The below document has been compiled based on information provided at MyVote.WI.Gov and is meant only as an organizational aid/tool, as the MyVote.Gov website does not have an easy way to print a sample ballot that can be contained on a single sheet of paper.
As stated previously, our family has recently lost both grandmothers within a span of the last three months, so it has become a time of healing for us. As such, it has made me reconsider a few of my priorities.
After spending most of a year (2022) sitting in on meetings for both the School Board and the Village Board and observing, my personal reflections are as follows:
The Village Board is operating as I feel a proper legislative governing unit should – as a group filled with strong personalities that represent a fairly diverse cross-section of the community. That board has very passionate discussions and debates about topics, because they have a passion for their community, and you can tell that those that are in opposition towards each other are good counter-balances towards each other in temperament and mentality. This gives the board a good balance, and I think the right drive to push the village forward in the right direction. It reflects the US Congress in that way. And while we all may have a complaint or two about Congress and how it works (or doesn’t!), the fact is that the push and pull between such groups is a healthy thing for a democracy. It shows passion, it shows interest, and it shows a desire to make things better (from their own diverse perspectives, of course). As a result, I’ve decided not to run this year for the Village Board.
As for the School Board, I’ve said it before on my site and elsewhere – I just don’t see that same passion, that same drive for continuous improvement amongst the board members. I see people smiling and nodding (when they aren’t yawning – not going to name any names) but mostly just going through the motions of the role. There is no debate, and any discussion is limited to social graces and perfunctory pleasantries. It definitely seems as though decisions were made previously before the meeting, and the meeting exists as just a formality to make decisions legally binding. Any passion that I have seen has been shown by our school staff – the principals, teachers, and even students that have presented to the board.
But, is that a bad thing? I’m not as certain as I once was. Just last month, the DPI released its score cards for the 2022-2023 school year. I will provide my standard line graphs below for you. In the past, I’ve provided graphs showing our district and its physically closest neighbors. However, I’ve come to understand that, for better or worse, the populace at large appears to care less for physical proximity to group nearby communities than it does about extracurricular activities. As such, it appears that those schools within the same “conference” as ours are of most interest to the electorate. So, even though Eau Claire’s Memorial High School is 10.6 miles away (a 15 minute drive), and the Columbus School District in Marshfield is 66.9 miles away (a 76 minute drive), the graphs below will show only those schools listed within the Cloverbelt conference, so they will show Columbus, but not the much closer Eau Claire schools. Schools were included where there was adequate data to make reasonable-looking graphs, removing only those schools that didn’t have sufficient data to show any lines properly (such as a couple of the “charter schools” that exist within a couple of districts).
These graphs all show the main “Overall Accountability Score” metrics, which have been run through my DPI Summary Consolidation Application, which aggregates all of the scores against “like” entities (such as all elementary schools, etc.), compares them, and ranks them to get a percentile. As stated previously, I created this application because of the DPI’s habit of “moving goalposts” making their thresholds arbitrary. By using this ranking method, we can get a solid baseline that’s based on how schools compare to each OTHER, creating a much better and more stable metric for comparison’s sake.
As with any percentile, it’s similar to golf scores – the lower the better! A percentile score of 5% means that that school/district is within the TOP 5% of ALL schools/districts of that type. Compare that to a score of 90%, which would mean that 90% of all schools/districts of the same type did BETTER than the school in question on this metric, which is why these charts will appear “flipped” from the kind you usually see, with the “larger” number at the bottom.
As I’ve already provided superfluous commentary above, I will refrain from doing so for the rest of this page, and just let the data mostly speak for itself. The charts will show, in order, the overall accountability scores for the Cloverbelt conference for all Districts as a whole, and then Elementary, Middle/Jr High Schools, and High Schools, each on a separate graph.
I have tried to make Fall Creek stand out slightly more from all of the rest of the lines by making the line “cricket green” with red marking points. You can click each of the images to enlarge them.
As you can see, with the exception of the elementary school, the “trajectories” of the other schools, as well as the district as a whole, are in a positive direction. So, even though I do still have concerns about the passion and transparency of the school board, the operation of the district as a whole seems to be largely functional and mostly improving year-over-year, and especially as our children rise in the grades/years.
As such, I have made the final decision to skip this upcoming election for the school board. I will watch the district for another year with the slight change-up in the sitting board member roster and the change of superintendent, and see how they do this school year, before deciding whether to run again the same time next year.
I’ve had some time to look things over, and to formulate my thoughts on the election and its results. So, here they are.
First, I am actually excited to see that from last year’s election, we almost DOUBLED the number of participating voters, from 22.2% of all eligible voters, to 38.6% of all eligible voters. This is good news for our democracy. It shows that on the local level we’re getting much more interested in the process, and want to have our voices heard. This is a great thing!
I’d like to start by looking back at last election cycle to see my personal results, and then compare those to this cycle.
Last Year
Here were my 2022 Spring results:
I did half as well for the Village Trustee position as I did for the school board, which makes sense, because really the school board is where my heart is, as I really want the best for our kids more than anything else. I also had some VERY strong competition for the Village Board, as pretty much everyone else on the ballot were well known names already in the local community, and I had just gotten started. I talked with my wife about the school board results, and while my percentage was extremely low, she told me that I should be proud of myself for accidentally running against the school board president who’d been on the board for over 15 years. I’ll have to take her at her word for that, as she has experience with this kind of thing, having grown up in another small rural Wisconsin community.
Now, looking at this year’s results…
This Year
In the School Board Primary, I did almost exactly as well as I did last year’s general election. So I have to assume it was largely the same people voting for me. The fact that it’s a primary however, and many people ignore primaries and just vote at the “regular” elections makes me feel a bit better about my results. Even though I was the lowest vote-getter and got knocked off the ballot, getting as many votes in the primary as I got in the general election last year I think I should consider some form of win. The total number of votes cast during the primary was 1,257. The total number of votes cast for the School Board during this year’s general election was 2,454, with only 14 of those being write-ins. Making the assumptions that if my name was still on the ballot, and that I would have received the same percentage of the vote… if we just increased the total number of votes cast from the primary to match the general election and increased my votes proportionately, then I would have theoretically received 253 votes, putting me at third place. Now, of course, that’s a WHOLE LOT of postulating, and most likely wouldn’t match up with reality. But it’s a slightly comforting thought to blunt the loss.
I did SUBSTANTIALLY better in the Trustee race than I did this time last year. In fact, almost three times better. So that shows some good progress. This could be partly attributed to the fact that my votes weren’t “split”, as I’m sure last year that at least a good chunk of people believed that I should only have one position or the other, but not both. This year, with me being knocked off the ballot for school board, I most likely consolidated all of the votes I would have gotten. I’m slightly miffed that with the efforts that I put in that I barely got more votes than two people who didn’t do any advertising that I had seen, and didn’t do any canvassing that I’m aware of. Que sera, sera.
This year, I started my canvassing at the opposite side of the Village from where I started last year and worked my way backwards. Between the last two years, I’ve physically canvassed roughly 75% of the Village of Fall Creek proper. Being a family man with a full time job, my time is fairly limited in that way, and physically walking from house to house to talk to people is EXTREMELY time consuming. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to even TOUCH the more “remote” areas outside of the main village that are still within the bounds of the school board’s jurisdiction, such as the Towns of Seymour and Lincoln. I hope to get to them next year.
Conclusion
I have determined that, with the progress that I have made, that there is a good portion of my fellow residents that hear my message and agree with it. I believe that I’m starting to build what they call a “constituency”, and I thank them all for their support. It’s been a long, hard road, and will continue to be one.
I don’t get anything for “free”, because I’m not what they call a “native son”. The “Bennett” name is not a name that’s been in the Fall Creek area for generations. I don’t get free automatic votes from people that knew me their entire lives, because nobody in Fall Creek has known me that long. I have no family, and very few friends here. I’m not a very social person, and I know that I can be very off-putting and rub people the wrong way. I’m working on that, the best that I can. I’ve had to work for every single vote that I’ve gotten so far, and I appreciate each and every person that has blessed me with their trust and faith. Thank you.
I have decided to continue my efforts. However, next year I will most likely focus on one board or the other, rather than splitting my attentions between both. Which one I choose will depend on a couple of factors, including who else may be running next year for the open positions.
I will no longer be attending the board meetings that the majority of my fellow citizens have decided that they don’t want me at. I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted. Which means that I won’t be able to record those meetings and publish them. I IMPLORE both boards to do this voluntarily themselves, and show the community that they believe in full transparency, and that they aren’t afraid to let the public know how they behave and interact with each other. Meeting agendas and minutes only give the public so much information, and in my opinion, it’s not nearly enough. Non-verbal and verbal interactions between board members reveal a whole lot more about a person’s character than the way that they vote, often times.
I’m going to be reducing my Facebook footprint substantially. It’s been pointed out to me that it’s caused more detriments than benefits to my campaigns. People can misinterpret and take things the wrong way or only read/hear part of the message and ignore the rest. I’ve also been told that that constant presence there has become irritating to some, and if there’s one thing I don’t want to be, it’s an irritant. We need to be able to talk about important issues without getting personal, and apparently that’s much harder to do on Facebook. So I will be mostly restricting my own thoughts to this site from here on out. That way people can come here if they want to know and hear them, rather than have them “forced” on them. I also do much better face-to-face than I do in text format, frankly, as it gives me the chance to see people’s reactions, and respond to them in kind, explaining myself further or in a different way as needed to make sure the message gets across correctly and isn’t misunderstood.
I’ve pointed out to most people reading this the faults and the problems that I’ve seen. And I think a lot of people are starting to open their eyes to those issues. The first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is one. Now, I think it’s time to start working on creating solutions to those problems.
I will also be slowing down a bit, spending some more time with my family, less time walking around, more time thinking about what I think this community needs, and formulating potential plans for improvement. To start focusing on solutions, rather than just problems.
I would like to thank again those that voted for me. Your voices have been heard. It’s not a roar, rather a low rumble, but I suspect that it will be a constant one that will grow in time.
Finally, I would once again like to congratulate all of the sitting board members that maintained their position in this election, as well as congratulate Amy Kurtz for her big win on the School Board. I hope that she will make some positive changes to the status quo.
The reason I decided to run for school board is simple… the TEACHERS!! Our teachers have been asked to go above and beyond in the onset of COVID and in the aftermath of COVID the high expectations haven’t gone away- in fact higher expectations have been placed on our teachers. Teachers who feel supported, heard, and their educational needs are being met create positive learning environments for their students.
What areas for improvement do you see in any areas under the board’s purview?
There is a significant need to address the educational gaps in our current curriculum, assessments, and how students are overall evaluated.
Presumably if someone is on a board, or wants to be on one, it’s because they want to make a positive impact on the community. What’s the biggest positive impact that you would like to see?
I would like to see our space needs met and be able to give ourselves room to grow. Currently classrooms are either nearing capacity or are over capacity. I believe the Fall Creek School Board and Fall Creek Village Board need to work together to plan for the future of the community.
What plans do you have to affect change, and why are these changes needed?
I plan to observe all classrooms in the Fall Creek School District and have open, honest communication with all teachers and support staff. I want to see the great things that are being done and get a greater insight on each classrooms needs. I can’t make affective change unless I truly know and understand the barriers teachers and support staff are facing.
To run for this position, you must believe that a change needs to be made and are working to replace at least one sitting board member. What makes you a better candidate for the position than the current sitting board members that are running to maintain their seats?
My reason to run for school board has nothing to do with the members up for re-election and everything to do with it being the right time in my personal life to run for school board. In the last year, I have seen how my children have been affected by decisions that have been made and I decided what better time than now. I want to be able to make a positive impact when my children are young and then be able to move on and enjoy my children’s school years.
How many board meetings have you attended in the last year? If none, why not? If you have attended meetings, what questions have you asked and/or what input have you provided to the sitting board?
I have attended one school board meeting in the last year. I attended this meeting to address the board on behalf of the kindergarten parents regarding the kindergarten class room sizes and requesting another kindergarten teacher be added for the school year. I drafted a letter to the board and gathered signatures from other kindergarten families who were in support of adding a kindergarten teacher due to significant safety issues and students’ educational needs not being met.
What have you done as a private citizen thus far to attempt to improve this community?
I have been and will continue to be a positive voice for the children in our community. I will continue to stand up for any injustice for our students, teachers, and community members.
I care about the students of Fall Creek School District and want to make sure we can educate our children but stay in budget.
What areas for improvement do you see in any areas under the board’s purview?
I feel that the board is doing a great job of putting the children’s education as top priority.
Presumably if someone is on a board, or wants to be on one, it’s because they want to make a positive impact on the community. What’s the biggest positive impact that you would like to see?
I would like to see better communication between the Village Board and the School Board. I will only make Fall Creek a better place to reside and to send their children.
What specific positive changes have you individually made so far, and what others do you have planned going forward?
As a board member we don’t do “individual positive changes”. We work together to make sure that the students are getting the best education possible, that the school stays on budget and all of the employees are being paid fairly according to other schools the same size as Fall Creek.
What distinguishes you from other sitting board members? What makes you a different kind of representative to the board that’s not already covered by any sitting board member? What do you offer that other board members do not?
I don’t feel that I stand out any more than any other board member. I have been on the board for 9 years and have enjoyed being part of a board that truly cares about the children and the employees of the district. We all have other jobs and we can utilize our experiences with other occupations to help run the school district proficiently.
What specific questions have you raised that have created more thoughtfulness in board decisions? What were the outcomes of those questions?
Any questions that I have raised that have created more thoughtfulness have been in closed session so they will not published.
Why do you think others have decided to run for your position? What have you done, or do you have planned to address their concerns and reasons for them to be running?
I have not heard from any other candidates as to why they are running for school board so I can’t answer that.
I would like to congratulate Mmes. Kurtz, Geske, Anderson, and Mattson, who are continuing on to the general election. Obviously, I will not be joining them. As the lowest vote recipient, I’m out.
My percentage of the vote dropped a substantial 60.93%, from 16.97% of the vote last cycle to a mere 10.34% of the vote this cycle, while at the same time the total number of voters actually increased by 162.82%. In fact, I received one less vote than I did last cycle, when I was running alone against Mr. Wright, which saddens and surprises me, as I spent roughly eight times more time out there, pounding pavement, knocking on doors, and listening to and talking with my fellow community members, all at the expense of my own family’s time with me.
I will still be waiting and watching for the Village Board election results when that time comes after April 4th, but as I received half as many votes for that board last time as I did for the school board, I won’t be holding my breath.
This is, frankly, disheartening to me, to fare so poorly. I understand that my presentation can be abrasive, and that I’m often times saying things that people don’t want to hear. It’s only because I care so much that I say these things, because I feel that they need to be said when nobody else seems to be speaking these truths. Everything that I do comes from a place of trying to improve things, to make them better, for our children.
However, the electorate, my fellow citizens, don’t believe that I am the one to fill that role this year, and I must accept that.
I will continue to try to reach out to you all one-on-one, time permitting, and to have the conversations that are necessary to learn just what it is that my fellow Fall Creek residents are seeking, so that I can be a better representative to you, and try to understand what it is exactly that you all are looking for. I’ve been told during my campaign that the people want to hear only positive things, fluff and smiles, and that they turn on ANY serious discussion or criticism, even constructive criticism, and that I was foolish to try to bring up such things. I didn’t want to believe that, as I was more optimistic about my fellow citizen’s desire to have serious civil discussions about important topics regarding the District’s well-being. I never was one to hold a “Pollyanna” viewpoint about things, I’ve always tried to be a realist. But, perhaps these results are proof that I was wrong, and that that viewpoint is what is actually desired by the people.
Regardless, with this utter failure, I can no longer justify spending so much time away from my family to attend and record meetings that the electorate does not appear to want me at. It is my hopes that the boards will voluntarily pick up this practice, and push to increase transparency in our local governments. I still believe that there is a deep-rooted desire in our hearts for us to know what’s going on around us, and not just what decisions are made, but HOW they are made.
I am not going away, I never will. I care too much to do that. However, I will be substantially quieter for the near future, and perhaps that’s for the best for everyone. My only regret is that I won’t be in any position to serve the community for the next year in a way that I’m confident that I could have done well in, if given the chance.
**CORRECTION** I made the incorrect assumption below that the Tri-County Area Times had successfully contacted all nominees for the School Board. After it being pointed out to me that this was incorrect, I double checked my physical copy of the paper (which you can buy at Fall-Mart if supplies are still there!), and discovered that the editor only successfully contacted myself, AnneMarie Anderson, and Amy Kurtz. Jess Mattson and Jill Geske were NOT contacted.
The Tri-County Area Times e-mailed all of the candidates for School Board and asked them the same questions. Below are the questions, as well as my responses to them. Please don’t forget, that the primary is tomorrow! 7AM-7PM. You should be able to register the same day if you need to, as long as you bring a form of picture ID and proof of Fall Creek residency!
1). What criteria and qualities will you be looking for in hiring a new Superintendent for the Fall Creek School District?
Fall Creek has had an excellent program of celebrating and advertising the District’s successes. I would like to see our new Superintendent continue that tradition. They should also be a person that is focused on academic success, first and foremost above all other things, as that is the primary purpose of the school district – to educate our children, the best that we can. They should be intimately knowledgeable in the way that the Department of Public Instruction judges schools, and seek to use that knowledge to support continual, measurable improvement. They should have integrity, believe in full transparency, and be honest and unafraid to talk about areas for improvement.
2). What aspects in terms of how the District functions are you satisfied with and like to keep the same and are there things that you would like to see changed or improved?
Our office staff and educators are excellently professional and very good at what they do. They also care deeply about the success of our children, as I do. That does not need to change.
What I would like to see changed however, is the Board of Education itself. It should act as a check and balance for the Superintendent, rather than a rubber stamp for their policies. While not necessarily adversarial, a good Board of Education should be filled with passionate people that represent a cross section of the electorate. There should be strong, deep discussions about the challenges facing the District, and vigorous but civil debate should not only be tolerated, but in fact be fostered and encouraged.
Transparency should be strongly encouraged, and if I get on the Board, I’ll push to have it codified in the Board’s written policies that all meetings will be video recorded and published on the District’s website, along with the informational packets that the board members receive at the start of the meetings. I would like to see these packets provided to the public BEFORE the meetings, so that the citizenry can make educated comments at the start of Board meetings before the issues are discussed and voted on by Board members.
Additionally, I would like to put forward what I call the “Take a Break Act”, which would set term limits on Board Members. These term limits would, however, NOT be absolute. Board members would be able to serve two consecutive terms, and then must wait for one full term before running for office again, at which point they can run for another two full terms before taking another break. In this way, the Board of Education and community can reap both benefits of having new blood, new ideas coming into the Board periodically, as well as the benefit of retaining the wisdom of Board members that wish to keep serving our community.
3). How can the Fall Creek School District benefit from the growth in the Chippewa Valley region (Eau Claire-Chippewa Falls-Lake Halle-Altoona) especially in terms of gaining new students?
I don’t think that a School District should be attempting to reap the “benefits” of any growth that may occur in the Valley, nor attempt to chase any specific growth in its student population. What I call “The Fallacy of Perpetual Growth”, I actually see as large a problem in our society that causes organizations to continue to push for greater continual growth, while at the same time gutting their internal resources to fuel that growth, making their staff do more with less. I call this “The Jenga Effect”, and it inevitably results in the collapse of the organization. Enron, KMart, and WorldCom come immediately to mind as examples of this. This is short term thinking.
I would rather have our District practice long term thinking and prepare itself to handle the natural ebb and flow of the community’s population. Rather than focus on growth, focus on bolstering its own internal resources, improving on what they already do, which is to provide an excellent education to all students of the Fall Creek area.
Here’s a list of the current nominees for school board for the primary tomorrow, in ballot order, with links to their webpages and/or an “official” posting of their candidate statements. (*) Indicates incumbents:
Due to there being more than four candidates running, Fall Creek will be having a Spring Primary for the spots on the School Board on February 21, 2023.
I hope that I can count on the support of anyone reading this to show up on that day and vote for me to continue into the general election.
I’ll go ahead and publicly state here for the record my most important priorities if I got onto the School Board:
Transparency – People have busy lives, yet are still interested in the happenings of their local government. And I believe that they have a right to have such knowledge at their fingertips. As such, I’ve personally attempted to attend all of the school board meetings that I could and recorded and released the video of these meetings online for anyone to view at their leisure. I would like to make it policy that the school board choose to voluntarily do this, and to release it to their website within a week of the meeting occurring.
Accountability – the Fall Creek School District mission is stated as being “Committed to Academic and Personal Excellence”. Yet, from what I have seen from the outside looking in, barely any time at all in the school board meetings are actually devoted to discussing academic progress. Our teachers are doing the best that they can, and I’d like to help them to do even better. I will push to have academic excellence as the Board’s top priority again, and to include at the very least a short discussion on academic progress of the District and the School at every meeting. Ideally, I’d like us to use a “big data” approach so that we can view objective progress towards these goals. I’d like everyone to be able to see where we are, and where we are going, in clear and unambiguous terms. And us taxpayers should be able to see, at all times, just how well our schools are doing.
Dynamism – It is important that governments have both a constant churn and influx of new ideas, as well as to still maintain the experiences of those that came before. We need both youth, enthusiasm, and wise experience to be successful. As such, and to reduce stagnation, I propose what I call the “Take a Break” Act. Rather than setting absolute term limits, this act would allow sitting board members to serve for a maximum of two consecutive terms, after which time they are forbidden from running for another term until at least one full term has passed. After which time they may choose to again run for up to two more consecutive terms, repeating this pattern indefinitely. This gives others a chance to get in and get their ideas heard, while at the same time giving those with the drive and experience the ability to keep supporting our schools.
I hope that you can agree to these goals. I dearly wish the best for our students, and want to see them given the best possible education.
