Hilson retires from Colfax Board of Education

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  After serving on the Colfax Board of Education for 15 years, Joel Hilson decided not to run for re-election in April.

Hilson said he concluded he had served on the school board long enough and that it was time for him to step aside so someone else could have the opportunity to serve.

Andrew DeMoe was elected to the school board in the April election to fill Hilson’s position.

For the past two years, Hilson served as president of the school board.

Hilson and his wife, Lori, own Club 40, and Hilson also farms.

With his business ventures, Hilson said he was concerned about not being able to give the Board of Education his full attention and the attention it deserved.

Over the past 15 years, the Colfax school district experienced quite a few changes, he noted, including three different administrators: Lee Bjurquist, Dennis Geissler, and now Bill Yingst.

Principals have come and gone as well, as have members of the teaching staff.

“I’ve always learned something from every one of the administrators, superintendents, the staff,” Hilson said.

Finances

Over the past 15 years, school finances have changed tremendously too.

“In the Bjurquist years, there was a lot of funding. Now it keeps cutting down. And that doesn’t help … your income does not go up, so you have to watch your expenditures,” Hilson said.

Governor Scott Walker’s move to effectively end collective bargaining for most public employees in 2011, which also cut school funding that has never been restored, also occurred during Hilson’s tenure on the Colfax Board of Education.

“Act 10 gave the school district some flexibility for insurance. But it did hurt the employees because they did go from paying part of their insurance and their retirement to more of it,” Hilson said.

“Could Act 10 have been done differently? Yes … we’ve always tried to make sure our staff had pay raises every year. We’ve got good staff, and we don’t want to lose them,” he said.

Hilson noted that Act 10 could have been phased in over five or six years and could have been done in a way that did not create so much negativity about public employees.

“I have always said, I will put our staff, our teachers, our aides, our bus drivers, against any other district. They’re good. They’re a good bunch of people. They want the kids to succeed,” he said.

Funding will continue to be a challenge for the school board, and a good housing project in the Colfax area would really help to bring children into the district, Hilson said.

School districts receive state funding based on the number of students enrolled.

“It doesn’t matter what size your community is, if your town has a school district, your community stays vibrant,” Hilson said.

School events and programs always draw people from different age groups, and it’s a good way for people to socialize, he noted.

Decision to run

Regarding Hilson’s initial decision to run for the school board 15 years ago, “I knew the school district ran fine and that it was a good system. I thought there could be some changes made. The one thing I always wanted was something different in the high school level. A lot of those kids have learned reading, writing and arithmetic, and they want to put it to practical use,” Hilson said.

“Because of the funding, you can’t get into what you’d like with the auto mechanics, the shop, the woodworking, construction, music, the arts. You have to keep the core classes there. Some of those kids, they don’t care about algebra. But if you put them to work on a car engine and teach them why they need algebra for that, they’re going to do better. But because of the way funding is set up, you just can’t do it,” he said.

The agriculture program, Family Living and the business department now have classes that will qualify for science and math credits, Hilson noted.

“The kids will learn math and science in a different way,” he said.

“The kid who says ‘why do I need reading and math. I want to work on cars.’ You hand him the manual, and you tell him he has to read it and understand it. When you calibrate a gas to air ratio, you have to use math. You have to explain it to kids so the light goes on. The same with the business classes. The mechanic says, ‘why do I need business classes?’ Well, if you’re going to run your own business someday, you’re going to have to figure out your expenses and your income. Is it worth it to put a $10,000 wheel alignment machine?” Hilson said.

Time served

Sometimes people ask Hilson about the time commitment for serving on the school board.

“There’s always a meeting to go to or reading that can be done. People ask me how much time you put into the school board. It depends on how much time you want to put in on it. You have to find your medium and what you are comfortable with. If you want to be involved with CESA 11 or with the Wisconsin School Board Association. There are a lot of things to be involved with,” he said.

A person could spend four or five hours a day reading about various issues related to school boards and school districts if the person were so inclined, Hilson added.

“One thing I would say to the taxpayers and people of the district, don’t be afraid to contact a board member. If they don’t have the answer, they will point you in the direction to get it,” Hilson said.

“The biggest thing I found was people contacted me and wanted to vent. I listened, and then I pointed them in the direction I felt would be helpful. Almost every one never had to get back to me,” he said.

“I’m grateful for the voters who voted me in over the years … and like I said, I will put our staff up against any district in the state,” Hilson said.