Boards Hear Numerous Statewide Concerns

Sevastopol board member Sue Todey reported on a long list of concerns for Wisconsin schools after attending the Wisconsin Association of School Boards conference. 

Those included discussions of creating non-punitive policies to help students quit smoking and vaping; a push for bilingual special education; and movements for social-inclusivity mandates for libraries and how that could lead to the removal of other materials, causing a First Amendment concern. 

Others included bills to both expand and contract the amount of tax dollars going for parochial-school vouchers; and legislation, which doesn’t seem to have much traction so far, to have universal 4-year-old kindergarten funds for all public and private preschools coming from local property taxes filtered through public schools. Sevastopol already has its own all-day 4-K programming.

At Gibraltar, board member Kari Baumann said there was heated debate over the school board association taking any position on Save Women’s Sports legislation. Board member Erick Schrier took interest in presentations on the threat of ransomware, creation of wellness programming and creating ways to help students get on track to become teachers.