The crowd at tonight's candidates' forum at Madison High School, not counting candidates, was around 35 when emcee Jon Knuths called us to order. The crowd got bigger as the evening went on. When the school board candidates took the stage, we were up to maybe 45 or 50:
This picture shows the view from the candidate's chair—my chair!—as we got started. A casual glance will show you it's three pictures stitched together (in MS Paint!). A closer inspection may reveal every administrator in the Madison school system, a quorum of the school board, at least two distinguished Madison Bulldog Debate alumni (sorry, Matt and Brett, for not panning over to you guys!), and great representation from the Herman-Orland-Winfred metroplex.
KJAM broadcast the forum live on AM 1390. I eagerly await the Nielsen numbers!
I'll upload full video coverage overnight, including the stunning, up-close videos from the candidates' table during the school board candidates' portion of the program. Videos will be available on the Madville Times YouTube channel. Stay tuned for commentary tomorrow!
I hope voters listened to KJAM or listened online, because if only 50 voters showed up out of the potential thousands that should be voting next week, that is indeed a very poor turnout. I am hoping at least hundreds tuned in to listen. I couldn't be there in person, but I listened online. For me, the forum/debate helped eliminate two candidates from the list and narrowed the field down to three.
With the state that education is in right now, I cannot believe more people didn't turn out. Maybe the majority doesn't care about education anymore?!?
I was also happy to hear candidates for both the city commission and school board talked about keeping family here and how some of them had family here before, but they had moved away. The first step in addressing economic growth and keeping people in Madison is fixing education. The city commission and school board should recognize this, hopefully the electorate will as well. Let's find a way to direct more money to the school, even if that is money from city funds. Maybe we could add some meeting rooms and other community space to the remodeled school/new gym so we can have a "city events center" as part of the school. Add a stage area to the new gym/event center so we can hold non-athletic related events in this larger space. (Since the current auditorium is only suitable for small audiences and we may need to address a larger group from time to time). The school is the heart of the community and we need to let it shine. Make the new gym big enough to seat 3,000 and add extra rooms for conventions, tournaments and other big events. Make a few classrooms with collapsible walls so we can open them up for larger events. Let's have a building where we can have community art classes, toastmaster meetings, service club meetings, technology seminars, community band practice, etc. etc. etc. ---- Let's not focus only on athletics, we are bigger than that. Make the school not just a school, but the activity and social hub of our community. Maybe then, our community will "check in" and "pay attention" to our education and our school system. It needs to be the foundation of our town.
I was shocked by the comments from one candidate that we don't need to spend money on family and consumer sciences and fine arts classrooms, but we need a new gym. A well rounded education includes industrial arts, family and consumer sciences, fine arts, english, civics, debate, foreign languages, technology, etc. You can't just have math and basketball. All of us need skills for managing our homes, finances, welding and woodworking, fixing our cars, using computers, etc. I am pretty sure I don't need to be able to play basketball, but I do need to know how to cook and balance my checkbook. Cutting these classrooms would be a BIG mistake.
With that said, we also need physical education and athletic programs. I support it all. Well rounded students should have academics, arts, and sports as part of their education. It helps develop and refine our skills to become effective members of society as adults.
But a word to those that think you can cut certain programs at the benefit to others. You will only create hard feelings and divide the electorate. Let's find a way to keep all of our teachers, find a way to fund all extra-curricular activities, and find a way to fix all areas of the high school.
-AKA
Ashley, perhaps the city-school facility you have in mind is something like the Yankton Summit Center?
And after you've read about that, you've got to dish: who's in your final three?!?!
Yankton's facilities are nice, I have used them. But, we already have a community center that has fitness type stuff in it. I am thinking more about conference/meeting rooms, technology rooms, etc. -- in addition to the large gym/arena type space. -AKA
The Yankton facility includes some meeting rooms, as well as a really nice small lecture hall alongside its big theater. You're right: we don't need to replicate the athletic facilities in the Summit Center, but Yankton's facility is a good site to learn from.
Ashley, I am glad to hear that you weren't at the forum in person, because what you heard me say was taken out of context. I will be the first to admit that I am not a good public speaker and with 2 minutes to say what is in your heart is tough. Your stated I said "that we don’t need to spend money on family and consumer sciences and fine arts classrooms, but we need a new gym". My concern with the two programs is the amount of money they will cost for the amount of time they will get used. I do not want nor did I say I want to eliminate those programs. I said that "I am having a hard time spending six figures on those programs" (the culinary kitchen and the art kiln). Did you take home ec in high shcool? I didn't and I don't know many others who did, but we can all still cook, even with out that class or a state of the art culinary kitchen. I have talked to several art students and the consensus is a not having a new kiln would not deter them from taking the class. Let me say again that I do not think we need to eliminate those programs, just limit the amount of money we put into the programs. My point is that I 100% want to do this complet project, but lets look hard at what we are spending money on. Its like building or remodeling a home, first you have the contractor bid what you want, and then you start eliminating features to fit your budget.
On to the gym, I don't know where you heard that. I said if they want it that is fine, but we need to find a way to finance it with out using property taxes. Economic developement is not a responsibility of the school district. Now on the topic of economic developement, I don't think you realize what the mil levy in Lake County has done to Madison. Brookings has become the commuter town Madison should be, because the mill levy in Brookings is half of ours. When people are looking for a town to buy or build a home in Ashley, this is something they look at and it is tough to get people to move to our town. Using property taxes will only increase our already high taxes. Now I am sure you don't agree with me on this either, but your grandfather Allen was in finance, what would he say to this whole idea. It is my opinion that the credit card has ruined the American economy, because it taught us that we don't need money in our pocket to spend money. I am not even sure the term "bankruptcy" was around before the credit card. Yes everything you mentioned would be AWESOME, but we are a county of 13,000 that supports 5 schools. We are too big to be small and too small to be big. My whole idea behind running is this. I want every thing I can for my kids, but just because they are not driving brand new cars doesn't mean I don't love them. It means I am teaching them if they want something they need to find a responsible way to get it. I would love to get together with you to get you to channel your ideas into figuring out an alternative way to finance this project instead of criticizing the people who don't think like you that we should just say "The heck with it! Finance it and get it done!" There are other ways to finance it, property taxes is just the easiest.
If you would have been at the forum you would have also heard me say "What if next year the state cuts our funding another 10%, and the next year another 10%. How can we afford an opt out to keep the doors open if we have already texed everyone to the max?" Don't think this is crazy, we heard from the current commisioners that the city is in trouble with all the infastructure work that needs to be done (which means higher rates), and we know the state is in trouble and we sure as heck know the country is in trouble (to the tune of triollions of dollars). Where is our money going to come from in the future. Maybe we should spend more money on jacking up our economics and government classes, because I think we all missed some very important lessons in those classes.
Ashley, I was told not to waste my time arguing with you, but I am not that kind of person. I like to take things head on, so if you still feel you need to say something to me, lets not use the internet. Give me a call at 605-480-0883. Final statement, I support your ideas100%, but lets figure out a more mature and responsible way to do it. The ideas are out there, we just need to find them. Thanks!
{CAH: Shawn, I have a lot of respect for any candidate who will take the time to offer this kind of response. And as for those folks who told you not to, tell them "arguing" with Ashley is not a waste of time. He has a lot of good ideas. He gives a darn about public affairs. He's worth talking to, as are all voters.}
The comments to this post have been excellent. Great discussion and good arguments have been made. Shawn, I appreciate the way you think and offer viewpoints. Keep it up. My purpose in using numbers to show how a bond issue would affect this district by households was to demonstrate sensitivity as to how much money we are talking about and how it will affect you and others. That is why breaking a project down into wants versus needs is so important. What is also frustrating and I'm sure school officials will agree is that we have 11 years plus to pay on the elementary school. That annual payment takes up over half of the capital outlay levy(which is at it's maximum). There is no extra money to even consider modest annual or step by step improvements to MHS. That is why a bond issue of some amount is probably inevitable. What we should consider further is rolling the elementary school debt into one bond issue with the MHS renovation. Remembering to keep the bond issue amount modest while addressing needs rather than wants. If we want to build extra especially the consideration for a spectator gym, then private money needs to come in to fill the void.
Final comment-the existing MHS gym-Whether a new spectator gym is build or not, do not destroy the existing gym floor. The existing floor is still adequate for PE classes(classroom need) plus it is used by the adult community for volleyball and basketball in the evenings. When youth tournaments come to town, floor space is a preminum which includes the existing MHS gym floor. To address fine arts space needs, I'm certain we can a build on to the west a modest sized fine arts annex for class room use for lot less money than doing two things-build a $6 million spectator gym and tearing out a gym floor to build a two story fine arts complex.
PS--Spectator gym-I've said before and I'll say it again-we should be as a community, school district, area residents, and economic promoters considering a true events center with some kind of private/city/perhaps college/perhaps school district partnership that could hold a wide array of events including BB games, car shows, concerts, marching bands, etc. all year round. This type of facility should bring extra sales tax revenue to the city and economic dollars to the private community or did I miss something?
Shawn. I apologize if I took your comments out of context. I also do not want to argue, I think this is just a spirited debate. I did listen to the whole meeting (on KJAM). I thought I heard you say we could cut certain areas out of the plan and keep the gym. I apologize if I was mistaken. I agree it can be hard to get in front of a group and speak. I was very passionate two weeks ago when I got up and spoke. I am sure man y could hear the emotion (and nerves) in my voice. I completely understand where you are coming from there.
I agree that we need to be good stewards of the tax money that we have available. But, I also believe that the plan brought by the current school board addressed all the needs of a 21st Century Education. Students will take many different paths in life and will have unique education needs, from family and consumer sciences (Not Home-Ec), to industrial arts, vocational & technical paths, etc. etc. Everyone will not go onto higher education and these classes help give students skills in certain areas and or help them explore areas that could be strengths for them and assist them in future careers.
I do not believe the school board allowed any “luxury†items. They could have made it a 30-40 million dollar school, but chose to do it as efficiently as possible. I do not believe they were trying to create a luxury school that had unnecessary items. All of the items in the plan had a very specific purpose and related to the current curriculum delivered at MHS.
Can we trim another 2-4 million dollars? Can we cut back on the size of the gym? Can we eliminate classrooms? Yes, we can. But I don’t believe we will ever get it to a 5 million dollar price tag that some have suggested. Maybe 12-13 million dollars if you cut out certain items. But why not try to do it the right way, the first time? They took 2 years to study this issue, with professionals and this is the plan they came up with. Is there room for discussion? Absolutely!
Financing is a big issue. I agree with Charlie Johnson and many others that we do need a capital campaign, fundraising, possible a sales tax, or some other ways to pay for the costs of the remodel plan. But, if we cannot do that, I do think we can convince 60% of the voters on a plan that is 10-15 Million dollars.
I also agree with Charlie about having some of the new school area function as an Events Center, as I stated in another post here on Madville Times. We need something that can be a basketball court, a gymnastics court, indoor marching band area, concerts, car shows, trade shows, farm shows, etc. etc. Hopefully it can seat a large amount, like 3,000 with plenty of floor space and staging.
It will all help drive economic growth, even if taxes are higher. Taxes are much higher in metropolitan areas of this country, and millions of people still live there. We cannot be afraid to raise taxes, especially when we already have the lowest taxes in the nation.
Maybe we all need to get together, around a table, and hammer some of this plan out. I think addressing the school, remodeling it, and maybe going to the city and or DSU to help finance the Gym/Event center section would be a great idea. I think I have heard DSU has been looking to build a new Athletics building. Maybe if they get there new building, at that time we can use the fieldhouse gym more at that point? Who knows what the future holds there.
I believe we need to first address the budget cuts, try to keep all staff, and then move on to the school remodel/repair efforts. It is realistic that we may have more cuts by Pierre next year (with the current leadership) so we do need to look at different efforts for raising money and or use alternative taxes.
I apologize if my remarks have seemed as if I want to exclude anyone from this discussion. I just want to find the best plan that 60% or more of voters will support. I am just being a realist when I say that there are *some* large land owners and high priced property owners that will not ever vote YES to increasing their property taxes. They should be included in the discussion, but we will never be able to make everyone happy. We need a super majority of 60% to get this done.
Shawn, I admire that you are passionate about this issue and have decided to run for the board. You are committing more time and effort to fixing our schools than most of the majority that is not running or getting involved. No matter who gets elected next week, I hope we can all form a new committee to explore these options and get to work on a new plan ASAP. After all, we are all doing this for our children.
I do have to say I do like where this has all been going. Ashley, I like your idea of a sort of events center. Maybe that could be worked into the gymnasium portion. If that is done, maybe we can get some LAIC funding for economic developement, look for some grants or city funds. What I would like to see is to knock the bond amount down at least 25% (not degrading the project 25%), then look at a sales tax, see if we can knock MAYBE 10% of the project price, do some extensive research to see if we can find any grants that may fit our needs and then do some capital campaign fund raising. DSU and Dr. Knowlton has done an amazing job at that. There are plenty of other options to funding this project, I just want people to talk about it and put our heads together. I would love to see this entire project done as everyone wants, but lets try to do the least amount of harm to the property tax payers. This is the reason I am runnign for shcool board. I want to get the individuals on both sides together to figure this whole deal out. Heck, is there a research class or problem solving class that could get in on this too? What an experience that would be for any students who got involved.
I also like Charlie's idea of rolling the remaining debt of the elementary school into this deal too. We need that capital outlay money to maintain the buildings we have. I was just in the middle shcool this afternoon for my daughter's music concert and noticing all the bad ceiling tiles in the hall already. We need to keep up the maintenance of our buildings. Thanks everyone, lets keep working together!
{CAH: There are times I enjoy just sitting back and listening to other people have an intelligent conversation. This is one of them.}