Tag Archives: Dr. Steve Patz

Former School Board Vice-President Calls Franklin Bloggers Cyber Bully’s – Especially Current Board President Janet Evans!

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In a classic case of the POT calling the kettle BLACK, former Franklin Board of Education Vice-President Jeff Traylor  publicly posted that all the Franklin Bloggers (including Board President Janet Evans) are Cyber Bully’s on an open FACEBOOK posting. This coming from the man who consistently belittled and bullied current Board President Janet Evans at board meetings and board evaluations when he was in charge.

All this pent up anger shows up on the evening after the Franklin Public Schools Board of Education voted to replace both Larson and Traylor. This should never have been a surprise when more conservative board members were elected the past two elections in a row.  In reality, what has gone forth is local bloggers have brought to light the follies of the former President Deb Larson and VP Jeff Traylor.

A regular reader here at WAG THE DOG brought the posting that comes directly from Jeff Traylor’s FACEBOOK page. Please see the last posting by Deb Larson (former Board President) as she refers to current Board Vice President Tim Nielson.  Note his reference to newly elected Board President Janet Evans as he says “I have been Cyber Bullied for 5 years while I have been on the school board buy (sic) 4  bloggers from Franklin now. and now the 1 that is worst is now school board president” 

My question for Mr. Traylor …. Is this what you want a blog on the Franklin Public School site for?

 

Today Jeff Traylor posts this about conservative talk radio show host Jay Weber on Talk Radio 1130 discussing how there is a movement of conservative board members being elected (and he specifies Franklin) and  that are showing up in more school districts. One correction Jay, Janet Evans, Board President is in her second term receiving the highest amount of votes from the Franklin electorate in the past decade. She has been bullied by the current and past, liberal, tax and spend board members for the past three years including Jeff Traylor.

 

Here is the Podcast of todays show

You can listen to  Jay Weber at 6:45am tomorrow morning making an apology to Jeff Traylor at least that is what board member Traylor says.

So I ask you is Cyber Bullying the act of writing about your disgust with politically ELECTED School Board members that do not respect the wishes of those that elected them.  Would it be better it we kept it all hush hush up so members like Traylor, Larson and Klein could actually bully their fellow board members at meetings.

 

 

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Join the Celebration

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Now with an overwhelming vote in Franklin that has put financially responsible Franklin Public School’s  Board of Education members in our corner, we have reason to celebrate. In a two phase move, first to remove, unrestrained spenders like Judith Bialk and David Works in the primary. We as taxpayers went further to reject Union supported candidates Don Petre and John Thompson, who planned a course of unchecked facility spending. Both stated they equated high cost facilities spending with educational outcome.  

On April 25th at the regular meeting of the Board of Education, both Janet Evans and Aimee Schlueter, the peoples candidates, will be sworn in as board members and a reorganization of the board should occur.  

Next comes the next tough part, that is, the election of Board officers. As many of you know, Deb Larson has pretended to lead the board as President and Jeff (what the heck is financial responsibility?) Traylor has been her second in command as VP of the board.  

With a shift in paradigm (you know the one where Superintendent Steve Patz makes the rules and the board just nods their heads) to one where Dr. Steve Patz needs to justify his requests before the Board of Education who then discuss, approve or deny his requests.  

I believe there will be fewer occurrences of  hidden discussions under the pretense of closed door rules where board members are not allowed to discuss the outcome of their deliberation of issues.  

The direction of the board may also be to slow down the move toward a building referendum and actually get  real community discussion that is not one sided as the so called World Café meetings produced. Listening sessions or surveys have been more fruitful in getting community input but it is not the “directed  input” that Superintendent Patz and Company wanted. Input where they could control the direction, along with their Architects for the necessary outcome of massive building of facilities.  

I recall the community inputs sessions that were held for K4. Even though the majority of the input was not to go ahead with K4, Steve Patz tried to go forward with it until state funding of K4 came to a halt due to the economy. 

Our board, administration and parents must come to the realization that 75% of our population do not have children in the Franklin Public Schools. Many of which are just making ends meet, whether they are elderly on fixed incomes, or have faced cuts in their jobs and pay.  

I have read on the FranklinNOW the few that are making the comment that if you don’t like the fact that it could cost you $200 to $800 more per year in taxes then you should just get out of Franklin. Others say that people who come here will be influenced by our schools. I say, imagine that we have an influx of people moving to Franklin that have children that will go to our schools. When we do build new facilities, you may see those building costs increase into the thousands rather than the hundreds of dollars. People who move to Franklin with children should be checking, how are our students performing, not how incredible do the schools look.

Statistics show that performance, of the education of our children is not tied to facilities; it is tied to our educators, how they inspire and teach our children. We do have a high percentage of graduates going on to higher education and being successful. Just check out the FranklinNOW sometime and look at all the kids from Franklin on the Deans list of various universities. 

Please consider attending the Board of Education meeting on April 25 at the Franklin Public Schools Community Center, 8255 Forest Hill Avenue at 6pm and watch the change start in the City of Franklin Public Schools.

NEXT PHASE: Replace the following Board Members….

 

Deb Larson - Replace April 2013

Jeff Traylor - Replace April 2013

Melissa Klein - Replace April 2013

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The “We Are Better” Politics of Don Petre

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I received this email from a concerned parent who received this email from Don Petre, the WEAC Union officer who teaches in Oak Creek.  This letter from what I was told went out to all Franklin Public School teachers. Please read this letter and consider writing one of your own to FranklinNOW before March 16th. Let Don Petre know we don’t need him or want him on the Franklin Board of Education. We already have board members who are mindless sheep and do not need him to add to the flock.

From: Don Petre <djpetre@wi.rr.com>

Hi again!

I wanted to ask yet another favor…

The Franklin NOW section is currently accepting “Election Letters” – these are public forum letters from readers pertaining to the election. They generally come from readers, not candidates, supporting some issue or candidate tied to an upcoming election.

These letters are limited to 300 words.  They must include your first and last name, community where you live, address and phone number.  (The address and phone number will NOT be printed in the paper.)

The deadline to submit a letter is Friday the 16th.

These election letters can be emailed to jriccioli@cninow.com

Would you be willing to submit a letter in support of my candidacy for the Franklin School Board?

I would appreciate any words of support that you would be willing to write!  Thanks!

Here are some key differences between myself and Janet Evans and Aimee Schlueter…

Don – BS in Education from UW-Madison, MS in Educational Administration and Supervision from UW-Milwaukee, and 23 years of experience working in the education field, along with ten years of teaching a graduate level college course.

Janet – HS diploma only

Aimee – Degree in Psychology but NO experience in the field.

Neither of them would ever get any consideration for a Board position at any multi-million dollar company

I have two children currently in the school district.  Janet Evans’ children are adults.

I want to improve our school facilities while maintaining reasonable property taxes.  No one wants to raise our taxes.  I have endured a 9% pay cut this year and cannot afford any increase in my own taxes.  I am hoping to secure  financial donations from Franklin businesses for things like naming rights for auditoriums, gymnasiums, and technology labs.  I have many personal connections to local businesses to try and get this done.  We also have other financial options available to our district, such as TIF’s coming off of the books and reserve funds in the school district.   I am for the many taxpayers in Franklin that want to maintain our reasonable taxes while still making improvements to our facilities.  Janet Evans is interested in keeping away progress out of our schools.

They are trying to use my union membership against me.  I believe it enhances my credentials and resume.  I will be able to use this experience in labor and in management to bring both sides together and see issues from both perspectives.  In order to see progress in our district, we need the School Board members to be on the same page.  The staff in Franklin will be more willing to listen and accept suggestions from someone like me – that can relate to their experiences.    In order to make progress, we need to be on the same page.  We need to get away from the “us vs. them” mentality that Janet Evans promotes.  This leads to gridlock in Washington and polarization in Madison.  We do not need that to find its way into our local school district.

I represent a diverse group of Franklin taxpayers on both sides of the aisle.  Janet and Aimee represent only a small fraction of people.  The School Board election is not a statement for or against the recall election of Scott Walker.  People in Franklin do not want that situation dragged into our local elections.  I want to bring our community together in the common goal of improving our school facilities so that the entire community – those with children and those without – can benefit from using these facilities, such as theater arts or an indoor walking track and community exercise facility.

I want to see an expansion of the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) Programs, such as PLTW (Project Lead The Way) and promote additional business partnerships within our school system.  Janet and Aimee do not want programs to be expanded.

Thanks for anything that you may be willing to submit to the NOW section to promote my candidacy.

These election letters can be emailed to jriccioli@cninow.com

Thanks!

Don

 

 

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Mark Belling makes a fool out of Franklin Public Schools Superintendent Steve Patz

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This afternoon, on Mark Bellings radio talk show, Belling made a fool of Franklin Public School Superintendent Steve Patz. Patz came off like a buffoon playing dumb to questions Belling asked about the accused Franklin High School 17 year old pipe bomb and weapons builder, Alex Matecki. Steve Patz told Belling that “There is no reason to take disciplinary action against this student!” Patz denied at first, that he did not even know the name of the the accused student commenting “I don’t run the High School” and  “Oh yah, I read something about that in a story!”  As the Superintendent of Franklin Public Schools, wouldn’t you assume Steve Patz would know who this student is and would have had Franklin High School Principal Mike Cady inform parents of the situation before this, considering this happened March 1st?

Mark Belling Hour 2 Pt. 1 – 3/12/12 – Steve Patz bad decisions on Student Safety

Below is the e-mail Franklin High School parents received today:

March 12, 2012

 

Dear FHS Parents and Students:

I am writing to provide background on an incident in the community involving one of our students that was a topic of discussion on Milwaukee talk radio this afternoon.

As reported on the radio, I can confirm that according to police reports, a FHS student was one of two individuals arrested on March 1st following a traffic stop and a subsequent search of his residence reportedly revealed possession of controlled substances, possession of weapons and a “pipe bomb.” As a school administration we have been in communication with the Franklin PD on this issue and we have implemented reasonable precautionary steps including:

• Temporary removal of the student from the general environment while we completed our own investigation

• Regular and random searches of the student, his belongings and locker

• Increased supervision and restrictions

Our school investigation, combined with the police investigation, have not revealed any connection between the alleged conduct in the community and the school. There have not been any threats of any kind toward the school, our students or our staff. Without any related school conduct the authority of the district is limited in terms of further restriction or disciplinary action. The student in question has been, and continues to be completely cooperative with the precautionary steps outlined above.

The safety of our students is extremely important to us and I assure you that we take this situation seriously and will continue to take all appropriate and reasonable steps to ensure school security.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Mike Cady – Principal

Read about these memorable stories from the recent past when Franklin High School was evacuated after finding an empty shell casing from a 22 caliber bullet:

 And now this 0n 12/13/12 from FranklinNOW and Candy Romano:

 

 

 

 

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Campaign Sign Snafu?

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In a recent blog of  FranklinNOW’s, Kevin Fischer  entitled 2ND UPDATE: Voting for Franklin School Board is very easy, Kevin is reporting that School Board candidate Donald Petre a WEAC union leader/activist for Oak Creek has illegally posted multiple campaign signs without the required disclaimer under Wisconsin law.  

I have seen one of these simple black lettering on a white background signs in my neighborhood but have not examined the sign up close. Having priced this type of sign for my own campaign, I would tend to say that these cost Mr. Petrie in the area of $5 a piece and would have not cost him anymore for the disclaimer.

Wisconsin Law specifically requires a disclaimer on all communications – “Paid for by committee, name of treasurer or other authorized agent.” There is a special provision that excludes pins, buttons, pens, balloons, nail files and similar small items on which the information required cannot be conveniently printed (11.30(2)(fm) Wis. Stats).

Furthermore, Kevin Fischer is stating he has found, Mr. Petrie to be a supporter of the RECALL SCOTT WALKER movement, with a display of a Recall Walker sign found in his yard.  Fischer concludes in his posting, that this speaks volumes as to how you can expect Donald Petrie to vote if you should choose to elect him to the Franklin Public School’s Board of Education.

I would also tend to conclude, ” if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, most likely it is a duck”!

UPDATE WEDNESDAY Night 1/18/12: Checked and confirmed that Mr. Donald Petrie does not have the required legal disclaimer on his signs as of this date.

 

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The Inevitable School Building Referendum

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One of the main reasons I  attended the Franklin Public Schools – Board of Education meeting on November 30th was to listen to the report by the architects that the school system chose to move along building plans for FPS. I had intented to complete this earlier but with pne kid in college and the other in High School, the holidays, ect., it just had to wait until now.

The speaker was Kitt Dailey, Public Information Specialist for Eppstein Uhen, one of  Milwaukee’s largest architectural firms. According to Kitt, her firm is very experienced at working with school systems and the referendums required to get schools built.

I found it fascinating that Eppstein Uhen will be providing not only the architectural plans, but costs and materials for the Franklin Public School district to push forward a plan for a building referendum. They will be working with the district to present plans, set up community meetings until the School Board members feel they have a proposal that could be presented to the electorate for a referendum as soon as the November Presidential elections.

Kitt presented a time line goal as follows:

  • February – March 2012 – Get community feedback via two public meetings held at the Middle School and the High School. These would be similar to those held last year where those in attendance would go table to table and express their view.
  • April 2012 - Would bring us another community survey which would present the options being considered and they could gather more specific feedback on those options.
  • By June 2012 - The board would possibly have a better sense of what the community wants and determine whether a November 2012 referendum should move forward.

Kitt further expanded on the plan that if the Board feels in June that the community is NOT ready for a referendum then they would go back to adjust and refine their plan.

Ms.  Dailey said and I quote ” Be Prepared for what you hear and respond to it accordingly.”

Here is the three part video of that presentation.

 

Part 2



Part 3


 

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You be the Judge

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On November 30, 2011, I attended a regular meeting of the Franklin Public Schools Board of Education. I was aware that the board had on their agenda a review of the Franklin Public School System – Teachers Handbook. I was pleased to find out that new board member and small businessman Tim Nielson had done a preliminary review of the Handbook and was going to give a high level review of the document, presumably for discussion among the other board members which seemed in my estimation to be clueless.

In attendance were quite a few teachers, which in my first impression were there to present to the board the new and exiting classes that would be available at the High School in the area’s of Technology and Foreign Language. It appears that the new classes were not the only reason there were so many of our educators at this meeting which included  Ms. Marquerite Dargiewicz a teacher’s union representative and Art teacher at Ben Franklin and Country Dale Elementary Schools. In reality it was their interest in Mr. Nielson’s presentation instead, at least that was my impression.

In an article by the Franklin Independent Journal, Fred Keller posted that he received an email from a Franklin Parent that stated that remarks from both Board Member Judith Bialk and Superintendent Steve Patz were aimed at shutting down member Nielson. As I did attend this meeting I did find many of the remarks by both Bialk and Patz to be condescending toward Tim Nielson. Bielak comments were especially condescending implying that since Tim Nielson was new to the School Board, he had no experience in these types of matters. In addition Ms. Bialk feels that 12 sick days a year that can accumulate yearly up to 120 days are not excessive and was taken back that Mr. Nielson would even bring up that that was excessive. Unfortunately Ms. Bialk does not have even a quarter of the business experience or personnel benefit negotiations that Mr. Nielson does. She has after all been in the education field for a good part of her life and has no bias at all :)

But you be the judge in this 4 part video in it’s entirety on the subject of the Franklin Public Schools Teachers Handbook.


 

Further Reading:

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Cleaning Up the Franklin School Board

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I was at City Hall last night waiting for the final results to come in. One by one the Aldermanic Districts were posted in a spreadsheet that was created by Franklin resident Randy Ritter. Randy, in case you don’t know it is very active at both City Hall (as a planning commissioner, ect.) and attends almost every school board meeting.  But I digress.

As the results came in, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in each and every district, Linda Witkowski and Tim Nielson came in 1st and 2nd place for votes, even in David Works own district. Yes, by the numbers voters rejected the carte blanch pro-spending that David Works is known for. The only thing that David Works did not vote for increasing your taxes was, this past month, when the board determined Dr. Steve Patz raise for the year. One can only guess this was to be able to say that he did not vote for EVERY spending measure or to woo the anti-Patz parents. It did not work for him!

Former Member David Works

Even Pro-Spending Liberal Blogger, Greg Kowalski said of David Works:

Retaining David Works and putting Tim Nielson on the School Board also promotes what many city and community leaders are beginning to discuss relative to a “Central Park” in Franklin. This park could (and should) be the new home of several Saber athletic programs, which would mean less cost to taxpayers and newer facilities for our youth athletes, who have proven that they are some of the finest in the State of Wisconsin time and again. I have always been appreciative of Works and fellow Board Member Melissa Klein being strong advocates of looking at ALL options for the future of Saber athletics.

In other words David Works, who loved to spend your money, advocated spending more of your money as soon as possible. Parents and Taxpayers finally said NO. 

A further illogical idea that Kowalski blogs was:

This is where my concern lies – because if the School Board cannot move forward soon in regards to the future of its facilities, especially the middle and high schools, we’re really going to be looking bad. I mean, we are now hosting our yearly play at the GREENDALE auditorium because we simply don’t have one, despite our community’s average household income being higher than Greendale’s.

Kowalski and one of his pet School Board members Melissa Klien look to spend your money on new athletic facility’s and now suggest we spend money on duplicate theater facility’s (Greendale had Rieman Publishing donate most of their cost). As you read it, they want it now, not later or else we are going to LOOK BAD.

Melissa Klein

Board Member - Melissa Klein

Instead maybe we can look forward with these newly elected and re-elected members, looking into money saving ventures, such as resource sharing with Greendale, Oak Creek or Hales Corners.

The time has come to spend wisely, not go on a spending rampage as Kowalski, Works and Klein propose. We as parrents and taxpayers have removed David Works from that group, soon we will have the opportunity to remove the rest.

Congratulations to both Linda Witkowski and Tim Nielson. Congratulations to all those that worked to get them elected. This however - is no time to let up.

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Nielson IN – Works OUT on Franklin School Board!

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Several of the Aldermen and the Mayor have said over and over again that they are not responsible for Franklin’s higher taxes. Instead they have implied that it is the Franklin School Boards fault for not keeping spending in line with the economic downfall since 2008.

Now with two seats for the School Board race Franklin residents can influence who will make those important decisions over the next three years.

In 2008, I endorse David Works and Ed Holpfer, believing that they both had the capability to use their business background as School Board Members and help keep our children’s education a strong one while knowing how to spend our tax dollars wisely. Linda Witkowski was my third choice at the time in that election. When Works and Witkowski were elected I was confident that we had two reasonable representatives that would work for our children and stand up to the administration when they sought to spend beyond their means.

The question then becomes have Works and Witkowski done what they promised to do three years ago? One did and one did not.

David Works, does not know how to say NO to Dr. Steve Patz, to Jim Milzer (Director of Business Services) or anyone in the Franklin Public School administration. If he works in business the way he works on the board, his business would be on the edge of bankruptcy. He is a good compliant and spineless board member who virtually always votes to spend, spend and spend some more if told to do it by the administration. Some have compared him to the bobble heads you get for free at the brewers games.

Linda Witkowski, and Board Member Janet Evans, have attempted over and over again to get Dr. Patz and other members of the administration to explain to the ELECTED officials of the board what they try to push through with a rubber stamp from all the other members. They are working for you, the people who elected them. Both are mothers with children who have been through the Franklin Public Schools and care about getting the best educational bang for our buck. They have been the only ones to question the extravagant spending during the worst economic times we have faced and expect their answers to be addressed by the administration instead of being ignored.

This is why David Works must be replaced with newcomer Tim Nielson. Tim is a concerned parent with a great business background (as described in my blog posting about him), and brings an actual spine to the table if he’s on the School Board.

Soon we will be able to replace other Rubber Stamp members such as Melissa Klein who many of the Robinwood Parents were ready to recall during the Reinke incident along with Judith Bialk who from my observations has no clue what she is doing on the board in the first place.

So when all of us Parents and Taxpayers in the Franklin School District go to the polls, please strongly consider casting your votes for LINDA WITKOWSKI and TIM NIELSON.

Pictured:  INVOLVEMENT for The Children
 
 
 
 

Thanks to Franklin Public School Website - Picture by FPS - Evans, Larson and Witkowski

More involvement and time spent in the community

 

Picture by FPS - Evans, Larson and Witkowski

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