By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
Normally, citizen representatives for the Burlington Area School Board don’t draw a lot of attention.
But with the wives of two BASD School Board members applying for a spot – plus a former School Board member – this year’s crop could require some extra deliberation.
While a meeting has not yet been scheduled, BASD Superintendent Peter Smet said the School Board Personnel Committee will have to discuss the matter, which has apparently never happened before.
“Not to my knowledge,” Smet said Tuesday. “The Personnel Committee will take it up at the next meeting, and take action one way or another.”
He declined to speculate on how the board felt about having spouses of two board members serving as citizen representatives.
“I don’t know,” Smet said. “I don’t know all the people’s feelings on it.”
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 four potential citizen reps are:
• Julie Koldeway, wife of School Board member Roger Koldeway, who was elected along with Phil Ketterhagen in April following controversy in 2011 that BASD did not do enough to maintain or lower the tax levy following Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 being put into effect.
• Bonnie Ketterhagen, wife of Phil Ketterhagen.
• Susan Kessler, one of the two board members ousted when Ketterhagen and Koldeway were elected.
• Norma Miller.
School Board President David Thompson said the idea of having spouses involved was a concern, and the board would have to balance the appearance of the situation as well as the fairness of the situation.
“At the very least, it looks like a conflict of interest,” Thompson said. “It may not be a conflict of interest, but it appears to be one.
“I think that might hurt the credibility of the board.”
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I’m strongly against having a family member on the committee! It IS a conflict of interest.
well if it has never been done before,then there must not be any guidelines,so I say they should be allowed to run just like anyone else.what is the schoolboard afraid of,I wonder.
If one would research School Board Code of Ethics on the Internet, you would find that many States and most Municipalities state in their code of ethics that : no member can belong to or answer to any political organization. Here is a statement from one such document “Render all decisions based on the available facts and independent judgement and refuse to surrender that judgement to individuals or SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS.” That statement should disqualify both of the new Board members and their wives. This community is wading into some very dangerous waters.
Of course family members should not serve. I know that committee members do not have voting rights but they do have influence. I feel like this is just a way to by pass the electoral process. The tea party people want to rush the date and get more of their people on before the election. The want to take over the school district without a vote. Let’s get more diversity.
Diversity is why there are citizen reps on the board. This is NOT diversifying. The object is to get representatives from a broad group of citizens; differing nationalities, socio-economic backgrounds, children in-school or not, etc. and this weakens the purpose.
Allowing spouses to be citizen representatives does not bring any diversity to issues being discussed. I agree a seemingly conflict of interest.
I have been on a committee for 6 years, and initially a close family member was on the school board (not a spouse, however). No one ever said it wasn’t allowed because we were related. Also, citizen reps can bring discussion to the table, but in the end, I never felt like my input mattered much, honestly. In my experience, I don’t think they really have any influence at all.