“If at first you don’t succeed, try again. And again. And again. And again. And then probably again.”

Wayne Gretzky, probably

The following post is the first of several planned articles regarding the recent election in the Waunakee/Westport area, and is a revised version of a post I made one year ago on April 4, 2022.

On April 4, 2023, Robert was elected to the Waunakee Village Board with 2,437 votes, by a healthy margin of over 2.5%

I asked Robert for a more recent photo to use in this post, and this is what the guy sent me, with the simple message “Behold. The face of scary change in Waunakee.”

It should be clear at this point for anyone who is paying attention that qualifications and competency can be irrelevant when it comes being elected to any local office. No reasonable person thought that the top vote getter in 2020 was qualified through any instrinic factor of merit. I’ve told many people that I had many reasons for not bothering to run for the School Board again in 2021. The number one reason was seeing the proof in 2020 that actually being good at the job and being remotely competent was unnecessary to getting elected. So I got to spend the rest of my term being honest and unafraid of displeasing any of the people who wield influence in Waunakee.

I knew that doing this would make me increasingly unlikely to be re-elected, and in my selfishness, in my cowardice, I prefered to have the freedom to be myself and to simply walk away, lest I fight for the position and see myself lose.

Robert McPherson was a loser.

Robert has now run for Village Board five times. In dating terms, 2022 was the place where the phrase “They’re just not that into you” came into my mind. Robert would not simply take losing as a definitive answer. “It’s not about winning” Robert told me over messages in April 2022. “It’s about keeping the change conversation going.” I asked him why he endorsed one of the other candidates, Angie Ramos, for the Board. “Because she brings a different voice. She’s not just another one of the candidates who will let the local power players do whatever they want. I would probably be trying harder to get elected if she wasn’t there.”

Now-outgoing Village President Chris Zellner publicly attacked Robert in 2021 in a Village Board meeting, apparently stating that he was “afraid” of a person like Robert being elected. Two years later, I still don’t know what Chris meant by that. I don’t know if he was referring to Robert that way because he doesn’t toe the party line, doesn’t act like a cheerleader for the community, or something else. Robert has been the target of anti-semitism, as have I. Chris never put Robert on any local committees, despite Robert being an expert when it comes to local financing, banking, and real estate regulations. A uniquely qualified person never put on committees that often beg for volunteers? Odd choice, that.

One powerful village committee has even included an individual who has in writing, repeated the insidious lie about Village employees at the Waunakee Library. Yet, I have been told by multiple elected officials in Waunakee that Village officials chose to admonish those who recently defended the Village library, but apparently not those who openly repeated lies about it.

I shouldn’t put too fine of a point on this: This person is currently an appointed official for the Village of Waunakee, replying directly to a candidate for office and current Village Board member (Nila Frye). In writing, in the last week, he repeated the claim above, which originates from an anonymous blog (Dane Undivided) titled “Grooming Kids at the Waunakee Library“

So in short, Robert couldn’t get appointed to anything. Yet a person who would repeat a defamatory attack on the Village children’s librarian about grooming children did!

“Doing the right thing isn’t always popular, and I’m perfectly comfortable with being disliked, so long as I’m getting that hate in response to taking a moral stance.” Robert told me last year.

I will never live in Waunakee, so I’m never going to get to vote for him. Regardless if you agree with his politics, I said in 2022 that Robert is still worth your vote. He didn’t get enough then, but it didn’t stop him from being involved, and on April 4, 2023, he was succesful.

I said last year that Robert would keep losing… for a good cause. Now that he’s finally won, he’ll have the opportunity to use his win to do some good.

Waunakee School District suggests $175,000,000 price tag for November 2022 Building Referendum

_{NOTE – This article was edited on 8/6/22 to reflect the now $175 million price tag, as currently proposed.}

As I wrote in March and April, I have written with increasing alarm regarding what appears to be active disinformation of the public over a future referendum in the Waunakee Community School District.

I cannot express how much I wish I had been wrong.

On June 27, 2022, the Board agreed to a general referendum plan that will request at least $175 Million from taxpayers for the construction of a new Middle School (~$100M) and a new Elementary School (~$63M) and an additional $12M in other projects.

_{*** In full disclosure, this referendum planning started when I was on the BOE, as I was one voting member in favor of starting referendum planning in 2019, extending throughout 2020. So in some small way, I bear some responsibility for this monumental absurdity. ***}

The price tag for the same referendum projects as recently as February 2020 was literally $62,000,000 lower. Yes, you read that correctly. The WCSD BOE waited two years and the same projects (already needed) from 2020 are now claimed to cost $62,000,000 more.

And as I noted, a majority of the current Board of Education voted to delay referendum planning in 2020, without sufficient explanation, only to have costs spike dramatically in the intervening two years.

I am directly referring to Joan Ensign, Mark Hetzel, Judith Engebretson and Jack Heinemann.

Brian Hoefer played effectively no part in that decision. Ted Frey replaced me in 2021, and Katie Dotzler was elected in 2022, both playing no part in the decision to delay. I am hardly a fan of Mr. Frey or Ms. Dotzler, but they certainly bear no responsibility for the 2020 delay.

Will the Board or district respond to questions about how its decision to delay will cost taxpayers $62 million dollars?

This is not $62 million dollars that needed to be spent on building. That money could have funded dramatic increases in staff salaries, special education funding, giving benefits to para-professionals, decreasing health care and dental costs for employees, providing additional 4K to young families, lowering class sizes, expanding transportation services, staff training, etc. I could go on for hours about what it could have been better spent on.

Or as my more conservative friends might suggest, the district need not even take that $62 million from taxpayers at all.

What is most appalling about the BOE’s current pitch is that its own push-poll utilized only two months ago to justify the district’s desire to abandon downtown Waunakee and move the downtown elementary school (Heritage) next to new developments is already being ignored. The survey numbers, which I argued at the time used completely specious numbers, has already been abandoned by the district.

The following image is a screenshot from the District’s community survey in April 2022, purporting the planned costs for middle school options. Predictably, the community overwhelmingly picked the option that cost a proposed $88M when presented in contrast to $99.7M.

Last night, however, the Board accepted that building a new middle school “on the current Heritage site” will cost a predicted “$99.9 Million”. [Edit Note – this new MS will now cost over $100M] This renders any responses they received on their initial survey as utterly meaningless.

In short, the community was given the expectation of an option for $88 million, and is now being given a +$100 million price tag anyway, at a site that was preferential for its proposed lower price tag.

I am an ardent supporter of public schools. They are perhaps the greatest American invention and they are certainly the most important part of our community. I am personally extremely liberal and have never opposed a single public education referendum I have had the opportunity to vote for in my adult life.

I will urge all community members of good conscience, fiscal responsibility, and prudent management to send a message that poor planning, dishonesty, and farcical attempts at manipulating the public have no place in our community. The district need only be honest with its plan, stick to it, and do what is in the best interests of everyone in the community.

I kept my name plate from my time on the Board. It reads, as you can see.

Has the district succeedeed here on any of these three?

This referendum should fail.

Waunakee Community School District to consider religious advertising in school district facilities.

UPDATE 5/10/22 – WCSD Board of Education adopts policy prohibiting any religious organization from advertising in schools.

The Waunakee CSD Board will be meeting tonight, and on their agenda is the oh-so-sexy topic of advertising requests! This year however should be slightly more exciting.

North Ridge Church and the Waunakee Area Satanic Temple have both submitted designs and the required donation to the current advertising drive.

As many of you may be aware, the US Supreme Court recently held in Shurtleff v. City of Boston that because a program did not express government speech, the refusal to let a religious group participate violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

In short, if the school district is opening the door to religious advertising in the schools, it seems inevitable that our community will be hearing from all ranges of churches, from those that advocate on behalf of freedom, justice and compassion, to those that advocate for a medieval view towards women and the inerrancy of holy books.

Freedom, for good or ill.

UPDATE

Waunakee Community School District proposes 4.7% wage increase to district staff, highest amount allowed by law.

Given that the local media generally doesn’t cover issues of note until after they’ve already happened, I thought it notable to point out that the school district is actually proposing a 4.7% wage increase to district staff. I was pleasantly surprised!

Why is this notable? It’s the maximum amount allowable by Wisconsin law. This law prevents districts from increasing primary staff compensation beyond the rate of inflation, as set by the Consumer Price Index. It shouldn’t be considered a given that the Board will always offer the maximum allowed. If conservatives on the Board of Education somehow obtain a majority, district staff may not see their salaries increase by the maximum amount allowed by law and effectively receive a de facto wage cut. It is no longer clear that the Board of Education in Waunakee is controlled by progressive, pro-public education voices.

I have often written of the fact that the WCSD actually pays its staff below the county average, despite being the most affluent suburban school district in a 100 mile radius. To be blunt, at the rate we’re going, no new staff member could afford to independently live in the community without marrying or prior independent wealth, much less providing for a family as a sole income earner or as a single parent.

It is unclear if this 4.7% proposal covers anyone other than units represented by the WTA (Waunakee Teacher Association). This again means that the most difficult (yet important) posititions to fill may receive no raises, including some para-professionals, custodial staff, administrative positions, etc.

If you support our district staff, you should email the BOE and let them know.

Likewise, if you don’t support staff raises, you should also let the BOE know. Preferably in writing.

Community members are now receiving information from the district’s contract agency, School Perceptions, to elicit “community feedback” through what purports itself as a survey.

In truth, the survey is actually an effort to engage in push-polling: providing biased information within the context of a survey aimed at generating specific responses

In full disclosure, I want the best for the school district. I want a referendum to pass that properly funds a new middle school, a dramatic rehaul of Heritage Elementary, and most importantantly, funds proper pay increases for district staff. However, I anticipate that the referendums will fail.

In short – this referendum started out badly. As I wrote last month, the district has probably wasted $20-$40M by waiting 2 years on this referendum. The only opposition to this wait is gone from the Board of Education (Dave Boetcher and myself). The stated reason for delaying at the time was the covid pandemic. That argument made no sense then and it makes no sense now. Madison Metro passed a huge referendum that fall. Racine passed a billion (with a B) dollar referendum that fall. There was no risk to that referendum failing, and the need for the referendum was known. In short – the district will cost local taxpayers $20-$40M extra in additional spending by waiting two years for no good reason.

They aren’t sharing THAT detail in this “survey”.

This recent “survey” is what was delayed in 2020. And despite a delay of two years, I’m perplexed at how transparently bad it is. Any data the district receives through the “survey” is likely worthless, as the answers are based on flawed data that is offered before the survey questions are even asked. From the outset, the district has chosen questionable information to share before questions are answered.

In short, the district is correct in that the student population will (likely) grow significantly in the next decade. However, what is concerning is the pitch that “The middle school has a capacity of 663 students” which does not include the “portables” (which is a nice way of saying trailers).

Despite repeated questions from BOE members from 2019 to present, the district has not identified what the original “capacity” of the current middle school was. While it may be said to be able to house 663 students, I toured the building in 2018 upon being elected, and the lack of space was already obvious. There is no way that building was designed to a capacity of 663.

The building’s former principal showed me closet and storage areas which had been converted to classroom space. Hallways into storage had been converted into make-shift coffee break locations. Special education classrooms were in windowless hovels not designed for regular habitation, much less for safe and effective learning environments for the most challenging learners. I have worked with dozens of children who have attended the middle school.

Hardly the modern learning environment that an affluent school district is going for. To conclude, the district obviously needs a new Middle School. It has needed a new Middle School for over +5 years, and the rate the district is going and how poorly it is pitching the idea, it might not have one until 2025, if at all.

However, these are the “Pathways” proposed:

The district has not explained the claimed price tag of “$99.7 million” for a new middle school, and has therefore has built this misleading pitch based on false presumptions:

1. The middle school must have adjacent athletic fields.
2. The middle school will not fit on land the district owns near the Intermediate School.
3. The middle school will not fit on land the district owns on Woodland Drive (south).

The district has declined to explain why the 24 acres it already owns on Woodland Drive is insufficient. More on that absurdity later. The district has not explained why its own previous plan for building the new Middle School directly next to the new Intermediate School is now no longer feasible. If the district is asking voters to trust its planning, why is it hiding the fact that the “plan” as pitched in 2014 has already been tossed out the window? Up until 2020, the plan to put the new Middle School next to the Intermediate School remained in place.

So what changed?

For starters – growth in Waunakee has changed. Plans to build out housing developments around the Intermediate School are much further along. It certainly couldn’t hurt home sales in that area if there was a brand new elementary school within walking distance. And there is simply no money to be made for developers in building a new Elementary school in “Old Waunakee” downtown on Heritage’s current site.

When I was on the Board of Education, the price tags were far smaller:

At the time of selecting Vogel Brothers (general contractor) and EUA (design/architecture), the numbers were far different, and the district had continued to advocate for placing the new middle school next to the Intermediate School (which had been the plan since 2013-ish). As you can see, the proposed new school is literally drawn next to the intermediate school.

So how did a $67M middle school for 800 kids on a site the district already owned (and planned on using up until 2020-21) turn into $100,000,000 for a 900 student school on new land in under 2 years?

How is it possible that the district has mismanaged a plan so spectacularly?

The Middleton-Cross Plains School District had its own construction challenge 7 years ago. Kromrey Middle School in Middleton was aging and needed replacement to increase space for growing enrollment. The district passed a referendum and it was then built for… $44 million. It is located on a 13.1 acre parcel (not 40), which includes a full turf field, a forest, ample parking, and currently enrolls about 1200 students, with space for more.

Here’s the ugly truth: The district doesn’t need new land for a school. It wants land for a new school, despite the fact it literally owns two parcels for such a new school.

I think the district wants the responses to its “survey” to conclude that it makes more sense to just move Heritage and build a new middle school downtown. After all – why spent an extra $11M just to have the Middle School go somewhere else? This survey can then be used to justify depriving the downtown of a local elementary school.

The idea that the district needs to move Heritage, taking away the downtown’s local public elementary school, in order to save $11 million is a simple, elegant lie.

Robert McPherson Runs for Village Board for the 4th time.

Tomorrow’s Headline: 3 people other than Robert McPherson elected to Village Board.

It should be clear at this point for anyone who is paying attention that qualifications and competency are irrelevant when it comes being elected to any local office. No reasonable person thought that the top vote getter in 2020 was qualified through any instrinic factor to be elected as a Waunakee Village Board trustee.

I’ve told many people that I had many reasons for not bothering to run for the School Board again in 2021. The number one reason was seeing the proof in 2020 that actually being good at the job and being remotely competent was unnecessary to getting elected. So I got to spend the rest of my term being honest and unafraid of displeasing any of the people who wield influence in Waunakee.

Spoiler alert – It made some people angry.

When I was elected to the WCSD Board of Education in 2018. I wasn’t qualified either. I was just a local resident who ran as an uncontested write-in and talked my way into Peter Lindblad doing a profile of me in the Tribune to get enough name recognition to get enough votes to win the write-in campaign. I spent about $15 on Facebook ads. I didn’t even know that BOE members got paid!

Meanwhile, the 2022 school board election is rapidly approaching 5 figure spending, and everyone running says they are qualified. Dave Boetcher and Katie Dotzler have dumped money into their campaigns, while Jack Heinemann appears to be running simply on being known as “the conservative” on the Board. Katie’s supporters appear to also be pushing for Jack, largely because they just want Dave off the board.

It appears Katie has the support of local conservatives, given that her signs often appear with the Qanon-adjacent guy who is running for County Board. Her signs are hilariously out on Don Tierney’s vacant property, and one of her campaign donors (and a former Chamber of Commerce acolyte) keeps sticking her road signs on Village property. They even got around Facebook’s rules on political advertising by claiming they are a “school” organization on a campaign Facebook page.

Dave, as usual, has the backing of the local Teachers Union, veteran’s groups, the Dane Co. Democratic Party, and every former BOE member I know of. It should be obvious that of the 3 candidates for a Waunakee Board seat, Dave is not the one who uses the N-word, nor is he the candidate who says “All Lives Matter” constantly. He is not the one who recently referred to February as “colored month” and he is not the candidate who is hiding their intentions behind an absurdly false front of non-partisanship.

I don’t want to write this post about Dave, because Dave is not a loser. (EDIT – he actually now is. Oops.) Voters merely need to decide if someone who spent two years lying and undermining while talking about “collaboration” and “listening” is someone who is “qualified” to be a school board representative. Either way, this BOE race will produce a loser. And it might just be our entire community!

Robert McPherson is a loser.

Robert has run for Village Board four times. In dating terms, this is where the phrase “They’re just not that into you” comes into play. Robert will not simply take no for an answer. “It’s not about winning” Robert told me over messages this week. “It’s about keeping the change conversation going.” I asked him why he endorsed one of the other candidates, Angie Ramos, for the Board. “Because she brings a different voice. She’s not just another one of the candidates who will let the local power players do whatever they want. I would probably be trying harder to get elected if she wasn’t there.”

Chris Zellner publicly attacked Robert in 2021 and used a Village Board meeting to do it, stating that he was “afraid” of a person like Robert being elected. I still don’t know what Chris meant by that. I don’t know if he was referring to Robert that way because he doesn’t toe the party line, doesn’t act like a blithe cheerleader for the community, or because of something more insidious. Robert has been the target of anti-semitism, and Chris refuses to put Robert on any local committees, despite Robert being an expert when it comes to local financing, banking, and real estate regulations. A uniquely qualified person never put on committees that often beg for volunteers? Some Village committees have even picked non-Waunakee residents over Robert. So in short, Robert has enemies in Village Hall. Maybe that’s a good thing in an elected official. If anything, it provides a counterbalance to those who continuously fail to be honest about the hard issues in our community.

A loser like that is close to my heart. “Doing the right thing isn’t always popular, and I’m perfectly comfortable with being disliked, so long as I’m getting that hate in response to taking a moral stance.” Robert told me. “But a lot of the topics (diversity, housing, proper TIF handling) are still being discussed and some are moving forward.”

I will never live in Waunakee, so I’m never going to get to vote for him. Regardless if you agree with his politics, Robert is still worth your vote. He won’t get enough, mind you, and he’s aware of that fact.

But he’s going to keep losing (probably) for a good cause.

Waiting an additional two years for a referendum has caused proposed construction costs for the Waunakee Community School District to spike dramatically.

TL;DR – Dave Boetcher was right in 2020. WCSD should’ve had a referendum in 2020. It could have saved the district around $40,000,000. No one is explaining the numbers (probably on purpose).

If you’re told something unbelievable, you should consider not trusting it.

In February 2020, the WCSD school board heard from representatives at Vogel Brothers and EUA on referendum planning, projections and costs. At the time, the Board had decided on effectively two choices:

• Building a new Middle School (MS)
• Building a renovated or completely re-built Heritage Elementary (HE).

District administrators nor Vogel/EUA made any reference to any need to purchase additional land.

For those with short memories or new to the district, the voters passed a building referendum in November 2014 to build a new Intermediate School on purchased land on the western end of Woodland Drive, in the southwest corner of Waunakee. The district also owns at 24 acre parcel on the south-east section of Woodland Drive near Carriage Ridge.

Presumably, voters also approved this because the district directly advised that the land on Woodland west would be the site of a future Middle School. That’s what the district has been saying for almost a decade.

The western Woodland site was divided into two sections, with the eastern portion reserved for a future Middle School project. The plans for this construction have circulated through the community for 8+ years at this point, and can be seen in the image below.

However, everyone knows what happened next. March 2020 saw a nationwide shuttering of public schools. Lockdowns went into effect and the district expressly put its referendum planning on hold.

In mid 2020, the BOE held a vote to indefinitely delay referendum planning and to suspend plans to ask the community what it wanted through a survey. Two Board members voted against this decision. Myself and David Boetcher.

We both expressly said at the time that “The district will continue to need these projects, and the cost is only going to go up.” For all the fire and brimstone directed at myself and Dave for political leanings (he’s a Democrat, I am to his political “left”), if the Board had listened to us and pushed the community toward referendum in November 2020, the district could have saved upwards of $30,000,000 to $40,000,000.

Predictably, prices skyrocketed, and the cost to build has increased dramatically. These figures were approved in March 2022 for promulgation within the district prior to an expected vote in November 2022:

The district appears to have completely abandoned the perspective that building a new Middle School at the location near the Intermediate School (that it had planned for such a project for almost eight years) is even possible.

In short, in barely two years, the district has changed from suggesting that it needs $67 Million for a site it already owns, to needing nearly $100 million to build a new Middle School (anywhere but on the current Heritage Elementary site). The cost for a new Elementary school jumped over $10 million alone.

There are problematic issues in the district’s current approach. The language “a new middle school will be needed in the future” is a lie.

The district has known it has needed a new middle school since before I joined the Board in 2018. The district now has 4 classrooms in adjacent trailers hidden behind the current middle school. Special Ed teachers in the middle school have high-need children hidden away in converted closets and break rooms being used as make-shift classrooms. Teachers have smuggled coffee pots and microwaves into 2 foot-wide hallways. I saw these issues with my own two eyes: three years ago. It certainly hasn’t gotten any better.

There is no requirement that a middle school be within walking distance of the high school or athletic fields. Many urban and suburban school districts have middle schools without fields. The district also appears to be proceeding under the logic that any middle school needs to placed on a lot that is significantly larger than the 24 vacant acres it already owns.

Kromrey Middle School in Middleton is located on a 13.1 acre parcel that includes a full turf field, a forest, ample parking, and currently enrolls about 1200. The MS in Waunakee is proposed to serve around 900. Kromrey also cost only $44 million (2015).

[EDIT – An email from the District informed me that any planned MS in Waunakee would serve an increase to 900 students. The paragraph has been updated to reflect this change from 800]

In short, by waiting until 2022, the Waunakee school board is going to propose to spend literally twice as much (at a minimum, a new MS would cost $88M) to educate 300 fewer students compared to Middleton-Cross Plains.

There has yet to be any explanation from the district for why it pushed a referendum in 2014 to build an eventual Middle School next to the Intermediate School, only to abandon the idea 7-8 years later. I have yet to hear anyone in the district take any amount of responsibility for the decision to claim (without evidence) that the district needs to purchase new land to build a new Middle School. I don’t assume that the district is stupid. However, I suspect they want the community to support moving Heritage away from the downtown area, and are suggesting that it would cost an additional $10 million to keep it there and move the Middle School somewhere else is the rhetorical gambit they’ve chosen.

I have my theories for why the district appears to now be pushing for a new Elementary school be built on village boundaries. The most likely speculative-explanation is private lobbying by developers to relocate Heritage to a new site to encourage new home buyers. After all, Savannah Village was filled out by those seeking to place their children in the district’s brand new building (Arboretum).

I trust the motivations of capital, and in short – there’s no money to be made in putting a state-of-the-art elementary school in downtown Waunakee. No developer can capitalize on new home sales there. After all, the new building would likely not move houses for anyone other than existing home sellers or the developments of Bishops Bay/Terrance Wall (which currently sends students to the current Heritage).

“With poetic justice, If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?”