State, Not School Board, Blamed for QEO

By Terry Lawler

Phil Sanborn works with students.

How does the president of the Williams Bay Education Association feel toward the school board that just imposed a Qualified Economic Offer on its teachers?

“We have an excellent relationship with our school board here,” said Phil Sanborn, an English/history teacher at Williams Bay High School. “I am confident our board did everything they could to avoid this. I don’t think they enjoyed doing this. They didn’t want to do this. We’re family. The state pushed the school board and the district and the teachers into the bind that we’re in. We’re just stuck.”

Of course, Sanborn and his colleagues are very angry and frustrated about the QEO and school district revenue controls and the terrible impact they are having on teachers, support staff, students and families in Williams Bay and throughout the state. But he doesn’t blame the Williams Bay School Board, which has been working with the union to try to fight these onerous laws. Sanborn places the blame squarely on former Governor Tommy Thompson and the Legislature that passed these laws in 1993 and has refused to repeal them ever since despite the terrible harm they are causing.

Like many districts throughout the state, Williams Bay is not only looking at severe salary stagnation due to the QEO, but is facing staff layoffs and program cuts due to revenue caps and a failed referendum.

The district recently eliminated three positions at the elementary school and increased class sizes. At the high school, the district cut two full-time teaching positions, requiring the school to decrease graduation requirements and course selection. Drivers education has been eliminated, and all assistant coaching positions have been cut. In addition, teachers are looking at a salary roll-back next year due to increased insurance costs.

The situation is of such concern to students that, on April 15, about 90% of the high school’s 180 students walked out of classes in protest.

But the problem is not with the school board, Sanborn said, at least not in Williams Bay.

“When we first entered negotiations, we bought into WEAC’s Statewide Bargaining Goals, even though we knew that the board could not meet those goals as things stood then. The board accepted the WBEA’s position, and the two sides worked together for months trying to make those goals a reality.”

The board agreed to ask the community to approve a referendum that would have provided 3.4% per cell salary increases for teachers.

However, the referendum failed, 450-298.

“Board members and teachers were together when we found out about the failed referendum, and I’m told one board member was so upset that she couldn’t speak,” Sanborn said.

With the failure of the referendum, Sanborn said, the district ran out of options. It can no longer tap into its shrinking reserve fund, which the board used last year to prevent layoffs.

The local association stuck with the WEAC Statewide Bargaining Goals and refused to accept a QEO-style voluntary settlement, so the board went ahead and imposed one.

Sanborn is reminded daily of how fortunate he is when he hears about school boards in other communities that work against, rather than with, their staff.

“Through all of this, the teachers and the board have been allies, all pulling in the same direction,” he said.

“I don’t understand a board that goes out of its way to antagonize the teachers, something no major corporation would do if it wanted to keep its best employees,” he said.

Williams Bay teachers and the board are now going to take their anger to the state level.

“We want to work together to show the people in Madison that it’s time for a change,” he said.

One of those people is State Rep. Neal Kedzie, who represents the area.

“Since Mr. Kedzie appears to believe that the QEO and spending caps laws are so great, I want him to come here personally and hand out the layoff letters to teachers and explain to the kids why certain services will no longer be available,” Sanborn said.

As extra-curricular and other programs are eliminated, Sanborn hopes that the community gets the message.

“Now we have to reach and educate a little more than 75 voters” to turn around and win a second referendum, Sanborn said.

Sanborn has devoted a great deal of his life to fighting for his colleagues and the students in his community. Like Dr. Seuss’s Bartholomew Cubbins peeling off his 500 hats, Sanborn recites the number of positions he holds.

“Besides teaching and being president of our EA, I am also the union’s publicity officer and chief negotiator. In addition, I serve on our UniServ’s (Southern Lakes United Educators) Board of Directors and was recently elected chairman of SLUE’s negotiation committee. I will serve as a delegate at this year’s NEA Convention in Dallas.”

Bearing what seems to be an overwhelming load of responsibility, Sanborn is cheerful, enthusiastic and optimistic, despite the serious setbacks he and his fellow Williams Bay teachers have experienced recently.

Williams Bay, which lines part of the north shore of Lake Geneva, depends primarily on tourism for its livelihood.

“We’re property-rich but it does us more harm than good. The property values keep us from receiving a lot of state aid, and there’s no industry to help bear the burden.”

All these factors may have kept voters from approving the referendum that would have provided money for maintenance and would have allowed the board to give teachers a 3.4% raise per cell.

“Within the last six years, voters passed a referendum to build the new junior/senior high building and another to renovate the old K-12 building. But it’s always tough to ask people to raise their own taxes,” Sanborn said.

As Sanborn walks through school, his pride is evident.

“It’s nice to teach in a building where you know every student by name.” Katie, a smiling senior, asks if Sanborn has completed her letter of recommendation. “Not yet, but it’s almost done,” he explains as he goes through his papers and produces a rough draft.

A colleague looms over Sanborn and jokingly reprimands him for missing a shared lunch supervision. “I was being interviewed. I didn’t forget about you,” Sanborn said.

Sanborn continues to put in long, grueling hours, and is thankful his wife understands why he is away from home three or four nights a week, often until 9 p.m. He often doesn’t have the time he would like to spend with his wife and children, a son in 10th grade and a daughter at Madison Area Technical College.

“My wife is a special education teacher at Whitewater High School and she understands what I’m trying to accomplish,” he said.

Sanborn is determined to protect the quality of education for the children of Williams Bay. “It was difficult to not take that referendum personally. I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach,” he said.

He turns and moves quickly down the hall. Phil Sanborn has a lot of work to do.

Posted May 13, 2002