Special School Board Meeting - Sep 4, 2019
On September 4, 2019, the School Board held a special meeting to receive a consultant's presentation about the financial facts surrounding two options:
- Closing Orchard Lane Elementary
- Closing Orchard Lane Elementary AND Closing Eisenhower High School AND Closing West Middle School
The presentation was given by Dr. Matt Gibson, who is a consultant that is connected with KPH Construction (a commercial construction company) and the former superintendent of the Elmbrook School District. He was not formally introduced at the meeting, and the paperwork that was distributed to the public does not feature his name or his affiliation with any company. It is not clear who hired Dr. Gibson, or how much he was paid for his work.
The aforementioned paperwork was not made available to the public before the meeting, and board members mentioned that it was only made available to them less than 30 minutes before the meeting. I cannot find a downloadable version of the paperwork on the district web site.
An announcement before the meeting began said that notices were posted on Friday, Aug 30 in the schools, in the district office, the city library, and on the district web site. The meeting was not announced via the school district social media channels.
The meeting started at 6:30pm and ended at approximately 9pm. There was an opportunity for Privilege of the Floor, and for Board member Q&A and audience Q&A after the presentation.
I did not count the number in attendance, but nearly all the chairs were filled. (My estimate: 50-60 people)
Missing from the meeting at the front of the room was one board member and the new Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer.
The video from this meeting is now on the district web site.
Unfortunately, the district is utilizing the outdated and obsolete Adobe Flash Player, so some browsers may not be able to play it. Others may require you to manually enable the Flash Player plugin.
Time codes of interest:
00:01:30 - Privilege of the Floor
00:38:31 - Presentation by Consultant
01:22:50 - School Board Member Questions
01:49:00 - Public Questions
The meeting packet that was made available to the public is not currently on the district web site, but can be found attached to this page (see the list of files to the right, or at the bottom of the page for mobile browsers).
Last Updated: Sep 13, 2019 - Archived on Sep 13, 2019
Related Files
- Open Letter to the Board of Education, et al. - Sep 20, 2019
- School Board Meeting Packet - September 4, 2019
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