Committee votes to eliminate citizen reps

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

There were two schools of thought and a lot of middle ground expressed Monday night in the discussion of whether the Burlington Area School District School Board needed to continue with citizen representatives on committees.

After discussing the merits – and drawbacks – of the citizen reps for about an hour, the School Board Personnel Committee voted 2-1 to recommend to the full board doing away with the representatives, but also to make more use of ad hoc committees.

The decision to go with the latter was in the hopes of getting knowledgeable people involved with the planning of specific projects and addressing certain problems, vs. putting citizen reps on the committees who may or may not have any expertise in what they are voting on.

While citizen reps have the ability to vote at the committee level, only board members vote at the general meetings on those recommendations.

That, in effect, turned into one of the many points questioning the effectiveness – and need – of the representatives.

“I think we ought to have a serious discussion about whether we want to continue,” said Board President David Thompson. “We’ve had some excellent citizen representatives.

“(But) I’m wondering if it hasn’t outlived its usefulness.”

Thompson reminded the board – which was present in full for the two committee meetings – that while the committees have had valuable input over the years, there is no way to vet applicants or check qualifications.

In additions, Thompson said the citizen reps seem to have become political in nature over the last year, with those reps coming in to represent certain interests.

“I’m very much on the fence,” Thompson said.

School Board member Phil Ketterhagen argued that board members themselves are not vetted, while Jim Bousman argued that perhaps the board should change the process from selection to recruitment to guarantee getting people in with the proper mindset and knowledge.

Board member Roger Koldeway addressed the politics nature head-on, though.

“The politics aren’t coming from the people coming onto the board,” he said. “It was created by the board.”

Last year, Koldeway and Ketterhagen both saw their wives apply for citizen rep positions – what many saw as a political move designed to sway the committee action. While both were denied – as was another potential rep with business ties to Thompson – Julie Koldeway eventually ran for School Board, and was defeated.

Koldeway also added that, by handpicking people, the board would muddy the waters and look like it might be trying to eliminate people from serving.

“I don’t see where the problem really is here,” he said.

Board member Rosanne Hahn made the suggestion to get citizens involved, but through ad hoc committees. Those committees would be formed for specific purposes – like the original citizen reps were involved in a referendum for the new high school.

Thompson made that motion, and Larry Anderson seconded it for the sake of discussion. Anderson added that they needed to look at how citizen reps were brought in, especially in light of a representative last year who, Anderson believes, didn’t know what was going on when that representative voted.

Koldeway disagreed, saying that there was a difference between lack of knowledge on a subject vs. simply having a different opinion.

Ketterhagen agreed.

“Let the system weed out the ones who choose to be citizen reps,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be the judge and jury of them.”

Board member Bill Campbell came out in support of Bousman’s comments, and the vote went with Campbell and Thompson saying yes – and Anderson no.