Board balks on policies

By Jennifer Eisenbart

EDITOR

Exactly what the Burlington Area School District Policy Committee expected back from the ad hoc committee on naming, sponsorship and advertising rights was unclear Monday night.

What the committee got, however, was a trio of detailed policies that outlined everything from the kinds of signs that would be allowed to length of time the sign being posted.

But rather than debating the policies – which were anywhere between four and seven pages long – the Policy Committee and other board members instead debated on whether they were even ready to debate the policies.

In the end, the Policy Committee sent the issue back to the full board for the October meeting rather than do a read-through of the three policies.

The first hint at a problem came after the policies were handed out, as board member Phil Ketterhagen expressed disbelief that policies had even been created.

“I do not believe that direction was given to the superintendent by the board to put together policies,” Ketterhagen said. “I was dumbfounded when I found it was done and that the ad hoc committee was putting together policy recommendations.

However, on Tuesday, Superintendent Peter Smet said he had revisited the meeting minutes from February (as he said he would Monday) and found the motion was to “study and develop a policy regarding sponsorship, advertising and naming rights.”

An amendment to remove naming rights from the original motion failed.

At the meeting in February, Smet also had gone out of his way to make it clear he wasn’t engaged in “any kind of power play.” In fact, at that meeting, the board chose to create the ad hoc committee to further study the policies in response to the fact Smet had brought forth revisions to three of them.

Also at that meeting, Ketterhagen had said he wanted to see both the pros and cons presented by the committee, saying it shouldn’t be “one-sided.”

The ad hoc committee featured several prominent community members, including Jim Berndt – who ran for school board this year – citizen rep Karen Tolle, and Kevin Bird, one of the citizens behind the push to consider sponsorships and advertising to support athletics and other school programs.

Berndt and Tolle were both present at Monday night’s meeting, and expressed their frustration that their work was essentially being moved to the back burner.

“You have the opportunity right now,” said Tolle about examining the policies. She and Berndt also appeared to be expecting to discuss the policies and the reasons for their complexities.

The length of the policies surprised board member Rosanne Hahn, who expected any changes to be “shorter and more concise.”

However, several people jumped in to defend the length of the policies. Burlington High School Principal Eric Burling said the policies – as written and submitted for Monday’s meeting – would allow him “structure” to make decisions on what advertising could go up, where and for how long.

Board Member Todd Terry, meanwhile, said the detail was exactly what was needed.

“This board sits and crows every week about policies being vague,” he said. “I applaud the work that was done.

“I love the fact that this administration dives into a project,” he added. “I think we should have something like that.”

Ketterhagen and board member Roger Koldeway, meanwhile, said there was a lack of detail on everything from how much money the district would make to what the downside to placing advertising would be.

“I need information on whether the district wants or needs or will benefit from this,” said Ketterhagen, who wanted to see the research. “That’s what I thought the ad hoc committee was going to provide.”

Koldeway added, “It’s very vague,” about the specifics of advertising.

However, that was what Burling said the structure of the policies would allow him to work with at the school level.

“That’s the framework that’s provided in there,” he said, saying later that the three documents were good, “if you read the policy.”

Terry added, “It’s a four-letter word around here sometimes, but we have to trust somebody.”

After the meeting, Tolle said the ad hoc committee had indeed done the research – and that the length of the policies as submitted reflected that.

“There is nothing simple about it,” Tolle said. “When we begin to allow commercial access to the captive audience represented by our student body and their families, we need to be particularly careful to protect the education mission of the district.”

Tolle also said that while she personally opposed the idea of advertising, she could see the inevitability of it with declining budget dollars.

“If people refuse to accept adequate public taxpayer funding of education, there will be no recourse but to go to the private sector for sponsorship and support,” she said.