School Board members weigh in on spouses serving as citizen representatives
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
What exactly constitutes a conflict of interest?
Depending upon whom you talk to now in the Burlington Area School District, it might be who has applied to be citizen representatives on the BASD School Board committees – or it might not.
There are currently four applicants for a number of open spots on the various committees that serve the School Board. Those applicants include Norma Miller, former School Board member Susan Kessler – and the spouses of two current School Board members.
On Monday night at the Curriculum Committee meeting of the School Board, both Bonnie Ketterhagen – wife of newly elected board member Phil Ketterhagen – and Julie Koldeway – wife of newly elected board member Roger Koldeway – said they felt there was no conflict of interest.
“I’ve been serving students all my life,” said Bonnie Ketterhagen, a former kindergarten teacher with a master’s degree plus 36 credits. “I’m articulate, educated, intelligent.”
Julie Koldeway said much along the same lines Monday night, but issued an email response in detail Tuesday.
“I applied for citizen rep because I feel that I could use my 26 years of experience with the school district to guide me in my decision-making process,” Julie Koldeway explained. “I have been a PTO president, chairperson on many school events, and a volunteer in the schools for many years.”
School Board President David Thompson said last week that there might be an appearance of impropriety with the spouses applying for the positions – regardless of whether there actually was a conflict of interest.
“I think that might hurt the credibility of the board,” Thompson added.
However, the idea that there would be any kind of conflict of interest appeared to anger Roger Koldeway.
“To think that a citizen who has spent so much time volunteering in our schools and has spent her life caring for children be accused of personal gain is completely ridiculous,” said Koldeway. “Bring up the question of conflict of interest as a motive for applying for a citizen representative position leads one to question the motive of the persons implying ‘conflict of interest.’”
According to BASD policy, citizen representatives are included on the following committees: Long Range Planning, Buildings and Grounds/Transportation, Community Education, Curriculum, Finance and Policy.
Those representatives are appointed for one-year terms and may serve up to three consecutive terms on the same committee. The terms run from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
There are a maximum of two citizen reps on any one committee, and no citizen can serve on more than one committee during the same year.
Citizen members serve as full voting members of the standing committee to which they have been appointed, but cannot vote on any issue at an action meeting and cannot attend closed sessions of the committee.
The citizen rep positions have been filled by a number of people over the years, including School Board members voted out of office. Former School Board member Taylor Wishau is a representative on one of the committees, and Kessler would make another.
“There is a long history of ex-School Board members serving as citizen reps,” Kessler said Monday night. “I would think that I would have a lot of knowledge.”
Kessler also said that she thought there would be a conflict of interest, simply because the spouses were already elected members of the board, “representing a certain point of view.”
Phil Ketterhagen, echoing something his wife had said Monday night, though, said that conflict of interest would and should have a broad enough definition to include any possible conflicts.
“There is no more a conflict of interest (with my wife) than a citizen rep on the Finance Committee is an employee of a board member,” said Phil, pointing out that School Board member William Campbell is on the Veterans Terrace board and Bill Smitz – who is on the Finance Committee – manages Veterans Terrace.
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“To think that a citizen who has spent so much time volunteering in our schools and has spent her life caring for children be accused of personal gain is completely ridiculous,” said Koldeway. “Bring up the question of conflict of interest as a motive for applying for a citizen representative position leads one to question the motive of the persons implying ‘conflict of interest.’”
Excellent. Then he’ll have no issue with active teachers appointed to the positions. They’re just as non-biased as he seem to claim his spouse is.
I don’t know if they think they are that clever or that the residents of this town are that stupid.
Mr. Koldeway’s suggestion that the conflict of interest in question here is related to “personal gain” is completely erroneous. It is implausible that any personal gain is at stake here.
Rather, the conflict of interest that is obvious is the potential for citizen representatives to be rubber stamps for two of the board members who, along with their spouses, are members of an extremist political faction that has openly stated its intention to take over Burlington’s school board and impose its narrow, short-sighted and handed-down-from-on-high agenda on the citizens of BASD and their children.
Citizen Representatives are supposed to be just that, representatives of the local citizenry, not lackies for board members, radical political groups or their ideological masters.
So what happens when these spouses talk about school board issues at home? They would NEVER discuss how to vote on an issue outside of a meeting. Although they would not make up a quorum, I do believe that it could too easily change how items are voted on in commities and on the school board.