Recall Launched Against Fox Point-Bayside School Board

David Braeger says he is out of options.

Alongside teachers and parents, he has attended packed Fox Point-Bayside School District meetings to voice his opposition to . And, he has asked for a conference with district officials with no response. The School Board has forced his hand. 

Braeger, a Milwaukee-area financial sector CEO who has two children in the district, filed paperwork Wednesday morning to launch recall efforts against board President Debbie Friberg, Vice President Tim Melchert and member Alice Lawton.

"We have a District Administrator who is leaving, and we have three remaining members of the School Board who were not recently elected that are nothing more than a 'rubber stamp' for her agenda," Braeger said in a press release Tuesday. "They have shown no respect for the opinions of the taxpayer, parent and most importantly, the well-rounded education of our children. 

“It is abundantly clear that these members of the School Board had every opportunity to show their fiscal responsibility and the ability to create a system of programming that would not include the massive program changes in the arts, band, orchestra and data that will only deteriorate our school system.”

To spark a recall, he'll will need to collect the signatures of at least 25 percent of Fox Point and Bayside residents who voted in 2010 gubernatorial election would need to be collected to spark a recall. That means it would take about 1,500 signatures to get a recall on the ballot.

Under the state recall law, organizers have 60 days from the day the recall effort is registered to collect the number of petition signatures needed to spark a recall. Board members must be on the board for a minimum of a year of their current term to be eligible for recall.

What's on the table

Under the planned changes for next school year, fifth- and sixth-grade physical education would be offered 2-1/2 days a week instead of three days, and art, general music and technology would be offered on a quarterly basis instead of a trimester. That means one of the courses would be offered each quarter, five days a week, instead of throughout the year, twice a week. 

A class called STEM, an arts/humanities projects based/problem-solving course, would be added as one of the classes offered on a quarterly-basis, to ensure the roughly 100 students are in class sizes of about 25. 

Fifth- and sixth-grade band and orchestra would be combined, though they will meet twice a week all year, instead of once. Seventh- and eighth-grade general music will be cut to make time for an additional math class, and students will be encouraged to join choral, band or orchestra. Choir time would be increased to three days a week, instead of two days.

The changes are designed to add more math time to prepare students for the new state test, and a 30-minute flex period to make time for the government mandated Response to Intervention for students struggling academically, district officials say. 

The School Board will discuss the scheduling changes at their next regular meeting May 21. 

Teachers fight layoffs

For weeks, parents and teachers have packed meetings to voice their disdain to the proposed changes and preliminary layoffs sent to 10 staff members — five of them teachers. It was no different Tuesday night when the district held an open session meeting discussing the nonrenewal of teacher contracts. 

Under the proposed scheduling changes, math teachers would have to add an additional class to their load. Bayside Middle School Principal Don Galster said sixth-grade math teacher Susan Haferkorn, 24-year veteran in the district, was the least capable among four middle school math teachers to pick up the extra workload. He said fifth-, seventh- and eighth-grade math teachers would teach sixth-grade math under the changes next school year.

After the district administration laid out its case for nonrenewal of Haferkorn's contract, about a dozen teachers and parents praised her teaching in the district and pleaded with the School Board to retain her. 

Math teacher Mark Conforti said he's been blessed to have a teacher like Haferkorn preparing students in sixth grade for the rigors of his seventh-grade math classroom. He believes the administration is unfairly targeting her, and questioned why her personnel file only included evaluations from the past three years, when she has been with the district for more than two decades.

Teacher calls layoffs 'a witch hunt'

"Sue Haferkorn is an excellent math teacher, and our students deserve to have Sue Haferkorn as a math teacher," he said. "This, quite frankly, is a witch hunt."

Holding back tears, sixth grade science teacher Jocelyn Schmitz said as a young educator, she finds the proposed layoffs alarming and disconcerting. She said she has come to realize the most important thing for students isn't mandates or new curriculum, but a team of teachers with a variety of backgrounds and styles working to build young minds. 

"It almost feels like we will be reduced to a desolate wasteland, filled with wanderers and transients, just stumbling through each day without a clear destination or common goal," she said referring to the possible layoffs.

"I feel if we lose Sue, and other full-time teachers, sixth grade will become nothing more than a revolving door of teachers and students, with little connection to one another, or for that matter, time to connect," Schmitz said.

The nonrenewal of three other teachers were discussed Tuesday night. The School Board is expected to vote Thursday on the nonrenewals. 

“I had too much respect for the wonderful teachers of our school to sit there and see them have to beg for their jobs," Braeger said. "It is because of a lack of leadership of our administrators and a lack of creativity and financial experience of our School Board that these three School Board members must go.”

Superintendent Rachel Boechler said the district was overstaffed this school year as the board made a commitment to teachers following the implementation of Act 10 that staffing levels would remain the same, but with the disclaimer that staffing changes would need to be explored the following year.