Commentary By Dwayne G. Olsen

By By

Thursday, December 31, 1998 3:00 AM CST

Unified needs leaders

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, ``The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as what direction we are moving." That is certainly true of the Racine community today. That's why it's so important to have Sustainable Racine and the Racine Interfaith Coalition, as well as other groups and individuals, striving to improve our community. However, there is an even more important task that simply must be done in the next few years that can be done only by insiders. That is service on the Racine Unified School Board. We need highly qualified and concerned people to participate in the important decisions that will be made in the next three years about the school district. This in turn will set the direction for both the school district and the greater Racine community as a whole. Our community has no more serious challenge. What kind of persons do we need as candidates in the coming election? First of all they must be concerned about children and willing to put forth the energy it takes to put ``Kids First" as well as recognize that it takes an entire village to educate our children. Somehow we have the words right in Racine, but the actions and resources, at least those provided Racine Unified, simply do not match what is required for an urban community with a diverse population and disproportionate numbers of poor children to educate those children.

Secondly, we need people who understand finance (or are willing to learn), who understand when an organization doesn't have sufficient funds to pursue its goals (business would say it's undercapitalized), who understand that there is a greater payoff from an investment in children's education than there is in jails and prisons, and who understand that bad decisions by previous boards relative to increasing reserves, investing in technology as an educational tool, and repairing buildings have made a difficult financial situation involving caps on school spending even more difficult. I served on those boards from 1989 to 1994; so I know firsthand that these were deliberate decisions made under great pressure from taxpayers' groups and others.

Thirdly, we need people who have, or can quickly gain, a sense of how difficult it is to teach and administer schools these days. For example, recently I spoke to one of our conscientious, bright, young high school teachers who told me that only about 30 percent of his students turned in their homework. That is the situation for many teachers, and, try as hard as they might, they simply can't learn for their students. Students must put forth the effort that it takes, and their parents must provide them the support and encouragement. (Teachers, of course, must be knowledgeable not only about their subjects but how to teach them in ways that motivate students to learn).

Fourthly, we need school board members whose only answer to improving schools isn't reducing the resources for current educational programs. It's this mentality that has dominated the board for almost a decade, if not longer, and that has created our current problems. Right now there are at least two current board members and one leader of the Racine Taxpayers' Association who would quickly cut the eighth period out of the middle school day while baldly asserting that this will improve children's education. This is particularly interesting given the results of a yearlong study in which educators and community representatives recommended to the board in 1997 that the eight-period day be retained because of its important educational implications. It's this ``cut" mentality by many school board members that has moved Racine Unified from being one of Wisconsin's outstanding school districts 20 years ago to one that is considerably less attractive to many new people moving to southeastern Wisconsin.

If the 1999 school board ballot provides several visionary candidates, there is hope for both our children and the community. If not, we will continue down the same ``anti-Unified road" of the last decade, a road that has created the current financial debacle in our school system. We will then continue to have the lowest tax rate Racine Unified has ever had with a school system that cannot help but decline because it's undercapitalized while educating more children in poverty the Public Policy Forum analysis concluded that Unified served the largest number f students in poverty of the 10 large Wisconsin districts while having the lowest property tax levy for those same districts. Unified's bottom line financially is that it desperately ``needs" the resources that the proposed referendum would buy. And it needs school board members with skills in financial analysis and an understanding of what quality education requires of this community, its educators, and its students and their parents. Like it or not, all have to put forth more effort than is apparent at present.

If you qualify and are up to the challenge, packets for school board candidates can be picked up at the school district offices, 2220 Northwestern Ave. Completed nomination papers are due by 5 p.m. Jan. 5.

Dwayne G. Olsen, 5118 Kinzie Ave., is a former member of the Racine Unified School Board.

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