my experience in in really working with a project of of this size comes from my time in the military um you know at the time the the first few units that I worked with you know we we were in charge of over $300 million in assets as you can expect you know fighter aircraft are not uh they're not cheap so you know really at the end of the day it it is being able to go back and fall on that experience of you know once again putting the right people

080in place to be able to manage those things and and understanding what they're saying but at the same time we have to understand that coming into this you're you're taking things with a grain of salt these are still businessmen men that are coming in and how can we best protect ourselves in the community to be able to get what we need for the district while at the same time being able to say hey we we are getting you guys the best deal that we can possibly get while achieving all of the goals that we have set forward to make sure we can move the district there thanks and Quinn so in my professional life every single day I negotiate a contract not 16 million not 64 million but dollars that could potentially SN me or

081make me money in the downturn of 2008 2009 2010 I really found out that I was that I was a business owner I had to make some hard decisions our company survived and got stronger after because of Sound business decisions I've been involved with the with with two referendums three refer two referendums in in the stadium project and the water retention project and the most recent referendum I've also been involved with two funds fund 41 and fund 46 are both construction type funds that save the district money by putting into those funds I've been inv involved with both of those involved with the 4 fund 46 in the very beginning in fund 41 since is9 on board both of our the water the stadium and fund and water retention project was successful we defeased the

082funds early as are we are doing the same with the current referendum I have a massive I am I like to say I'm book I'm not book smart I'm street smart and I and I got a and I got a eye for eye eye for numbers and I'm and I think the district has benefited from it thank you thank you so the next question we'll start with Sarah and is also related to the referendum as a board member how would you help communicate the needs of the district and the impact of the referendum to the Greater Community at large most of which do not have children actively in the district so um I think it's really important that we have a really strong communication director on board we don't currently have one as far as

083I am aware that has not come before the board yet um but I think that as an individual board member our job is really going to be to be listening to the board and um or listening to the community and then um communicating that out um I know currently I speak with my neighbors um part of what I did with the Whit resident engagement network was about educating our community as well um as a board member Your Role is really to stand together and communicate together so it's just making sure that we work together to have a unified message surround ing that and knowing what we need to do and making sure that we're very clear and open and honest about what our moves are going forward thank you uh next to Sean as a

084board member uh how would you help communicate the needs of the district and the impact of the referendum to the Greater Community at large most of which do not currently have children actively in the district so I I believe as a board member you know one of our jobs is to be communicative with with the district and what are we are doing with their tax money um you know biggest thing I think is is the message that we're trying to get across to the people of the district and as you said most of the people in this District don't actually have kids that live that are attending the whitall schools so how does this affect you what is it going to do and I think you know one of the best ways that we can

085get across to people is that you know look this is going to be something that is going to affect your home values it's going to affect things that directly affect your bottom line and and what good does it do to have a school district that is strong it it helps all of the values it brings people into the community it makes you know as as Ronda said earlier it it it makes Whitnall more of a destination District where we're going to attract more highquality people to our district so that we can continue to strengthen it so I think you know the best way that that we can do that is is really getting the message out of you know this is one community and we need to act as one and see that there are

086benefits Beyond just the kids are going to get a better education but there are benefits to the community as a whole that we're going to get out of this referendum thank you next to Quinn so I've been involved with two referendums here at whitel the first one for two months prior to the El to the to the election I spent my Tuesday nights from 5: to 7 at hce Hills corers Elementary walking people through the proposed proposed new building and the revitalization of our older part of our building as committed some nights no one came through but I stayed the second referendum I was a strong Advocate to our business manager to communicate in the Whit no window window the whole process and the dollars involved in how that is made up but the key

087was to have him do it in a layman's term that we could understand because he he is a geek right I told it to him his face he knows it but we needed to get it to a point that every resident could understand where the money was going for how it was being spent and how are we going to keep an eyee on it and then we did it and that's that the W the W Whit no window is the way to communicate to the whole Community thank you thank you and Rhonda as a board member how would you help communicate the needs of the district and the impact of the referendum to the Greater Community at large most of which do not have children actively in the district well I think what was most

088impactful for me was actually walking the high school and realizing the shape that it's in so to Quinn's Point how do we get commun other community members to actually see what we're asking for it has a huge impact I think also because a lot of our community don't have students in the district it becomes how do we get that communication out there they're not on social media they're not looking at Facebook so what can we do is it that we hold a focus or is it that we hold regular Communications regular meetings are we going door too and saying this is why we this is what we're asking for from the referendum it's going to take a little outside of the box thinking because we're not dealing with um we're not dealing with everybody that's

089on social media or that is knows what's going on because they have students in the district so we have to do outside the box thinking thank you you so the next question we'll start with Sean describe your position on open and enrollment during times of declining resident enrollment should we increase open enrollment in order to fill existing class sections or restrict open enrollment um I I believe open enrollment is a good thing um you know overall in the district uh really I I I do think though that we need to focus on making sure that you know everyone that has a student that's within the district is you know at at least informed enough that they would want their students to attend um really at the end of the day whitall should be PR pring

090to have 100% of the students within the district attending district schools and that's where I think you know we really can can make some progress you know we we have students that are deliberately leaving the district for whatever reasons we need to find out why and why are we not bringing these students to the district what is preventing them from wanting to be a part of this community and a part of this school district um once again I'm I'm not against open enrollment but I I think we really need to focus on the students that live within the district first and then move to open enrollment to fill those seats after we have addressed those issues thank you uh next to Quinn would you like me to repeat it no so when I first got

091on the board chapter 220 was diminishing open enrollment was starting the difference being 220 gave you Transportation open enrollment does not we came up with a plan that we need it's a top to bottom we needed to get at least 200 students per class at our high school to offer the widest range of electives so our students can can achieve what they want to achieve then it needs to trickle down from there and sometimes we have large numbers in certain in certain areas to fill those needs we are we are declining enrollment in our district we have no growth there's no big subdivisions going up it is what it is it also is a profit Center we brought in over $3 million last year to our budget because of these students we need that a

092lot of times we're filling sections to make them Fuller sometimes we have to create a whole section so that we can get that top goal of 200 across the board at our high school but one thing I will say is when that child an open Roman child is accepted in a whito that child is a whitel student done that's it no other name they are a whitel child moving forward thank you thank you next to Rhonda describe your position on open enrollment during times of declining resident enrollment should we increase open enrollment in order to fill existing class class sections or restrict open enrollment I think for me it comes back to there needs to be a balance I don't want we don't want to say no open enrollment but we need to look at

093the numbers and see what is the appropriate number so it goes back and forth there just needs to be a balance we do need to look at why are our own Whitnel kids why are they deciding not to go to Whitnel um we do need to look at that and I think we also need to look at overall how are we achieving overall I think um we want to make sure that we're servicing the students that we have now and that they're getting everything they want and that's open enrollment that's kids in the district we just need to make sure that we're serving all of them before we go and look at expanding more again not opposed to it I think there just needs to be a balance we need to make sure we feel

094comfortable with where we're at and even looking at other districts around us what are they doing thank you thank you and last to Sarah um so open enrollment isn't really an arbitrary thing it already is a balanced thing there's a very specific set of um formulas that go into deciding how many seats we have how are we going to fill them and why andp it is partially to balance our budget it's partially to make sure our class sizes stay consistent and well-rounded so that we don't have to layoff teachers higher teachers layoff teachers higher teachers shift them to different grades because when you have consistent enrollment across all grades you can keep your staff consistent you can keep your funding consistent you can offer a wider variety of electives and you really can serve all

095students and really it's an equity issue anyways the reality of it is some people have to move out of the district for certain reasons or they might live just one street over from the district and giving them the ability to open en roll when we have space allows them to get an education here as well and so I don't really love the conversation of who deserves a whit education and who doesn't um I think that's not really something that I want to go down the rabbit hole of I think every child in the world deserves a great education and so when we're using our tool efficiently and determining how we can fit our students in to meet our needs that really helps serve us it helps serve them and it really is a win-win for

096everybody we get great education for all students we get our balanced Ed um our balanced classrooms and we maintain consistency in our district as well thank you uh next to Quinn do you have a working understanding of open meeting laws and Robert's Rules of Order I do oh time's almost up but not quite I have a very good working knowledge it open means law it is we take an oath we're elected officials we take an oath and that means we have to follow the laws of the state and one of the laws is the open is the open meetings law we cannot hold meetings outside of this boardroom we cannot have more than the majority members meeting to discuss business it's a sunshine state meaning we hold meetings here we're holding a private meeting in

097the public space I can talk to other board members one or two of them but that's it I can't talk to four individually about the same subject that's breaking the law I can't go in in into an area outside here and talk about things with with more than three members I've talked to Lan many times it's a line that we do not cross it's for everybody's protection and if you do cross that line there should be consequences Roberts rules of orders is tough usually a parliamentarian on the board enforces them we do not have that so we Loosely work with the Robert will order okay can I make it thank you uh Rhonda what is your understanding or do you have a working understanding of open meetings laws and Robert's Rules of Order full transparency

098I am not an expert I'm familiar with Robert's Rules the the open meeting la La I'm not as familiar but I'm also not concerned about learning it and getting up to speed partnering with somebody who would is considered an expert and learning from them so that I am following the process correctly thank you Sarah I have researched and read the open meeting laws in our state um we are definitely a sunshine state um Wisconsin takes them very seriously um walking quorums are a big no no and we need to make sure that we are being transparent and meeting in our board um and discussing everything openly honestly here and not elsewhere um and for Robert's Rules I have already begun to read and research and take trainings on them and I intend to continue learning

099more and I would love to see a parliamentarian come in and teach our entire board more about Robert's role thank you Sean um I can say never holding public office before I you know do I have a working understanding of of open meeting laws yes I I do and I I totally support once again Echo what everybody else up here is said you know it it needs to be a very transparent thing and something that should be talked about publicly if we're we're talking about sitting here and using public funds and using public spaces then the public has a right to know what we're discussing um at the same time you know like I said I'm not an expert on these things this would be something that you know would be a learning curve for

100me should you try choose to vote for me I I absolutely will will put my time and and effort into making sure that I am hitting all of those marks that you expect out of me as an elected official all right thank you right so we have time for one final question with the change in superintendent There's an opportunity for change in District or School vision do you have any ideas for Big Picture vision changes for the district and we start with Rhonda from a strategic Vision overall I just would like to see us move forward I want us again I want us to be the whitel the destination District that people want to be a part of of the community brags about I'm in the I'm in the district people put their house on

101the market and it sells in so fast because people want to get into the whitel district I think there's a lot of work to do but I think we can get we can get to that and part of that is closing the Gap with the academics making sure that we keep those teachers happy and keep them um and attract new top talent if we need to um and then offering offering um what does it look like when we offer the kids after After High School what are we offering them do they know what's out there for them um so I think that would be my vision thank you Sarah with do you want me to repeat no I'm okay great um I think we actually have a really strong perspectus is what we call it

102um I think that um our whole Community doesn't necessarily know the ins and outs of our perspectus and I don't know that we are always on our board level committed and following that and I think that our commitment to all students in our community and making sure that we are embracing every student's unique story I think it's just what we aim for in education when you become a teacher you come into teaching to teach every student and so I really love that it incorporates that into our mission and it really talks about meeting kids needs whatever they may be and I think we already are a destination District our houses fly off the market like that I want anybody to try to find a new house in whitel because it is not going to be

103easy and um we already are a destination for special ed because people know that we are committed to teaching every student here in whitel and so I think our mission is really strong I would like to see it be more transparent and I'd like our community to know and embrace it and I'd like our board to know and embrace it thank you Sean with the change in superintendent there is an opportunity for change in District or School vision do you have any ideas for Big Picture Vision change for the district um I I think big picture for for the school district is is is really you know what I had stated before you know we we want whitall to be in the top 10% of of the state of Wisconsin really um you know and

104and I think what we're looking at you know how do you arrive at that is is hiring the best possible superintendent and and putting the pieces that that superintendent that needs in place to drive that vision of of being a top 10 School District in the State uh you know I I think other big picture items that we have is is making sure that you know our kids are getting the as many opportunities as possible whether that be going to a four-year University whether that be going to a trade school whether that be joining the military maybe be um you know going to a community college to start off but but making sure that we're opening the doors and and the children understand exactly where their opportunities lie and and how to effectively reach those

105goals that they have and not trying trying to essentially put everybody into one box of you need to go to college you need to do this there are so many opportunities out there that I think we tend to go by the wayside because they're overlooked or they're they're not as flashy as going to get a four-year degree but we really need to focus in on presenting opportunities to students and I think we will move our way towards making that top 10% when we are showing these students exactly what their potential is and how to get there thank you and last to Quinn sure uh we as a district per DPI report card we have we are exceeding District we have two schools that are exceptionally exceeding distri uh expectations excuse me we are doing good

106we are a destination Community we have met many benchmarks in our achievement and we've succeeded many we are at an upward swing it's going to be very hard for a new superintendent to pick up and keep going well we have a lot of good things in place I I I think we're set up for success for years to come a lot of the hard work was done you have to remember we went through two years of covid with very little Interruption we kept our kids in school and we kept our kids safe there was a drop off there's no doubt about it not only here but nationally but we've we've put we've used our Esser funds which was government funds very wisely now we're going to have to make the some some decisions are we

107going to keep those staff members on our own payroll without that funding that's a big picture thing right there that is huge because it's been successful and I just guess I'll stop right there thank you all right so now we have 90 seconds each for closing remarks and we'll begin with Sarah so I just wanted to reiterate that I am really excited to be running for Schoolboard I think I bring a really strong um base of knowledge I think Arts District is a very strong School District we are in the top cortile in the state when you look at our most recent um achievement we are closing our achievement gaps we are supporting all students we have a much smaller District than some of the top 10 and honestly it may be unpopular but I

108don't want to be in the top 10% in an achievement if that means that we're not educating every child because my son will not be in the top 10% of students he never will be and that's okay that's not my goal for him my goal for him is to be successful and happy and to have a full fulfilling life and be a good citizen and so sometimes we need to look at all the different metrics and we need to be looking at what is the best for every single child in our district how can we make sure that our children are succeeding and what the success look for like for each individual we do have a strong trades program we do have strong Partnerships with our community we need to continue growing that we need

109a superintendent who comes in and continues to grow on what we've been growing on we need to be able have a strong community that supports a referendum to improve our facilities some of our facilities are dated to the 60s we can improve our community we can build on what we have we have great staff we have great students we have a commitment to every child that is something to be proud of that is something that I stand for that is something that I fight for in my personal life that's something I fought for as a teacher and that's something that I want to continue on the board thank you next to Sean um in closing I really the reason I'm up here is is is you know I I see this as a very tight-knit

110Community I see this as a very good Community a great Community to to raise my own children uh that's the reason that we moved here now I I also see that you know there's been some some slip and and there is work to be done I think with within the whitall community and within the Whit all schools and you know that is something that I I want to be a part of if if if you have identified a problem as something I try to teach my kids if you identified a problem you have to be willing to step up and try to fix it and so what I can tell that you as voters is is that I will do my best to do what's right by you by your kids um and and really

111try to bring whitall back together as a community as a functioning school board that can set a vision and move forwards with it as one thank you Quinn the reason why I'm seeking a fifth term I go back to my opening statement because I care I care about everybody I have the experience I've been through two referendums I've been through hiring a superintendent onboarding that superintendent I've been through financial gain for this community keeping it stable we've made really good decisions both academically and financially and they are paying off you need a stability on the board I don't see it with five new members and two members being in their second term that is a lot to ask whether people want to use my experience or not that's their choice but I will be there

112fighting and sometimes literally for the non-parent in the district that pays taxes for the parent in the district and for the EXP parent that kids have gone through I have no hidden agenda everything I've told you is been is on tape and I speak my mind at every meeting I show up and and speak my mind whether it's what you want to hear or not it's what I think is right I do the homework I come prepared every meeting vote for me April 2nd go to my website quiner witl.com thank you and Rhonda so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that showed up and thank you if you're watching wherever the camera is um and thank you to the uh League of Women Voters and the student council nothing like being here

113at school on a Monday night but thank you um if there's anything that I want you guys to take home tonight I want you to take home I want whitel to thrive and I will work hard to accomplish this goal if I'm if I'm elected I listen I collaborate and I provide candid professional feedback and I do this by building relationships and focusing on the fact that we are a team and ultimately driving for the same goal a thriving school district is a win for all of us so I am the candidate you want so I ask that you vote Ronda Perry on April 2 thank you thank you all right so I think we we covered virtually all the themes that cropped up in the in the questions but if your question specific question

114was not answered I definely encourage you to reach out directly to the candidates I'm sure they would be more than happy to to chat with you and make sure that you have all your your questions and concerns addressed the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County reminds you that our democracy depends on citizen involvement I trust that you all intend to vote on April 2nd and I hope that you will help increase voter turnout by encouraging your friends and family to vote as well and by arranging for an absentee ballot if needed I especially want to thank the whitel high school student council members who helped out tonight Round of Applause we couldn't have done it without them so on behalf of the whitel high school student council and the league thank you to all

115of our candidates for running for political office and for participating in this forum and thank to all thanks to all of you for submitting questions and for being a great audience and for attending so have a great evening