Choose Severson For Janesville School Board

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As one of nearly ten thousand Janesville residents who voted against the $70.8 million school expansion and utility upgrade referendum, it became difficult to encourage anyone to vote for Dennis Vechinsky again for the school board. Vechinsky has been a dedicated and passionate member of the school board for nine years now and is a great guy, but unfortunately as board president he helped lead the way to ramrod the referendum through the board despite an objection from at least one member, Bill Sodemann.

Sodemann, a former young Democrat turned Republican (for shame) may have turned his back on the party but never turned his back on some of the fine principles of democracy he learned in his youth and thought the taxpayers should have been offered a greater voice and flexibility with a four-part referendum. Now it may be true that other candidates running for the board would have supported the one-part referendum in the face of the impending budget cuts, but nobody will ever know that for sure.

JG Excerpt:
Sodemann also said the present and previous school boards bear some of the responsibility for the funding problem.

We only can say for sure what history has recorded, and that is Dennis Vechinsky was the school board president during the referendum run-up and along with the Janesville Gazette helped keep the wraps on the multiple annual budget short-falls until the vote tallies were over. This is the status quo, it starts and stops right at the top.

If you voted “no” for the school referendum, now is perhaps your last chance to show your displeasure over the recent course of events.

Peter D. Severson however, seems to be somewhat of a dark horse, but he certainly is enthusiastic and I like his concern over the recent high expulsion rate in the district. The district set a record with 58 expulsions last year and with a social-work background, Severson would like to bring those numbers down. This is perhaps the noblest cause of all, to save even one child from making the mistake of a lifetime is worth far more than any four-court gym could offer – it is priceless.

For these reasons, he is my third choice for the Janesville school board.