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A Resident of EKW School District writes:
Dear Editor:
It is with much interest that I have been following the continuing struggle over configuration in the EKW school district. I am watching with even greater interest now that the Wilton district is moving forward with a formal effort towards detachment. I have always held the private personal wish that I could have gone 6 miles to school at Brookwood, rather than ride many miles further to Elroy. What kid wouldn't wish for a shorter bus ride each day?
Norwalk, Ontario, Wilton is a very geographically plausible district, linked by the Kickapoo River. Brookwood bus routes already run through the south-western Wilton district. When land was purchased years ago for Brookwood, it was done with the intent and purpose that Norwalk, Ontario, and Wilton would combine. It is the perfect central location between the three towns.
Those issues which led to the unification of Wilton with Elroy and Kendall are not necessarily issues anymore. The needs and best interests of all the communities involved have changed over the years. It is now a fact that EKW cannot support three separate schools. I view detachment as an opportunity for Wilton to consolidate with a closer district (Norwalk-Ontario) before being forced by economics to consolidate further away. I feel that when viewed in terms of geography and economics, detachment is a very logical decision.
The residents of Wilton have no ill wishes towards anyone, least of all their friends and neighbors in Elroy and Kendall. The figures show that Elroy and Kendall do not need Wilton to survive and prosper. In fact, without Wilton they would not have the expenditures of upgrading existing buildings or building new buildings, and they would be free to pursue having the quality of education they desire for their children.
When I first heard people talking about the issue of detachment, my first reaction was "Great!", because due to my geographic location, that is what I felt was right. Just because something felt right, however, didn't make it right. I then began studying the facts and figures. Great lengths have been taken by Wilton residents to present to the public accurate portrayals of the effects a detachment would have on EKW and NO. Hours of research, facts, and figures show that detachment could very easily turn into a positive situation for both NO and EKW.
I urge everyone to ask questions, read the available information, and make an informed decision based on facts, not just emotion. I think most will see that detachment could lead to a bright future for everyone concerned.
Sometime within the next few weeks, residents of Wilton area will be called upon by volunteers. They will be asking for signatures on a petition supporting detachment. If you have children in the Wilton area, I urge you to promote this effort. Those of you who do not have children involved, please consider giving your signature in support of those who do. In order for the detachment to be successful, the signatures of 50% or more of the eligible voters in the parcel to be detached must be collected. Then the request will be presented to the school boards. Hopefully, at that point, the board members would heed the will of the majority of the Wilton residents, and vote accordingly!
Jeann Farrar
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ANNETTE BENDER WRITES:
"It feels good to speak my mind...in this format"
Here are my opinions on configuration and numerous arguments for and
against various things I have heard. It feels good to speak my mind.
If a few more people did this in this format, maybe there wouldn't be
so much anger. Please feel free to post this on your web page or
whatever part(s) your feel would be appropriate. It's long, but I've
kept quiet for a long time.
I too voted against everything on one campus. (Notice that I didn't say Elroy?) I would have voted against a one campus plan regardless of where it was. My reasoning: I think our district is geographically big enough to justify 2 campuses. We have listened to debates and arguments; and read letters for months on end regarding this topic. The Board came to two plans they ALL agreed were worth exploring: A 3 campus plan and a 2 campus plan.
The 3 campus plan came in at over 11 million dollars. That's too rich for this district. (Personally, I'm not surprised.) I think that trying to pare down the price tag to fit within your budget is best described as "cutting off your nose to spite your face". The district is only going to be short changed by doing that. I also think that the cost savings are minimal. The Board cannot in good faith be financially responsible (I'm assuming they are trying to be) and remain basically unchanged from where we now sit.
Let's not forget that small segment of people who can only look at the previous one campus plan as the ultimate "cure-all" for the district. Nevermind that it was defeated 3 to 1 last year. People, you are beating a dead horse on that issue. To them and the Board I say, It's time to move forward.
I think one of the keys to finding an acceptable solution is COMPROMISE. Nobody wants to give up anything. yet, in order to accomplish anything in this world, compromises are necessary. Everybody makes choices and tradeoffs everyday. Which brings me to the 2 campus plan that ALL board members agreed to explore.
I feel the 2 campus plan is the closest thing to a compromise we are going to find. No, it's not the cheapest plan (that was voted down a year ago) nor is it the most expensive one either. With a 2 campus plan you're making tradeoffs that, hopefully, make the district better. Your consolidating the elementary children which is what some of the people want. The tradeoff, no one area has a "monopoly" on the school because it's a 2 campus plan. You will also see some real cost savings which is a benefit also. You're keeping a campus in 2 areas of the district which should make everyone feel they have a stake in the school. The tradeoff, one end gets the elementary kids and the other end gets the older kids. Do you see a pattern here of give and take--that's compromise. Please notice that I didn't use towns. I really think part of the solution is to stop thinking in terms of ""Elroy", "Kendall" or "Wilton" people.
Lastly, I wanted to put my 2 cents worth in regarding comments I've heard for or against any plans that have come up.
A) "If we lose our school, our town will suffer."> I've heard this from every community. A school does not make or break a town. If that's all a town has going for it, I'd be looking for a new place to live.
B) "I don't want my child to have long bus rides"> WHO DOES!?! I don't think how long your child rides the bus affects his performance at school. How many of you parents wish you had a 5-10 minute drive to work; and don't? Does your performance at work suffer because of it? What do you do? You adjust to it and live with it. Before some of you start criticizing me; I'm speaking from experience. Our family lived 2 1/2 miles from town and rode the bus for an hour one way. It didn't hurt me or my 5 brothers and sisters. If you think the long bus ride affects your child's performance; maybe you should be looking closer to home for a solution (maybe putting your child to bed earlier at night might be a good place to start)
C) "I want my child to be close to my home"> Out of everyone I've heard say this, how many of you are actually home or work 5-10 minutes away. If you do, Congratulations. I wish I did. But I think you will find you're in the minority.
D) "Putting all the elementary kids together is just too many kids in one spot.> We have declining enrollment. Just because the kids are on one site does not mean the classes will be bigger. I don't think the kids will get lost in the shuffle. I believe there will be plenty of opportunities to be creative with scheduling and classes. With modern technology; having the elementary kids together on one site greatly enhances the use of this technology. It becomes cost effective. Whereas, with more than one elementary site the cost becomes prohibitive. This will help bring the world to these kids.
Maybe we would all do well to remember: You can please some of the people most of the time, you can please most of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.
Thanks for letting me let off a little steam and bend your ear.
Annette Bender
************************************************** P> LOIS NEWMAN, MEMBER OF "THE ANSWER IS N O W" GROUP SAYS:
Hi Bill; The detachment movement forges ahead. The action has a name:
THE ANSWER IS N O W
(Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton)
Now is the time to act. The School Board cannot reach an equitable solution within financial limitations. The section detaching will solve problems for all of the district. Kendall and Elroy can maintain their schools without major building expenses and Wilton and surrounding area will have a school close by. Children will not be forced to spend hours riding a bus to reach their classroom.
The school board has spent three years, or longer, arguing geography while animosity grows within the district and between people living in the three communities. There has been resentment over various issues ever since the district was formed nearly 40 years ago. It has reached an unbearable level within the past few months. In forty years no real bond has formed making this "one district" The shouting and name calling of the past few months have only widened an already existing gap. It is time to sever the ties! It is time to concentrate on the real issues of educating the children.
Decisions made now will affect our future and the future generations of
area students. Let's do something positive toward that future NOW.
Lois Newman
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HERE IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE DETACHMENT LETTER
By Mike Bauerfiend
After the recent E-K-W school board meeting it probably seemed to most people that a solution to the configuration problem may never be found. E-K-W school board members have tried their best to come up with a viable solution that would satisfy the needs of all the people who make up the district. They deserve more than a pat on the back for their efforts. The problem is, such a solution is impossible given the current make up of the district.
There is, however, a very practical solution that the vast majority of people will support. It just requires approaching the problem with a different mind set. The answer is to allow the Western portion of the E-K-W district to detach and join the Norwalk-Ontario district. Such a move would benefit all parties involved. In particular, it would allow the remaining E-K district to keep a K-6 in Kendall and a 7-12 Jr/Sr High in Elroy without burdening the the taxpayers with a 8 figure debt. It would also free up the E-K district to address the educational issues about which so many expressed concern. In addition, joining N-O would give the residents and students of the Western portion of the district an opportunity to be part of a fine school district with facilities close by. Everyone would win including the N-O district.
Since the detachment meeting held in December at the Wilton Village Hall, a group of people has been doing research on the questions and issues people raised at that meeting as well as on the detachment procedure itself. Based on what we have found, we do not hesitate to recommend joining The Large Parcel Detachment to any individual that would want to consider such a choice. Norwalk-Ontario has a commendable school and is a competently managed district where additional students would be welcome. In addition, although we have not completed the calculations, our preliminary numbers indicate that an E-K district could be quite successful with a K-6 in Kendall and a 7-12 in Elroy.
It is obvious that now is the time to act on this proposal. If you are interested in being part of the Large Parcel Detachment from the Elroy-Kendall-Wilton district and joining Norwalk-Ontario district, please state your interest in writing to Box 308 Wilton 54670 by March 17th. The actual petition is now being prepared and will begin to be circulated in early April. If you would like to volunteer to help circulate the petition and have not already submitted your name please do so by writing Box 308 Wilton 54670.
The motivation behind this movement is genuine. We want to reach out in the spirit of cooperation to all the people concerned and ask that you urge your school board members to give this Large Parcel Detachment thoughtful and serious consideration and to support the petition when it is presented.
We'll keep you posted as things develop.
Regards,
Mike
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WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU PROMOTING?
A fair and legitimate question, many of you reading this know that I usually have strong opinions on a given subject.
I had phoned this party to ask them some history question regarding how and when Wilton had become attached to the Kendall,- Elroy district, (we will have a story on that later) and when I told him about our Community WEB site his first question was, "Who's side are you promoting?"
One the primary purposes of this WEB page was to get dialog going as to what people in the community really want to see take place in order to give their children and grandchildren the kind of education needed to meet the challenges of the next century.
The new move in the field of education is to have more teachers working with fewer students in order to give the teacher more time to spend with each student. This means that there will be a need for more teachers as well as more class rooms if we continue to think in terms of the schools of our youth and even most schools today.
Our schools have become a form of prisons for our children, We load them in buses, have them spend hours riding those buses so they can get to a four walled edifice, called a school building where they are herded into rooms equipped with desks, where they are required to remain for six or so hours each day as they attend classes.
After kindergarten and maybe the 1st grade, most children have to be forced to go the remaining 10 years of school. School education should be so interesting and challenging that a child or young adult should be as anxious to go learn as in their first two years of school
Today we have that technology. Today we could furnish each student within any given school district a computer and access to a distant learning center. This would reduce the need for large, expensive building to teach them. We could better utilize the building we now have by having each child spend less time in the classroom. Thereby freeing up more classroom space, cutting the need for bigger centrally located buildings.
Private schools and parochial schools have been able educate their children down through the years inspite of the burden put on them of having to pay taxes to the public school system as well as their own private school system.
Today the State of Wisconsin has given every community the opportunity to have a limited private school with the expenses paid for on much the same basis as a public school where the parents, students and teachers have the say as to how the school operates including the curriculum, etc. This is called a Charter School.
An experimental Charter School at Wilton might be a way of letting the people of the Wilton Community keep their school, educate their children close to home and still have the larger cost of the funding coming from the state. For more information go to the bottom of this page and click on to Charter Schools.
I must admit that it is a long shot, as I have approached the school board on this subject and it has not been received with much enthusiasm. I think the day of the large public school located miles from the home of the participants will soon be the thing of the past and that there will be more and more semi-private Charter Schools.
In closing let me say. I would not support a large centralized school district with a highschool or a complete campus in the middle of the district. Why eight to ten million dollars to put up new buildings when we already have adequate building space and when that kind of money could better be spent on tools to educate our students?
Do I support the detachment move? At present I think we should try for a solution within the present district. If however, such a solutioncan not be reached within the near future I would add my support to detachment.
Okay, now let's hear what your thoughts are on what
you would like to see take place in or out of this district.
Bill Weber - Wilton,
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UPDATED-March 4th 1999
SHARON BALDWIN WRITES:
Once again tempers ran hot the other night at the EKW school board meeting...what with people hiring lawyers against one another and the "us versus them" attitude that always permeates a meeting.
I had a slight altercation with a lady when I asked her if she would ever want to ship any kids out of Elroy She replied, "I am a teacher!" She said that she only cares about education. When I turned to face the board she muttered, "just go to Norwalk." I answered that she dosen't even know me. Later, during a break, I asked her name and where she teaches. Rather than to answer, she stated that I only see her as "Elroy". I've thought about that and decided that she was right. Just as she only sees me as "Wilton" as witnessed by her "just go to Norwalk" comment. (How much she cares about my children receiving their education in this district is clear)
She and I, along with hundreds of others who think as we do, Epitomize what is wrong with this district, why we've sat in limbo so long. We need to do something NOW, whether we build a 7-10 in Kendall, or a K-6 in Wilton or fix what we have, whatever.
The longer we procrastinate the more bridges we burn.
And these will be much harder to rebuild than any building
Sharon Baldwin - E.K.W Resident.
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A NEED TO TRY AND UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER
By Bill Weber-Wilton and Bill Smith-Elroy
After reading Sharon letter (see above) it reminded me of an article I had written, last fall, about an article the Editor of the Keystone Reporter, Bill Smith, had written about the point Sharon made in her article. Quoting from Sharon article: "Rather than to answer,she stated that I only see her as "Elroy". I've thought about that and decided that she was right. Just as she only sees me as "Wilton" as witnessed by her "just go to Norwalk" comment." end of quote.
I quote from Mr. Smiths article; "What we must do is find away for calm, thoughtful conversation in which we each can express our views without being interrupted or shouted down....Once we stop shouting and start to really listen, we will find that we all are human beings who want the best for the district's youngsters, for our own community, and for the district as a whole. And once we realize that, the answer will start to come. It is likely it will be something no one has even thought of yet." end of quote.
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That is the purpose of this WEB page to try to bring about a means whereby we can all communicate with each other without shouting.
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What we would like is to open up this WEB page to a COMMUNITY WIDE DISCUSSION, with all interested people free to have their say even if it is only a line or two.
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The following was Last August Article
"IF YOU DO IT RIGHT YOU WILL ATTRACT STUDENTS"
CYBERSPACE REPORT # 20
August 6th 1998
Last weeks Tomah Journal (7-30-98) had an article by Steve Rundio, on the problem that has and is confronting the EKW (Elroy, Kendall & Wilton) school district. How to continue to operate a school district, with declining enrollment, including three villages who's residents want to operate and maintain their school in each of the three areas?
At the School board meeting on July 27th, board members Mike O'Gara and Tim Welch said, "The district should try and continue to operate schools in all three communities." Board President Don Yahnke than asked, "What do you do if you have only 20 kindergarten in all three towns" Welch responded, "If you do it right you will attract students, and that won't be a problem."
In April a referendum asking the district voters if they wanted to consolidate the district into one campus located at Elroy was roundly defeated by a 3-1 margin. Yet five months later the Administrator and School Board have not held a district wide meeting asking the voters what they would like to see done in the district. One of the board members, Mike O'Gara asked, "Did the referendum fail because of the cost or configuration?" There was not further discussion, by the board, on that point. Therein perhaps lies one of the problems. The Administrator and some of the board have their own agenda, and are not willing or interested in bringing the district into the discussion.
Today we live in an entirely different learning environment than when I was in school (1926.-38) Yet there are those who think that the way to a good education is more bricks and mortar, more busses and a higher concentration of students on one campus.
There are however, a growing number of us who think otherwise. That higher concentration of students on one campus does not better students make, but modern technology (computers) has made possible in depth learning, at home or in small schools close to home and that both students, parents and local communities benefit because of this.
This is not the age of "Making Children Go to School" This is the age as Tim Welch said of "DOING IT RIGHT SO YOU WILL ATTRACT STUDENTS"
Our state Government has seen fit to give us the right of School Choice
>http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dfm/sms/psc1.html<
so we can decide what school will give our children the better education
and then have the right to send them there at no extra cost.
Another alternative that is becoming more popular to day is:
Home
Schooling
>http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dfm/sms/homeb.html<
Charter Schools are also an alternative approach to the regular Public
Schools
>http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlsis/edop/charter.html<
Then there is the GLOBAL SCHOOL HOUSE
>http://k12.cnidr.org/gsh/gshwelcome.html<
a WEB site devoted to bringing
students throughout the world together to share in their learning
experiences.
Wis. Dept. of Ed. has a informative WEB page at:
>http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/<
Free educational materials are available at the Federal Governments WEB
site:
http://www.ed.gov/free/
For information on getting government assistant to have your school or
librarywired for phone and computer services go to:
>http://www.slcfund.org/<
The Wisconsin Charter School Association has an interesting WEB site at
>http://www.marquette.edu/wcsa/<
The Federal Communications Commission's WEB site:
>http://www.fcc.gov/learnnet/<
has a "Learn Net" section that could be of interest to teachers and
Home Schoolers
If you would like to visit WEB sites of schools throughout the world
go:
>http://web66.coled.umn.edu/schools.html<
Welcome to SuperKids, >http://www.superkids.com/<
an impartial source of information on childrens software for parents
and teachers:
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E-mail me at: solar10a@centuryinter.net
Phone 608-435-6790
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