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.

Janesville School District "Stay the Course"

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Instead of the Janesville School district being upfront about their latest request of $70.8 million dollars in school improvements from the taxpayers, they resort to cheap political tricks, misstatements and outright deception in a promotional flyer designed to encourage a yes vote on Nov.7th.

The only board member to show any common sense about the needs of the schools is Bill Sodemann, once again. Remember, Sodemann was the only board member to suggest breaking the referendum up into several pieces so the voters could accept or reject any or all they choose. But the board decided to go for all or nothing, which I believe is a mistake. I think if they had a provision that would prohibit bringing this referendum back for three years if it fails in November would change their minds.

Sodemann brought up at least five misleading points in the pamphlet, one of them was the 28 cent-a-day cost analogy. The taxpayer may think twice when it amounts to $103 a year in addition to the regular annual hikes in property taxes. Sodemann also said the pamphlet does not mention that expanding the schools will mean adding ten new janitors with salary and benefits costing the District (taxpayer) another $500,000 a year. This would also be in addition to higher energy costs annually to air condition the schools and four new gymnasiums.

”Given that we’re less than eight weeks away (from the vote), I’m not sure if we have time to debate a brochure.,” said board member Lori Stottler. Duwayne Severson said time for debating the referendum is over, and the discord is detracting from the boards objective: to get the referendum passed.
“In the spirit of working together, let’s give it a rest,” Severson said to Sodemann.

Severson tries to pull the old, “united we stand, divided we fall” guilt trip on Sodemann. The school board doesn’t think eight weeks is a long enough time to discuss pressing issues like this? Now is the most important time to debate controversial elements of anything that pertains to the referendum. They are asking for additional taxation through misrepresentation, and Sodemann is the only one standing up requesting to make things right.

Debra Kolste also came to the referendums defense saying that the district’s debt load is low compared to other districts of similar size.

Is that supposed to be some consolation to the taxpayer? The only debt load a property tax payer is concerned with, is their own. I would offer that if the district’s debt load is low that is commendable, and we should strive to maintain that level of fiscal responsibility.

The Janesville Gazette wrote that Lake Geneva and Badger High school district voters approved borrowing for their school improvements, but the amounts were only $7 and $12 million respectively. The nearly $71 million referendum from the Janesville school board is a whopper for a town the size of Janesville.

Also in their Sound Off column, two callers related the school improvements to residential property value. I would think using the referendum effects on home values pro or con to serve as a reason for voting either way is selfish and wrong. You’re better off not voting at all and stay at home on Nov. 7th.