Current board president says the ‘devil is in the details’
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
After all was said and done Tuesday night at the School Board candidates’ forum sponsored by WeVoteBurlington, it might be fair to say reactions were mixed.
Reaction from the five-member panel of questioners varied from thinking the candidates did a good job answering questions to thinking they didn’t provide enough depth. The current School Board president said he liked what he heard – but with a catch.
“The devil is in the details,” David Thompson said. “The candidates … they have really great ideas. Some are probably more realistic than others.
“They said the right things,” Thompson added. “That’s all great, but then, the devil’s in the details. What do you do when you have to make changes and you have to choose whose ox you will gore?”
Whose ox is actually on the chopping block – and who should put the ox there – made up the majority of the questions at the forum. There were queries tackling everything from should a board member vote his or her conscience or vote the will of the people as to what programs should be cut first.
The five-member panel of Christopher Impens, Bill Schoessling, Jim Simons, Marsha Stoner and Taylor Wishau asked two rounds of questions each, and the audience also got to ask a few questions.
The answers those questions produced pleased some, and bothered others.
“I’m excited there was a dialogue,” Impens said. “This is an important decision for the community. In order to make an intelligent decision, the public needs to be informed.”
Simons and Stoner, meanwhile, thought that some candidates did better than others.
“I firmly believe this is mostly about money, and I don’t believe they answered the questions as fully as they could have,” said Simons, who also added that he didn’t think the School Board had used all of its options in building the budget that drew such ire last fall at the BASD Annual Meeting.
Stoner said, “I think some of the candidates were more well prepared than others. I think some of the hard questions were kind of skirted around on occasions.”
Schoessling and Wishau both felt the forum had gone well, with Schoessling praising the chance to let the audience ask questions and Wishau hoping the process will be repeated after the primary.
One topic did draw comments from three of the five questioners – the absence of the two incumbents. Stoner was the most vocal in her displeasure.
“I believe that their refusal to attend … this wasn’t a setup,” she said. “I think it was all fair. I don’t think there’s anything that the existing School Board members should have hid from.”
Thompson said afterward that he did think the current board had used all of the tools provided by Gov. Scott Walker with Act 10, but that “people want to see the teachers take a bigger hit.”
He stopped short of predicting what would happen this year, though, with the current budget still in the process of being built – and it tied back to whose ox was on the chopping block.
“I suspect the teachers will take some hits, as will other staff persons,” Thompson said. “I suspect everyone will be taking a hit.
“The question is: how much of a hit?”
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