Schools
Residents Make A Motion for A Raise for Muskego School Board, But Referendum Has Them Undecided
Despite a vote of confidence in board's performance, voters still unsure of merits in closing schools; Superintendent confident they have done all they could do to make their case.
Charles Dupont and Tom Nowicki had introduced a motion as citizens from the floor to raise salaries for board members by up to $700 per year and the board president’s salary by about $800 per year during Tuesday night's school board meeting at
Both were loudly voted down by participants, and Board President Jim Schaefer said it was uncomfortable for the board to comment on those motions, which they did not propose or request. Those salaries will remain at $4,073 and $4,413, respectively.
DuPont said he motioned for the increases after he finally started attending school board meetings this past year. He saw for the first time how much work board members are doing on the job, he said, and felt they deserved a raise.
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However confident he was in the board's performance, after the meeting he indicated what many voters may still be experiencing prior to the Nov. 8 referendum: uncertainty.
“I still have questions on the referendum,” Du Pont said in an interview after the meeting, referring to an upcoming November 8, 2011 voter referendum on $39 million in facilities improvements.
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He wasn't totally convinced it was necessary since Muskego Elementary and Tess Corners Elementary – two sites that would be eliminated under future plans – had some of the highest academic scores ever in district success stories shared earlier in the evening.
Still, School Supt. Dr. Joe Schroeder was confident that the district had surveyed, heard and responded to voter needs, dropping referendum costs $4 million following a voter thumbs down in November of 2010.
Schroeder firmly believed the community will “let us know if we got it right on November 8th,” when the revised referendum is held here, he said.
And he shared a quote to remind participants why the district needs to stay the course in the fourth year of a 5-year plan to become the school district of choice in Wisconsin. That quote says simply: “A vision without execution is only a dream.”