Manitowoc letters share views on school board race, immigration, jails and constitutional amendments

Here are this week’s letters to the editor of the Herald Times Reporter. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.

Any letters regarding the April 2 election must be submitted by no later than noon March 27.

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Vote Stacey Soeldner for school board

Attention parents of students in the Manitowoc Public School District: Do you realize that as the school board election nears April 2 your students are pawns in a power struggle?

There is one candidate, Stacey Soeldner, who has worked to bring up reading scores, who along with the new superintendent has sought to establish a system to access monitoring of progress of students and adjust the instruction that was missing, finding a new, relevant and viable curriculum to remedy those abysmal reading scores.

The other two candidates were either current or past MPSD board members who sat by and watched the scores fall to shameful levels.

When you go to the polls, there is only ONE candidate to vote for if you wish to see continued improvement in the education your students are getting, rather than just voting for the status-quo, “good old boy network” of candidates who are basically “retreads,” having served in multiple public offices.

Vote Stacey Soeldner April 2 — one vote is enough!

Sulynn Moore

Manitowoc

Choosing a school board candidate means aligning with a national party

Although you won’t see Democratic or Republican campaign logos on literature or lawn signs in the lead up to the Manitowoc Public School District elections, rest assured that “non-partisan” school board candidates are linked to the respective Republican and Democratic parties.

Recently, Manitowoc Public School Superintendent James Feil (not an elected official, nor candidate) appeared alongside board member Stacey Soeldner at a gathering of the local GOP. Earlier in February, other school board candidates met with the Manitowoc Democratic Party. The former House Speaker Tip O’Neil once said “All politics are local,” but I’m guessing he never envisioned just how political local elections could be.

Running non-partisan candidates allows school boards to avoid ideological “crisis points,” but that’s becoming very difficult these days. As such, voters need to recognize that choosing a candidate means aligning themselves with a national party as well as its leaders and ideology.

For the Democrats, it’s standing with President Biden and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (both up for re-election) and Democratic issues: protecting Social Security and Medicare benefits, women’s reproductive rights, lowering prescription drug prices, and taxing large corporations. For the Republicans, it’s standing with Donald Trump, the ongoing culture wars, election denial, anti-abortion with no exceptions, book-banning and unregulated gun rights.

Our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were leaders in creating a public school system. They believed that the stability of our democracy was dependent on an educated populace. That much has not changed.

James Mullins

Manitowoc

Waiting for response from Rep. Grothman on immigration

I wrote to U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman March 9 in response to his newsletter. As of March18, no reply received.

Dear Rep. Grothman:

In your March 9 newsletter, you chastise President Biden for conditions at the border, without mentioning that Republicans in the House, at the request of Donald Trump, walked away from a bi-partisan bill that contained most of what your party said they want. You must own this now. Your party is content to live with all the negatives you cite about border conditions, including crimes committed by drug cartels and the many other criminals you insist are flooding into the country. You can solve this problem easily — bring the bill to a vote — it will pass. If you fail to do that, you are failing to do your job — providing for the betterment of your constituents. Politics can be hard when you have someone like Trump publicly trashing you if you don’t do his bidding, but we didn’t send you to Washington to do politics — we sent you there to do what is best for the country.

Please tell me what you personally will do to bring the immigration bill forward for a vote. I don’t need a response like the last one from you outlining the issues at the border — I am aware of this, so you don’t need to repeat it. What I need is for you to tell me what you will do and when you will do it.

Thank you.

Marcia Lemberger

Manitowoc

Vote Trask and Shaw for school board

MPSD staff recently took a survey regarding their job satisfaction and support from administration. Teachers and staff gave ratings from very satisfied to very dissatisfied and then categories were given percentages to show the outcomes of the survey and how they compare to other districts.

Our staff was quite dissatisfied in the beginning of the year and scores have drastically dropped even further to a dismal 1%, meaning 99% of all other districts had higher scores than us. This tells you that the staff of MPSD do NOT feel supported by the administration or the community.

We have lost more teachers in the last two years than the state average. These numbers continue to fall because of teachers being disrespected by Superintendent James Feil, Stacey Soeldner and the board majority who spend a large chunk of their time attacking policies that protect marginalized students, starting culture wars online and dividing our community. They have not addressed the survey results from the previous survey and continue to ignore staff concerns.

It doesn’t matter what curriculum we put in place if we don’t have teachers to teach. Soeldner has not addressed the poor staff surveys and they continue to decline, and teachers continue to leave!

Elect Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw April 2. They are both former educators who understand what we need to do to retain good teachers and staff in our district. We cannot afford to allow dissatisfaction among staff, or we will not have a staff left.

Rebecca Wilinski

Newton

Stacey Soeldner will keep schools moving in the ‘right direction’

A group called “ALLY” is determined to move the MPSD back to the way it was before Stacey Soeldner (and Collin Braunel and the two Matts and Tony) were on the board.

When these people came on the board, the main problems were the lack of discipline, poor test scores and the introduction of DEI and teaching of gender issues to our children.

Now, I sure hope they don’t want to eliminate the new reading program that is having such success, and I don’t think they were ever really concerned about discipline — so that leaves DEI and gender issues.

Diversity and inclusiveness have always been the norm in a public school system, but “equity” means all students come out the same regardless of their effort and/or abilities. And do we really want our students, as young as 4K, learning about transgender issues? Isn’t this the parents’ job to teach this, as they see fit?

Parents are the first teachers — you have a right to have a say in what is taught in our schools.

To retain that right — vote to keep Stacey Soeldner on the board. She will keep us moving in the right direction.

Ann Wolf

Manitowoc

Manitowoc County Jail should offer free calls and emails

Manitowoc County Jail recently went to a mail service based in Phoenix, Maryland. It is the same mail service the Department of Corrections uses. In the DOC, it takes two weeks for an incarcerated person to receive a letter from a loved one. With the jail delivering mail electronically, I hope it doesn't take that long to communicate with someone in the MCJ.

Communication is, supremely, important — for everyone. It’s important for mental health for incarcerated people. That impacts the safety of other incarcerated people and jail staff. Communication is also very important for affecting a change in incarcerated people — so, when they’re released, they don’t go back to jail in the future.

I understand the reason the Manitowoc County Jail went to the new mail service — to try to keep drugs out of the jail. That’s a noble pursuit, but there’s a solution to all of these issues — free calls and emails.

Many states have gone to free calls and emails — in their state prisons and county jail — because of the predatory pricing of calls. Free calls and emails have nearly eliminated paper mail, sped up communication, provided increased security (for all), and produced more favorable outcomes of incarceration. Let’s not forget that the vast majority of incarcerated people will be our neighbors one day.

Tom Denk

Reedsville

Vote Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw for school board

Things I ponder: I did not pay attention to school board meetings in the past. Was I not interested, or did I trust board decisions? Not until the COVID-19 pandemic, when some board members refused masking against Health Department recommendations and medical providers were begging the board to follow, did I perk up. Where did working for the “common good” go? Then, came anti CRT and DEI. So, no importance to studying U.S. history?

How much is ALEC behind recent board decisions? We know the North Carolina group reached out to two Matts and Tony after they were elected to the board. Why are two retired people from Michigan (soon to be one) leading the district? For almost a half million dollars? Why? Political agenda perhaps current board majority supports?

Recent meetings include a board member focused on the word penis, saying it at least three times and someone from “gays against groomers” yelling and accusing some audience members of being a cult and the ones who children should fear.

Appalling what has occurred under Stacey Soeldner’s board service.

Let’s educate, respect and do our best to understand all students and history and biology.

My votes for Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw are no secret.

Patty Marquardt

Manitowoc

Vote ‘No’ on constitutional amendments

There is a proposal by our state’s Republican Party to add an amendment to the Constitution on the April 2 ballot. The amendment has two parts. Both are an effort to pose significant risks to the principles of fairness and inclusion in government.

Republicans are pushing this amendment to meddle in election administration and leave districts with fewer resources to keep polling places open.

Question 1 would amend the State Constitution to prohibit municipalities from accepting nonpartisan grants to help fund our elections. This could force local officials to close polling places altogether or even raise taxes to ensure elections run smoothly.

Question 2 would amend the Wisconsin Constitution to state that no one other than an election official authorized by law may help conduct any election in the state. On the surface, this may seem to make sense. But introducing uncertainty over who is considered an “election official” could present opportunities for Republicans to cast doubt and spread conspiracies if election results don’t go their way. Would a volunteer greeting voters outside a polling place be considered an election official or a police officer escorting election material on election night? The uncertainties created by this amendment have no place in our state constitution and could result in court cases and delays in election results.

As stewards of democracy, it is imperative that Wisconsites reject this amendment and uphold the integrity of our electoral system.

Vote “No” on Questions 1 and 2 on April 2.

Barbara Welnetz

Manitowoc

Vote for ‘proven leaders’ Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw

Stay the course?

Stacey Soeldner, the current president of the Manitowoc Public School District Board of Education, is running for reelection. Her yard signs say “Stay the Course.” With all that has gone wrong in the school system with her as board president, “staying the course” is clearly what we DON’T need from the board.

After only a month on the job as superintendent, James Feil hired an assistant superintendent for a salary package of more than $200,000. That assistant has spent only a few days a month in the district and rest of the time working from her home in Michigan. Her recent resignation is probably an indication that even she realized it was a bad idea.

With Soeldner as board president, the superintendent was given an extension on his contract with no formal evaluation of his performance.

Soeldner was largely responsible for the elimination of the committee structure — a structure important to the successful functioning of the board.

Not surprisingly, the morale in the system is not good. Teachers and administrators are leaving at a disturbing rate. Consequently, when openings in the MPSD are posted, it is unlikely top candidates will apply.

I urge you to help the board to take a different course by voting April 2 for proven leaders Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw.

Jim Rabata

Manitowoc

‘Right the Ships’ by voting for Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw

This year, my school taxes went up 46%. What is happening?

First, the board hired a new superintendent, who immediately created a new position of assistant superintendent. Their annual compensation adds up to $438,030. (And that does not include the unknown amounts that may have been spent to buy out contracts for administrators pushed out in mid contract.)

Then, the superintendent convinced the board to adopt a new district reading curriculum, Success For All, significantly more expensive than the one that had been recommended by a district committee of teachers. Based on evidence provided by the district, for the first year the cost of the program is at $2.2 million, which is more than double the original figure, and ongoing costs are estimated to add more than $340,000 a year going forward. Moreover, recently the state left SFA off their list of recommended curricula. Using an unapproved program will certainly add significantly to the costs for the district.

Now, after gaining approval for a $61 million referendum last year, the board has discussed an even larger one they say is needed for building maintenance.

This new administration has repeatedly shown itself financially incompetent. Meanwhile, the board has shown little interest in providing guidance or oversight financially. This year, they even disbanded the long-time Board Finance Committee, meant to watch over the money.

Still, Stacey Soeldner says we should “stay the course.” But if you have dug yourself into a deep hole, the best advice is to stop digging! It is time to “Right the Ships.” Vote for Trask and Shaw on April 2.

David Gratz

Manitowoc

Vote Stacey Soeldner to help get district ‘back on track’

After attending the school board candidate forum, I am disheartened by the misogyny expressed toward our board president by the three men running. These reckless, unprovoked attacks toward our only female board member and candidate is causing more unnecessary division on the school board and in the community. Feminists did not fight for equal rights for centuries for women to be treated unequally.

Hate speech and hate campaigns should not be encouraged or part of a school board race. Local special-interest and hate groups have no place in our schools and community. We should be able to come together and find solutions we all agree upon for the sake of all students.

Stacey Soeldner has made it clear all our kids deserve great public schools. Stacey is the only incumbent in this race who was against and did not vote to mask and send students like me home during COVID-19.

District reading scores increased 10% after only two quarters from the new Success for All reform. She looks at what our district needs improvement on, visits classrooms, promotes our schools positively, holds listening sessions to find solutions that benefit all, supported the Parental Bill of Rights, and meets with the principals to see how they are doing and how she, as a board member, can improve. That is being in it for the cause, not herself.

We, the people, must stay the course. That is the only way to get our district back on track and have kids come first.

Brayden Myer

Manitowoc

‘Right our Ship’ with Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw

The school district just completed another staff survey and recently released the results after a request was made through the open records law. It was stated at the last board meeting that they were looking to compare our district results with other districts in the state. Please take a moment and reflect on this information before voting April 2 for the school board.

We ranked at the 1st percentile on each of these following criteria under Stacey Soeldner’s leadership.

That means that staff in 99% of other districts scored the answer higher than in our school district. Not a record to be proud of for sure.

• District administration is doing what it takes to make our district successful;

• The district seeks input from a broad group of staff members;

• The district is heading in the right direction; and

• The school board is doing what it takes to make our district successful.

I could say more, but I’ll let the results speak for themselves.

Vote to make our district the quality district it used to be when we valued and listened to our teachers and staff. Vote Kerry Trask and Keith Shaw for the Manitowoc School Board on April 2. We need to “Right our Ship!”

Lisa Johnston

Newton

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Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to htrnews@htrnews.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc letters to the editor on April 2 election for school board