| 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.”
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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 |