I was curious what all the public comment emails the Board of Education receives look like. While Kay Eggert’s summations are evocative, they don’t necessarily give a complete picture. Therefore, I put in a public records request for the public comment emails submitted for the 02/08/2021 Board of Education meeting.
There were 15 (technically 16, but one of them was a repeat). 8 of them expressed a desire for increased instructional time and a 9th expressed concerns over the mental toll of the Covid response.
Those letters included one from Sheri Hartzheim, a candidate for the school Board in the April election, who wrote a letter urging the Board to formulate a concrete plan for returning all children to full time instruction.
4 people questioned whether Stephanie Burry who was one of the candidates to fill the temporary Board vacancy had a conflict of interest due to her ties to Appleton Education Foundation.
1 teacher expressed concerns about the workload, wondered why AASD had not organized vaccine clinics for teachers like she understood other districts to have done, and expressed upset at the way some community members have expressed their frustrations at school closures.
3 people wrote in about the proposed Lincoln Elementary name change. One of them, a music teacher in the district, thought Foster Elementary should have its name changed because Stephen Foster composed music for minstrel shows which is now considered inappropriate. [My guess is this complaint will gain traction and Stephen Foster Elementary will be facing a name change sometime in the next few years.]
Be the first to reply