Local News
School candidates say public unaware of quality of education
By Dean Acheson
Rhinelander School Board candidates, from left, Glenn Sontag, Deb Durschlag and Richard Barcal, field questions during Thursday’s forum. Dean S. Acheson/Daily News
Daily News staff
More should be done to educate residents of the Rhinelander School Districts on the high quality of schooling here, according to three school board candidates who made Thursday’s forum at the high school.
“People don’t know how good we are,” said Debra Durschlag, one of five candidates running for the four open seats. A sixth candidate, David Heck, withdrew from the race due to work-related conflicts, but his name will be on the April 4 ballot.
Durschlag was joined at the forum sponsored by the Northwoods Regional Solutions Network (NRSN) by challengers Glenn Sontag and Richard Barcal. Two candidates did not attend. Incumbent Julie Clark had a prior engagement out of town and incumbent Ken Milender did not respond to the invitation, according to Kris Adams-Wendtof NRSN.
The group is one of 13 statewide networks representing the Wisconsin Equal Prosperity economic initiative founded by Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton two years ago.
Ken Krall, WXPR public radio news director, was the forum moderator. NRSN members and the dozen members of the audience submitted written questions.
Regarding declining enrollments, Sontag quoted information from the last board meeting where it was noted that 20 new students have applied for admission under school choice, but 50 are leaving the district. District administration should check into the reasons for the leaving, he said.
“We have to find a way to keep students from transferring out of the district,” said Barcal. “We need to let parents know the opportunities that exist here.”
The three all suggested a district-wide newsletter to get the information out to residents.
That theme of better external and internal communication popped up in other questions, such as their response to extra-curricular pay being frozen for three of four years in the present contract. None of the three knew about it.
Money for teaching academics is more important than extra-curricular activities, said Sontag. “Hard choices have to be made,” echoed Barcal, who suggested “revisiting” the issue. Durschlag lamented the fact that coaches and advisors put in long hours at relatively low pay - sometimes just a few dollars per hour when the hours are tallied.
Durschlag and Barcal urged continuance of the Strategic Plan recently adopted by the school board while Sontag promised to take a business-like approach (he’s a retired businessman) to district operations if elected.
On top priorities for the district, Barcal said the board should aggressively push state senators and assemblymen and women on how the state funding formula has hurt schools. Durschlag said more needs to be done to address the problems of drop-outs and ensuring that graduates have adequate education to make choices in secondary education and the workforce. Sontag, who has not served on the school board before, promised to work for the “best education for the students” once he learns more about the goals of the board and administration.
Barcal and Durschlag said the district’s charter schools initiative holds promise to retaining students.
Regarding closer ties with Nicolet College, Durschlag said the board needs to encourage the administration to continue that collaboration. Barcal pointed to Northland Pines School District board who is working with the YMCA on shared programs and facilities as models. “We need to embrace different ways of thinking,” he said. Sontag noted that many RHS graduates attend Nicolet College. “They should be giving us as much help as possible,” he offered.
