MINOCQUA – The Lakeland Union High School board of education will forge ahead on its own to become a better board, rather than pick up the “Coherent Governance” model pitched by the consulting firm Aspen Group International.
The school board Monday, July 17 voted 6-2 against hiring Aspen, of Castle Rock, Colo., to guide the board over several days of meetings to understand and implement its Coherent Governance (or Policy Governance) principles. Under that model, the board bows out of making operational decisions and starts making broad policy decisions only. The superintendent is then held responsible for implementing those policies. For example, according to the Racine Unified School District website, it uses a Goherent Governance model, and its directive partly states: “The Board will direct the organization through policy. The Board’s major focus will be on the results expected to be achieved by students, rather than on the strategic choices made by the superintendent and staff to achieve those results.”
The $50,000 cost for the first two phases of Aspen work also played a factor in some board members’ opposition. There would have been additional costs for on-going training by Aspen. Even Barry Seidel, who voted to have Aspen facilitate the first two phases, questioned the wisdom of going ahead with the program if not all board members were sold on the idea. In the final vote, he picked up the support of only former board president Tom Gabert. The board then elected to focus on retreats to streamline the governing progress, as well as defining more closely the expectations of the board and administrator team. Board member Sarah Kemp said the retreats the board has had in recent past have been too broad and urged that they focus on one issue at a time. Fellow board member Jon Berg agreed.
In other matters, the board approved contracts with the school staff, Lakeland Bus Company and for shared staff with two other school districts. Approved was a 1.26 percent base wage increase with the Lakeland Union High School Education Association, the support staff union members, administration and non-represented groups, as well as a $2 per hour increase for the food service staff. The three-year contract for bus service is with the high school and the four elementary feeder schools; each paying for busing their students. There’s a three percent hike in the contract for years 2 and 3. The daily charges per bus are $250 and for a van is $235. The base charge for co-curricular trips is $44 per hour. Lakeland Bus Company owns the business, purchases and maintains the buses, and hires and pays its drivers. The districts pay for the bus fuel. The board approved a contract with the town of Minocqua for a school resource officer for the 2017-18 school year.
The town will be reimbursed for salary and benefits for the days the officer works at the school. The town board was expected to approve the contract at its Tuesday, July 18th meeting. The board approved a shared speech and language teacher with North Lakeland Elementary School District with North Lakeland picking up 60 percent of the $110,000 salary and LUHS the remainder. Approved also is a shared contract for the director of Academy and Pathways with the Lac du Flambeau Elementary School District. Both districts will share equally in the $68,674 cost. The board accepted the resignations of Quinn Robinson, science teacher; Ryan Buss, special education teacher and Ellen Schaub, student services assistant. The board approved new hires, with the salary or coaching pay: Tami Sellner, vocal music teacher, $59,000; Jim Mullen, head boys soccer coach (pay amount not listed); Tom Oestreich, head girls tennis coach, $2,362; Ryan Heath, assistant football coach, $1,330; Robert Garcia, assistant girls swim coach, $1,900;
