As promised, given the (ridiculous) claims allayed against Dave Boetcher, I requested via an Open Records Request and have received all 621 emails (and drafts, apparently) sent by Dave from April 2020 to December 2020.

I’ve scanned and very briefly reviewed all of them. Dave did know that I requested all of his emails. He didn’t object, and if he had, I would’ve done it anyway. I don’t expect that anyone is interested in actually reading all of this, so I’ll summarize.

• Dave is unflinchingly patient.
• Dave’s correspondence, even with people who disagree with him, is considerate and compassionate.
• Dave is not the person the recall folks have tried to make him out to be… at least not in his emails.

LINK

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U6fT_mkvVWxNNYKlPlAtDt66diXAGMh7?usp=sharing

Some recommended links:

Re_ Call Recap_21-10-2020 – This has been previously shared by me, but it remains the most surprising, hilarious and infuriating of all. For those who aren’t aware, this email is from the individual named as the chosen candidate of the recall group seeking to remove Dave from office. I’ve talked with her in the past and have always found her to be considerate, upbeat, nonplussed and above all else, insightful and thoughtful. So the dramatic flip into political animus towards Dave (and myself indirectly) has been deeply disappointing. Dave has a few emails from her over the course of the year. Nothing really references anything the recall group has complained about.

As you read this – remember this is candidate who wants to replace Dave, writing him an email a little less than 3 weeks before the recall campaign started during the 2nd week of November:

Thank you for being generous with your time today. I’m sure that you can tell that I’m very passionate about the topic of reopening our schools. I respect our administration and leaders and I know that you are all working towards what is best for all of the students in Waunakee schools.

October 21, 2020

Re: Good_AM_15.12.2020 – Dave and BOE member Mark Hetzel discuss a vote (that I personally disagreed with) to speed up the process to allow winter sports to compete out-of-county. Again, this is an issue where Dave has literally worked on behalf of what the recall folks have openly demanded, yet he is given zero credit and they continue to lie about him. And I don’t even agree with Dave’s point, so it irritates me that he’s getting the grief that really only I would deserve.

I’ll also point out that I’ve seen no public condemnation of the recall effort from any other BOE members (other than myself), and I find it nice to see some quasi-private support.

It is amusing that the recall folks publicly lauded Mark himself for doing what Dave has also done.

Re: Co_Curricular_Activities_31-8-2020 – Dave’s patient reply to some of the recall folks making spurious claims to him directly. Oddly enough, this email didn’t turn up in my last ORR.

Re: Baseball_22.7.2020 – District athletic dirctor reporting that Village sanctioned athletics were playing outside of Dane County. Appears to have discussed how teams may have been using district facilities without permission.

Re: FYI_13_11_2020: Dave responds to me after I let him know that I likely irritated some folks by discussing faith, belief, Catholicism and Qanon. Amusingly, this led to another Letter to the Editor that (falsely) claimed that Dave failed to control me for attacking Catholicism (which I didn’t really do) and that this was another reason to recall him.

Masks in Schools_15-6-2020 – Dave handing off questions re: administration response to an objection over masks to administration. This rather counters the narrative of his “undermining” administration.

Observing Sports Practices_17-8-2020 – Dave asking permission and for help from administration in observing practices. I point this one out because the recall folks have directly accused Dave of “abuse of power” for effectively doing this. Because this charge is so absurd, I’ll quote this entire email to demonstrate what Dave has really done. This is an email to Aaron May, District Activities Director, along with Superintendent Randy Guttenburg:

“Aaron,
Since I’m doing the DNC Convention this week, I will have some blocks of time where I can
get around during the day. Could you let me know what sports practices are happening
this week and at what times? I would like to see how the coaches and players are handling
the rules we are under and what difficulties they might be having.
Thanks,
Dave”

That’s it. This is the “abuse of power” Dave is being accused of. Asking the administration when he could see a practice or two during August.

In conclusion, I’m not sure what I was expecting. When I read the recall folks condemnations of Dave, I really wondered if Dave did something wrong that I just hadn’t seen. In the end, the only logical conclusion is that the efforts to attack him are intentionally dishonest. Dave has the tendency to float ideas in BOE meetings for the sake of discussion, but I know of nothing he’s done that comports with what the recall folks have said about him.

In a final note – I’m dismayed to have learned that some elected officials in the Village of Waunakee have appeared to support this recall effort and have even encouraged it. Given that the recall is going to fall woefully short of their required number of signatures, I look forward to asking candidates in the Spring election whether they did in fact support this collossal embarassment.

I will not seek re-election in 2021 to the Waunakee Community School District seat to represent Westport, Middleton and Madison.

This isn’t a recent decision, as I’ve shared this with many people over the course of the last several weeks and months. I do think it prudent to share now publicly.

To fully explain this to both myself and anyone who cares to listen, I have to be honest. My reasons for not running again are largely selfish. I am tired. If the position only required being verbally abused, I could handle it. After all, I am a cis-gendered, heterosexual, non-disabled, white, male, home owner who lives in affluent community. I am basically the living definition of privileged.

I am weary for different reasons. This year has required hundreds of hours of work away from my family that I did not expect. I have two young children who are absolutely wonderful and absolutely maddening, and a partner who picks up all the slack when I’m unavailable. Spending hundreds of hours of my free time on the BOE is unfair to them. I am tired of my boys crying because their Dad is gone at work all day, then gone all night for board meetings.

In full disclosure, I made up my mind on this decision months ago. To be precise, I decided to not seek another term on the Board shortly after an anonymous individual called my office and called me a “N****r lover”. I don’t precisely know why this individual made this particular statement, but it wasn’t lost on me that this call followed my endorsement of Joel Lewis and the district’s authorization of the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This call went hand in hand with anti-semitic and racist letters I received regarding Robert McPherson’s candidacy for Village Board, as well as Joel’s prior candidacy for school board.

I want no sympathy for these incidents. I deliberately bring attacks on myself. In truth, this was my plan all along. I think leaders should stand out in front and take the shots so others don’t have to. I would much rather it be me who is attacked, rather than an administrator, a teacher, or a student having to deal with it. And I fully acknowledge that my being attacked on occassion pales in comparison to the daily stress and anxiety that many others in our community face due to nothing more than their not being accepted, either due to their gender identity, their sexuality, their race, or their country of origin.

None of this, however, has made this year any easier to deal with. It just made the decision easier.

I am concerned that running for public office at this time would be an entirely selfish act. It is not lost on me that there will likely be single-issue candidates running for school board races in April that are solely focused on rushing schools back to in-person class, consequences be damned. Voters should be wary of anyone supported by those who peddle false advocacy for the community without disclosure of their own self-interests.

In truth – I don’t know what is best for the community. While many agree with my aggressive and often critical stances, many do not. I acknowledge and respect this. I can say what is not best for the community would be to listen to those who are interested in silencing others, in pushing their own self-interests above all else, and those who are not willing to engage in open, honest debate. Above all else, I want to leave the district with the perspective that criticism is an honest form of love. And I want our community to get to a place where acts of racism, anti-semitism and bigotry are not merely condemned – but prevented. We prevent these acts through education, but also through things like equitable housing policies. We prevent them through ethical leadership, accessibility and transparency. I remain concerned that powerful forces within our community remain opposed to these principles.

I love my community. I want it to be better than it is. I fear that in our community, we seek only the changes that avoid pain. I am reminded of MLK’s reference to a “negative peace”. True enough, I have been repeatedly told that it “is not the right time” for change in our community…

I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

Martin Luther King, Jr “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” 1963

It is my sincere hope that the community is able to work together and move forward in this challenging time. We must continue to advocate for change for the benefit of all community members.

Now is the only time we truly have.

As always, this post is a work of the author, is his personal opinion, and should not be read as any representative statement on behalf of any individual or organization

Dane County is experiencing a dramatic increase in positive covid-19 cases over the course of the last 5 weeks.

On the day the WCSD Board voted to return 3rd and 4th graders to in-person instruction, the new case rate in Dane County was approximately 110 new cases per day.

Today it is over 400.

What does this mean for Dane County and Waunakee? It means that if you’re at a gathering of 15 people in Dane County, there is a 42% chance that at least one person in that gathering is covid-19 positive. If you bump the number of individuals at said gathering to 100? 98% chance.

https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/

As a brief aside, the average class size of an in-person hybrid class in Waunakee is around 13 (including staff).

These percentages obviously don’t control for age group, behavior, type of gathering or any other useful factor. However, it’s the underlying in logic on why virtually all serious scientists are recommending a general shut down of large gatherings. Dr. Clio Andris, the statistician behind the GA Tech data noted that “Somebody might spend time with people and then they bring it home. The research has shown that is the most popular place.” Adding that “It’s the dinner party that’s the worry. It’s going out to eat that’s the worry. It’s all hanging out together drinking, watching the game indoors that’s the worry.”

We now face a holiday on November 26th which is practiced by hundreds of millions as an event to gather with non-immediate family, eat, drink and watch TV. A significant number of individuals in our community are going to be travelling, visiting individuals outside of their immediate family, eating indoors, and generally engaging in the kind of behavior which most experts have advised be outright cancelled this year.

Given this expectation, there is no reason to believe that the local covid-19 numbers will decrease dramatically in the next month, especially given the past behavior by some members of the community. So what does this have to do with schools? The current size of an in-person classroom in the Waunakee Community School District ranges from about 11 to 14 (including teacher) in the current hybrid model. Given the viral spread and the risk mitigation factors put into place, at the time of the decision points facing the district in August and October it was determined that this was an acceptable risk.

The local virus levels have nearly quadrupled. And we’re heading into the worst possible holiday for increasing these levels.

Personally speaking, my family will not be travelling. For the opening of the gun-deer season, I’ll be staying in a tent to avoid even the slightest risk of exposing elderly family members. We will not be seeing family members in-person for Thanksgiving. We encourage all other families to do the same. The line has to be said – that in order to ensure that everyone is able to celebrate Christmas, we need to sacrifice Thanksgiving this year. My family will not be sending our children to in-person class from November 30th to December 10th. I encourage all families to not send their children to school if they are travelling, seeing any family, or otherwise increasing your level of exposure over the holiday weekend.

Everyone is entitled to take their own risks with their own health. There is no such entitlement to take risks with anyone else’s health without their consent. We have to come together as a community and decide that we are mature enough to not take risks with our school district staff. When I brought up the idea of a brief planned shift into virtual to the Waunakee BOE, the response was tepid. This is understandable. Shifting back and forth from in-person to virtual would be a tremendous challenge. We are then left with only one choice to keep each other safe:

Waunakee, Westport and Friends: Don’t “Get out and try”. You need to stay the hell at home.

Do it voluntarily because you care about your child’s teachers, and their school nurse. Do it because you care as much about the person working behind the counter at Kwik Trip as you do about yourself. Save the money on the trip or the fancy dinner and donate the difference to the Waunakee Neighborhood Connection. Be the community that we like to say we are.

The school district has excellent risk mitigation in place to prevent viral transmission in school. To be clear: I don’t have any concern that any staff member or student is at any level of significant risk in our K-4 school classrooms (with spec. ed. being a notable and potential exception). However, our policies also mandate a relatively strict level of exclusion if staff or students are exposed to individuals who are found to be covid-19 positive.

If we discover that a child or staff member was positive and if the staff member could not confirm they were not exposed, that staff member would have to be quarantined for 14 days. All students that were exposed would have to quarantine for 14 days. The point is that we need to protect our staff not simply from covid-19, but from the possibility of mere exposure to it. We can avoid a rushed, haphazard closure and “flip” to virtual at the last second by making a smart, planned transfer to virtual for a short period of time.

St. John the Baptist’s parish school has made the decision to shut it down from Thanksgiving to January.

Little Strokes, the swimming academy in Waunakee, has made the decision to shut it down from Thanksgiving to late-January.

We might have to shut it down, if for no other reason than to proactively protect our staff from exposure during literally the worst time of year. It we plan to shut it down for a brief period in early December, we could well prevent having to shut it down for much longer, in a less measured, planned and coherent manner. If anyone wants to avoid this, you can contribute by being self-less this holiday season.

In the spirit of unplanned and occassionally incoherent, I close with the Godfather of Grunge and his always timely take.

In the face of failures to confront a refusal to follow local health orders and spiking covid-19 numbers, it is not the right time to force our schools to bear the in-person burden of thousands of more students.

Every now and again, a work of art can fit a moment in time in such a precise manner that it’s difficult to imagine that it was written for anything else but the situation you find yourself in. I’ve been a long-time fan of Pearl Jam, specifically when it comes to the band’s ability to fashion evergreen lyrics that can function as a cultural artifact (Pearl Jam is the only band to have survived the grunge scene of the 1990s) as well as appear prophetic (1992’s “Jeremy” covered child abuse and school violence before the nation paid attention to regular school shootings, 2006’s “Inside Job” functions as a metaphor for a collapsing individual against an impending economic collapse years before the 2008-09 recession and mental health crisises, etc.).

“Sideways talk poisoning our thoughts… everyone walks and it’s no one’s fault…”

The lead track off Pearl Jam’s 2020 album “Who Ever Said” fits our community in this stunning manner. The line “Living forwards in a backwards town…” could probably have been written about a thousand different small towns in America, but it fits our community perfectly.

From the outset, I’ve openly noted throughout my time on the Waunakee Board of Education that this community epitomizes “Midwest nice”. Which unfortunately ends up translating to “sometimes not particularly nice” to outsiders. It certainly can be one of most passive aggressive places I’ve ever lived. From the day I started working at Donna Kuehn’s law firm downtown in 2010, I’ve been asked “Are you related to anyone from the Village?” more times than I can remember. AndWhen I moved to Westport in 2013, the person we purchased our house from told several neighbors I was a “jew who was just going to flip the house”. I’ve been told several times that I shouldn’t even bother to start a business here unless I joined the Chamber of Commerce and received their blessing (I can’t begin to even know what that means). I’ve been called a communist, a N***** lover, and “a Donald Trump lover” with “blood on [my] hands” for sending kids back to school. Among other pleasantries.

So maybe it’s not all that passive.

Regardless, “sideways talk” is not surprising. It is exactly how I would describe a community that is educated and intelligent enough to understand its own relative privilege in the world while being unable to confront its role in a rapidly changing Dane County. This community is full of good people; That doesn’t mean it was prepared for the challenges it faces today. In other words, I think we understand problems quickly, but we fight against the better angels of our nature. From the day I set foot on the Board, both the district Superintendent Randy Guttenburg and then-President Joan Ensign told me that the biggest issue facing the WCSD would be one thing: change.

“One bad ear and one eye blind
It takes a village, but don’t take mine
Living forwards in a backwards town

The covid-19 pandemic has forced change on our community at a break-neck pace. Given the area’s reluctance to change quickly, this has not come without pain. I’ve heard from countless individuals over the last eight months that they cannot wait to leave Waunakee. Some people in the community have said they are tiring of the entitlement, the petty provicialism, and the in/out exclusivity makes a mockery of the well-intentioned “be kind” mantra that you hear so often. One example (out of many) that was related to me came from a colleague who has asked to remain nameless, but consented to me sharing her story. When she suggested that a group of women in business not choose a packed local wine bar for a group meeting, she was told to “stop being such a coward”. She was later asked to no longer attend group meetings. Indeed, choosing to not drink indoors during an airborne pandemic is considered by some to be a sign of weakness. Indeed, the commandment to “BE KIND” can be less of a gentle suggestion, and more of an esoteric way of saying “SHUT UP.”

“Home is where… the broken heart is…. Home is where… every scar is….”

When the Waunakee Community School District’s BOE voted on October 5, 2020 to confirm its plan to return 3rd and 4th grade students to in-person hybrid school, it did so with effectively the following understanding:

1. Students in 4K to 4th grade are effectively “cohorted”. This means that small groups (of approximately 10-12 students) would only be grouped together at any given time. The purpose of the small groups is to limit the possible spread of covid-19 to larger groups, and would thus allow the district to have classes flip into quarantine status to avoid exposing the school or district as a whole. Since kids up to around 5th or 6th grade stay in the same groups with each other, this was easily doable.

2. Students would NOT participate in specials in person. This means that subjects like gym, art and music. This protects our non-classroom staff from being exposed to any positive cases among students, which would deprive ALL students of teachers in those specials. This really only works at the K-6 level, mind you.

3. Students at this grade tend to have fewer symptoms of covid-19 and appear to not fall as ill as older patients (which I won’t go into detail on because it is beyond my expertise). Further, they are more easily controlled. In short, it’s a bit easier to enforce contact and rules for kids at this age than it might be for teenagers and high schoolers.

Today, we have to decide when older kids get to go back to school in person. I want them to go back as much as anyone. But how can we do this when the real support our teachers need is so fleeting? Parents have sent me dozens of emails demanding a change in Wednesday no-class schedules. Why has no one bothered to ask the teachers why Wednesdays are so important? (Spoiler alert – they help teachers provide a quality educational product). How can kids go back when their desires for normalcy have led to repeated reports of parties, gatherings, meetings and widespread non-compliance with legal health orders? How can we countenance sending high school students back to in-person school when they already are the most covid-infected demographic in the school district while in near 100% virtual learning, while some of them already are openly ignoring the rules we would have them follow when back in school?

“Our freedoms fraught with danger being circumscribed… A life cut short and circumcised….”

Today, the BOE plans to vote on a return to in-person schooling for 5-6 (intermediate), 7-8 (middle) and 9-12 (high school). These groups are not at all alike. Return to in-person plans have been posted by the school district and need not be re-shared here. Instead of detailing the many issues with these plans, I feel obligated to openly acknowledge the great efforts made by district staff to provide a high quality education to all students while they learn virtually. This page will post stories of these efforts over the next week. The stories have one thing in common: the school district is populated with compassionate individuals acting against their own self-interests to better their community.

Because that is what teachers do.

I find it necessary to rebuke some of the criticism that school district staff has received and return fire on those that are not doing what is needed to end this pandemic and be the community that we all like to pretend we live in. If we’re interested in freedom and choice for our students, we need to come together as a community and make the decision to call out those who put all of our health at risk.

“You used to let it go and let it float away… You don’t get to speak with twice as much to say.”

Many of the same people who are most critical of the district openly refuse to criticize those who flout public health orders. What message does that send to the teachers who are expected to start working with our kids in person? Since the onset of this pandemic, most teachers are doing what is essentially twice the amount of work, reworking their lessons, learning new electronic teaching methods, and to be doing it without any of the intrinsic value they may have previously derived from their profession. There are no hugs. No high fives. No apples left on their desks. They’re struggling on towards an uncertain future for a paycheck and the occassional thank you. They have done all this, largely without complaint, in the face of the following:

1. Increased risk to their own physical safety;
2. Increased risk to the physical safety of their family members;
3. Increased stress and anxiety at the possibility of harming their students accidentally through virus exposure;
4. A lack of support, both from some in the community, as well as ignorant comments made by most everyone, up to an including BOE members (I include myself in this and consider myself guilty as charged);
5. A decreased level of social support, from the loss of contact with colleagues, loss of in-person professional development, to the loss of day to day interactions with friends and family that would otherwise inure a staff member from some of the normal stresses of day to day life;
6. Zero increase in compensation beyond cost-of-living adjustments.

When the school district voted to return K-4 to school in person on August 3, 2020, the 7 day case average of new positive covid-19 cases in Dane County was approximately 45.

On October 5, 2020 the rate was nearly 110.

Today, the case rate is nearly 300.

If we were uncomfortable with going back in person in August – how do we feel about going back now?

“Room to tomb, cradle to grave

All the answers will be found

In the mistakes that we have made…”

In spite of these objective facts, those advocating for a return to school have not adjusted their expectations with the changing reality of this pandemic. This point cannot be overemphasized, that in the face of enhanced risk, the advocacy to increase in-person contact has actually increased dramatically. The demand for a return picked a start date of December 1, 2020. In short – this goal is unrealistic, dangerous to the grades that have already returned in person, risk the educational well-being of the students that would be set to return, and ignores the fiscal, psychological and structural consequences on the district – all in favor of a plan that is well-intentioned but lacking in the full rigor we’re hoping for. While I feel the district is well-suited to keep staff and students safe, the level of community spread of covid-19 that we are seeing may have expanded beyond the district’s ability to mitigate these risks. That may change in the coming weeks, but now is not the time to tempt fate.

I raise these issues now because it has become abundantly clear that our community is not pulling in the same direction. I’ve received written confirmation that local law enforcement is not enforcing public health orders in any meaningful way. This is not the fault of law enforcement. Waunakee has passed nothing in support of local health efforts or covid-19 remediation. When members of a local Facebook page criticized a local restaurant for allegedly sending employees in to work while sick with covid-19 and failing to inform consumers, the local Chamber of Commerce openly attacked… the Facebook page, calling it a “vile place”. This being the same Chamber that pushed a resolution earlier this year to support F35s in Madison. Yes – we can pass a resolution to support noise pollution that disrupts the lives of the poor people living off Sherman Avenue and Northport Drive (how’s that for being a good neighbor?). But advocate for sensible local rules to both help business and keep them honest? This is the same area that passed virtual bans on Air B&B’s only a month or so after one homeowner received a modicum of complaints. As a reminder – none of the local municipalities have passed anything to directly battle covid-19 (not counting Madison or Middleton). Not a stimulus to help local laid-off workers. Not even a resolution to advise the community to stay home and look out for one another. Not even an ordinance to prevent open violations of public health orders.

Forgive me, but selfish, dangerous behavior that spreads a deadly virus is far more vile than any Facebook page. Governmental inaction deserves criticism; not a harmless Facebook page.

In the face of the abject local failures to confront those who refuse to follow health orders in the best interests of the community, now is not the time to force our schools to bear the additional burden of thousands of more students in person. If virus numbers had gone down at all in the last two months, I would likely not feel this way. But amongst repeated reports of packed bars and supper clubs and other establishements up and down Main Street, the best the community has offered to battle covid-19 is a five-figure advertisement deal to “Get Out And Try” Waunakee and hundreds of thousands in TIF money to companies that don’t need it.

If this is the #waunakeeway, we should be embarasssed. We can do better.

I love our community. I wouldn’t criticize it if I didn’t care. But now is not the time to get out and try anything. It’s time for many of us to stay the hell at home.

In short, if you are reading this and you care about getting our community to a safer place, and if you want all our students to get back to school as soon as possible, I implore you to do the following:

1) Email, call and write to your Town and Village Board trustees and demand that they pass a local ordinance to enforce public health orders and sanction individuals and establishments that are violating the legal county health orders.

2) Tell the Waunakee Village Board to stop approving cash giveaways like the Octopi TIF amendment when local businesses are suffering. Stop spending on advertising. Directly assist local workers who have been negatively impacted by the covid pandemic. Make this assistance contingent on following health orders and directly helping the people who have been laid off or are struggling to make ends meet, unlike the Rally Around Waunakee cash transfers (another Chamber of Commerce venture) that funnelled donations from sports boosters directly to business owners without any significant requirements or disclosures.

3) Stop doing non-essential activities. Cancel your Thanksgiving plans. Get take-out from a local place and make a donation to the Waunakee Neighborhood Connection.

Waunakee School Board

Joel Lewis – Westport/Middleton/Madison

Over the course of the last three months, I consider myself lucky to have gotten the opportunity to know Joel as a passionate, engaged leader in our community. He is incredibly eloquent, energetic and profoundly interested in helping lead the Waunakee Community School District (WCSD). He has been endorsed by numerous letters to the Waunakee Tribune, Madison 365, and has been endorsed by the Dane County Democratic Party and the South Central Federation of Labor. He is a union member himself and strongly supports worker rights, as well as staff responsibilities to maintain strong fiscal management at a district level.

In an ideal world, both Joel and the incumbent, Ms. Joan Ensign, could represent our community on the Board of Education. They are both qualified and exceptionally ethical. In the future, should the Board expand to nine seats to account for any over-representation of small municipalities on the BOE (a subject I intend to raise this year), both candidates would be excellent choices. Unfortunately, the community is faced with a difficult decision of picking one.

Both candidates are a fine choice for WCSD voters. I personally voted for Joel Lewis.

Joel is invested in our community and actually wants to involve all stakeholders in decision-making in the district. Above all else, Joel is aggressively in favor of improving communication that comes out of the district.

I made the final decision to vote for Joel following a clarifying moment between the candidates over support for Waunakee teachers. During the Waunakee Teachers Association forum, Ms. Ensign commented that “I am so proud of our district, because I think you’d be treated exactly the same with or without the union.”

I respectfully disagree. The history of the labor movement and the struggle between labor and capital disagrees with that statement. While it is true that WCSD did not precisely screw over the teachers following the passage of Act 10, to suggest that any labor group would be treated as well without organizing is wrong. Organized labor never obtains better treatment from the bosses by sacrificing solidarity.

Joan deserves high praise for her lifetime of dedication to the community and the district. She has lead the district as Board President for years. However, a dearth of communication from the district’s elected leadership merits a different approach. Joan’s leadership is almost universally behind the scenes. Above all else, we are public elected officials. It’s not our job to work in the shadows, despite how easy it might be to remain largely anonymous. We answer to the public.

In the vein of being answerable to the public, I am brought back to the fall of 2018. I’d been on the Board of Education for a couple months when a controversy erupted. An athlete was accused of making horrible racial slurs to a black athlete. Predictably, the story made its way onto Facebook and a social media mob began to spiral out of control. This controversy grew unchecked due to zero public response from our district. In such a void, I communicated that the district was in fact investigating the accusation. I publicly wrote the truth: that our administration had taken the aggressive step of meeting with the accuser, his parents, his school district, and the accused player from Waunakee, all within mere days. In summary, our entire administration, from Coach Rice, to AD Aaron May, to our high school principals were all highly professional, empathetic and compassionate. They did exactly what they should do. My open communication of what our administration was doing was well-received and the social media mob effectively dispersed.

However, I was soon admonished (in private) for having communicated to the public, which had been limited to my disclosure that an allegation had been made (which was already quite public) and that the district was investigating (which was not). I was told that in the face of issues like this, that “we should be silent.”

In the nearly two years that have since passed, I have been unable to come up with a justification for “staying silent” in the face of what began as a credible allegation that a student-athlete repeatedly called another child a n****r on the playing field. I’m well aware of reports of this continuing to happen even today within the halls of our own school buildings. Hundreds of people were out there calling us a community of racists, spoiled rich kids, deriding the Village of “Whiteakee” and far worse. It merited an immediate response.

Not suprisingly, I’ve never legitimately experienced the pain of racial animus, nor the fear that the color of my skin would put me at greater risk of being harmed. I generally don’t have to worry that my children will be abused or attacked merely on the basis of the amount of melanin in their skin or the texture of their hair. Given that, staying silent when in a position of power is a moral failing.

When recalling this incident, I am reminded of Dr. King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”, in which he wrote that he had “almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not… the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice.”

I have never previously shared this story in public, but I share it now because the backlash I received to merely talking about an allegation of racial disharmony showed that we live in a state of what Dr. King called “a negative peace”. I am devoted to justice and equity for all within our district. Given that, this race provides a clear choice.

Brian Hoefer – Waunakee

Mr. Hoefer is unopposed to fill Ms. Julie Waner’s soon-to-be former seat representing Waunakee in the WCSD. He is highly qualified, well-spoken, and excited to serve. Were he actually in a competitive race, he would deserve a far more in-depth endorsement. However, since he is virtually guaranteed to win, I can only say I am excited to work with him, and that he will have difficult shoes to fill.

Julie Waner has been an insightful and impactful member of the Board, and she is owed a great deal of gratitude by the community. I encourage anyone reading this to contact Julie and thank her for the thousands of hours she put into her position over the last decade. WCSD is better off having had Julie Waner in public office.

Waunakee Village Board

Robert McPherson

Above all else, Robert is profoundly ethical and thoughtful. He researches the issues and prepares excessively. One need look no further than his answer (linked above) on TIF policy in Waunakee. In light of this level of professionalism and expertise that Waunakee voters are getting the chance to pick on April 7th, it’s important to compare him to another option.

This response is effectively disqualifying. It is a basic question over a multi-million dollar issue that will affect every resident in Waunakee for decades. Simply put – you cannot have an elected official who cannot answer this question.

The Village Board makes million dollar decisions on a regular basis. It creates policies and ordinances that affect the lives of everyone who lives, eats, works or plays in the Village. There is no candidate better qualified to represent everyone in the community than Mr. McPherson. He’s probably more qualified than we’re likely to get for some time, and the possibility that he could actually lose gives me great concern about the level of citizen engagement in local democracy.

As to the other candidates, Joe Zitzelsberger is a charming and affable individual who has been responsive to my concerns and took the time to meet with me and discuss issues in the Village. He deserves support.

Bill Ranum is a well-liked, local leader in health care who merits consideration, especially in light of the recent public health crisis.

Nila Frye’s longstanding dedication to the community and her willingness to engage the public in communication about decision-making is admirable, making her deserving of your vote as well.

Dane County Board

Tim Kiefer

I have already previously endorsed Tim, noting that “I’ve known Tim for several years and have a great deal of respect for him as a fellow lawyer, colleague and representative.  He is responsive to constituent concerns and is an ethical and compassionate leader in the community.” He deserves another term on the County Board.

This spring, the power is in your hands. So after you wash them, cast your vote for Joel Lewis, Brian Hoefer, Robert McPherson, Tim Kiefer, and Nila/Joe/Bill.