By Terry Lawler
Waukesha school board members don’t always agree with the district’s teachers and education support professionals, but they all agree on this: they want to provide a quality education for all children.

With the mounting impact of 12 years of school district revenue caps, however, that is becoming increasingly difficult. And that is why the teachers and education support professionals are working with the school board to find a way to protect their great schools. One of the tools the Education Association of Waukesha is using to achieve that goal is its participation in the WEAC Great Schools Statewide Action Plan.

“Our teachers are willing to go above and beyond all the time. We want staff members to get along with each other and with all the other groups involved in the education process in Waukesha.” ----------------- Janet Bashirian

The Great Schools Statewide Action Plan involves a set of uniform strategies for local associations to achieve a revised system of school funding that ensures that every child has access to an adequately funded public education, and a fair collective bargaining law for teachers and education support professionals.

In every community, the Action Plan takes on its own characteristics depending on the financial impact of revenue caps and cooperation between the association and district.

In Waukesha, the financial impact is growing, but fortunately the teachers and support staff have a good working relationship with the district.

“We have a wonderful superintendent,” EAW President Janet Bashirian said of David Schmidt. Under his direction, she said, “We have continued to become more collaborative, moving toward true site-based decision-making.” And Waukesha is a good place to teach, Bashirian said. “Our salary schedule has remained fairly attractive and, for the most part, our problems are mutually worked out.”

That has helped the EAW implement the Action Plan.

The first major activity was I See Red Day last October. Like their colleagues throughout the state, EAW members wore red that day “to show support for public education, to show that unless the state’s funding formula changes for the better, conditions in Waukesha will change for the worse,” Bashirian said.

The next major activity was to ask the school board to pass a resolution asking the Legislature to repeal revenue caps and the Qualified Economic Offer law. When Bashirian learned that the board had already sent a resolution to the Legislature opposing the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), she knew “the board had already set the groundwork.”

Bashirian, a K-6 music teacher, and two other teachers in leadership positions “contacted the board members personally and asked for their opinions on the QEO and revenue caps.”

“We got a real sense that the majority of the board was not happy with current state funding,” she said.

Bashirian said Waukesha board members are conservative, but “they expressed their opinion that for Waukesha, the current system is not the way to fund education.”

The board requested that Schmidt and the EAW form a resolution, which has since been approved and sent to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. The board is waiting for an April referendum to exceed revenue caps before acting on sending the resolution to the Legislature.

The next step in the Statewide Action Plan is to arrange for Community Sessions with legislators.

Bashirian said Waukesha’s legislators are conservative, and some favor property tax freeze gimmicks such as the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). She said Schmidt regularly schedules meeting between legislators and district administrators so that legislators better understand the problems and needs of the schools. Bashirian said the EAW believes these meetings are the best approach to accomplishing this goal at this time. EAW members, however, remain active in communicating with legislators. In February, EAW members were joined by parents and others at a Joint Finance Committee hearing in Pewaukee, where they spoke against a proposed property tax freeze.

Many challenges lie ahead for Waukesha, Bashirian said. Under revenue caps, Waukesha’s funding increases by less than 2% a year while expenses rise by nearly double that rate. A 40-member district budget advisory task force – made up of business representatives, church leaders, real estate agents, EAW members, support staff, parents, and others – has prioritized a 34-item list of reductions totaling $7.2 million, including staff cuts. Ideas include eliminating the DARE program and increasing class sizes.

Despite that scenario, Bashirian remains optimistic in the long run. The good working relationship between the EAW and the district, combined with the solidarity provided by the Great Schools Statewide Action Plan, provides a strong basis for protecting the future of education in Waukesha.

“Because things are better in Waukesha than in other districts and because we have a supportive administration, our membership does not feel a need to be militant,” Bashirian said. “Our teachers are willing to go above and beyond all the time. We want staff members to get along with each other and with all the other groups involved in the education process in Waukesha.”

Resource page on Great Schools Statewide Action Plan

Posted March 3, 2005