Colfax parents demand answers from school board
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — About 50 people attended the Colfax Board of Education’s March 17 meeting to demand answers.
Most of the people at the meeting appeared to be parents of students in the school district, but it was not at all clear what they wanted answers about.
Prior to the public comments portion of the meeting, Ken Neuburg, school board member and vice-president of the school board, noted that any comments pertaining to personnel and student confidentiality should go through the proper channels for consideration.
Neuburg also read a letter from the school district’s legal counsel, which pointed out that a public comment period during a public meeting is not required by the state’s Open Meetings law.
The Colfax school board seeks input at each meeting of the board, but the comments “cannot trigger action,” and only items on the agenda can be under consideration for action by the Board of Education, Neuburg said.
Comments critical of staff performance are of concern, and specifics should be given to the staff member’s immediate supervisor, he said.
If no response is received from the immediate supervisor, then the next step is to go to the administrator’s supervisor, which is the school superintendent, Neuburg said.
Sharing experiences
One parent asked about sharing the experiences of their children that were denied by the administration.
It was not clear whether the parent meant the administration had refused to acknowledge that the children had experienced some particular situation, or whether the parent meant that the administration had denied an opportunity to the children to communicate their experiences.
No details about a personnel issue should be given in an open session of the school board. The school board could hear details pertaining to personnel from parents in a closed session with the school board, said Todd Kragness, president of the Colfax Board of Education.
As Neuburg and Kragness tried to explain the school board’s dilemma with maintaining the privacy rights of personnel and the privacy of rights of students as well as upholding the state’s Open Meetings law, the tension in the room tightened, with some attendees grumbling, muttering and sounding angry.
Bill Anderson, Colfax police chief, also was on hand and stood just outside the door of the school district’s conference room where the school board meetings are held.
Police Chief Anderson was in plain clothes.
The Colfax Messenger has covered a number of meetings over the years where tensions in a crowd are high enough that the presence of law enforcement is warranted.
Kragness pointed out to the crowd that while school board meetings are public meetings, and that public comments are included on the agenda, school board meetings are not an open forum for the public.
Not addressed
One parent told the Board of Education that she did not feel as if the situation had been addressed.
Presumably, the parent was referring to a situation that had occurred at school, although it could have been a situation on a school bus or at a sporting event.
Lawyers have looked at the issue, Kragness said.
The district’s legal counsel has reviewed the issue with the full board and the administration. There was an incident in late February, and there has been a teacher retirement. No wrong-doing was determined to have occurred, Neuburg said, adding that if someone has a problem with the superintendent, then the school board is the superintendent’s immediate supervisor.
“This is not the time or the place,” Neuburg said.
The Board of Education can schedule a closed session meeting with the parents to air their concerns with the superintendent present, he said.
The school board must stay in alignment with the Open Meetings law, Neuburg said.
The state’s Open Meetings law contains exemptions that allow governmental boards to meet in closed session, and one of those exemptions pertains to personnel issues, particularly issues that could damage someone’s reputation or could include information that is private, such as medical information.
Closed sessions typically include board members and someone authorized to keep the minutes of the closed session, which do not include details of discussions, but rather, any official actions taken by the board during the closed session.
When a board reconvenes into open session, the recommendation is that the board actually take action in open session to maintain as much transparency as possible.
Positive or negative
People cannot comment negatively about employees during the public comments portion of the meeting, and they also cannot give positive comments, Neuburg said.
If parents have something positive to say about a school district staff member, then those comments should be put into a letter addressed to the school board president, Neuburg said.
One parent said that she’d had positive discussions with Trevor Hovde, principal at Colfax Elementary.
If the school board must schedule a closed session, the school board should do that, said another parent, who asked about the school district’s legal counsel.
The Colfax school district is represented by Steve Weld of the law firm Weld Riley.
What can parents share and what can parents bring forward? asked another parent.
Parents cannot say anything that is personnel-related in open session, Kragness said.
When?
If parents cannot address their grievances with the school board, then when can parents address their grievances? asked one parent.
If parents have a concern — or a compliment — about school staff, address those comments to the principal, said William C. Yingst Jr., school superintendent.
If the principal does not handle the situation, then bring the concerns to the superintendent. If the superintendent does not address the concerns, then bring those concerns to the Board of Education, Yingst said.
When and where is the place to speak with the school board members, who are elected officials?asked another parent.
The Board of Education cannot give a specific date right now for setting the closed session meeting, Kragness said.
The school board only needs to pick a date and a time, said another parent.
Yingst suggested writing a letter to the school board to request a date and time for a closed session meeting.
Booster club
It took 18 months for the Colfax athletic booster club committee to be recognized by the school district, said Heather Logslett.
Calls were made to the school about an athletic booster club committee, but that had nothing to do with a school board decision, Kragness said.
Athletic booster clubs are self-funded and do not receive funding from school district residents who pay property taxes to support the school district.
The athletic booster club never did get on the school board’s agenda, and it was not until comments were made on social media that the athletic booster club was recognized, Logslett said.
The football team has “lost the ability” for fund raisers, and “we want to get that back,” said one parent.
It was not clear what the parent meant about the football team “losing the ability” to hold fund raisers.
Another parent said she was at the school board meeting to ask about Board of Education approval to accept her property into the Colfax school district.
The Chetek-Weyerhaeuser school board had approved releasing the property at the February meeting, she said.
Yingst said he was not aware that the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser school board had approved allowing the property to detach and said he would find out more information.
Interviews
The school district needs a diverse interview panel made up of community members to select the next elementary principal, Logslett said.
The Board of Education approved Trevor Hovde’s request for retirement in January and is currently considering candidates for the next principal at Colfax Elementary to take Hovde’s place.
Logslett asked if spouses being employed by the school district was a conflict of interest, especially when one spouse was the supervisor of another spouse.
Because school districts operate under state-imposed revenue limits, just as municipalities do, employing spouses in a school district often allows the district to save a substantial amount of money on health insurance premiums.
The school district policies that have been approved by the Board of Education are available on the Colfax school district’s website (click on the “menu” tab in the upper right corner of the Colfax school district’s home page, and then in the menu that pops up, look, for “school policies” under the heading of “district”on the far left and click on the policies link).
Each school district policy contains a reference to state statutes, so people can also look up the state law upon which the policy is based.
The school district policy on ethics and conflicts of interest, po1130, defines which activities are considered conflicts of interest for administrators.
Conflicts of interest “create the appearance of using one’s public position to secure a private pecuniary interest and/or benefit.”
An example would be the private sale of goods or services to students or other school district employees while on school premises or selling information that can be accessed in school district records or referring a student for outside services for which the administrator would be paid for making such referrals.
Posting the position
Logslett said she also was concerned about the school district posting the position internally and said the community should be engaged in the process.
In the past, the school district has posted positions internally first and then has posted positions externally, and that appears to be the procedure for the Colfax Elementary principal position this time around as well.
The Colfax school district interviewed an external candidate for football coach, and New Auburn has a panel of retired teachers to help conduct interviews, Logslett said.
Hiring of school personnel should be a community process, and the names of candidates should be shared with the community, she said.
Colfax is losing a large amount of money to students who open enroll out of the school district, said Jeanna Berge.
Onalaska has a community panel for interviewing superintendents, she said, adding that with the issues at the Colfax school district for the past two weeks, the community should be included.
When Kragness read additional names of people who had indicated they wanted to make public comments, those people said that it was a personnel issue.
If people want to comment on personnel issues, then they should send a letter to the school board, Kragness said.
Open enrollment
Polly Rudi, pupil services director for the Colfax school district, has surveyed the parents of students open-enrolled out of the school district several times in the past few years.
The Colfax Messenger has reported on the surveys of parents.
The results from the surveys have indicated that the majority of parents whose students are open-enrolled out of the district have chosen that option because another school district is much closer to their place of residence or because a parent’s work schedule or route to work makes it more convenient to drop their students off at a school along the way.
For the 2024-2025 school year, Colfax has 69 open enrollment students transferring in to the school district and 114 students open enrolling out.
The difference between the number of students open enrolling into and out of the district results in a loss of $412,350 to the Colfax school district.
The Colfax school district also is losing $100,000 this year to private school vouchers for district residents who have decided to enroll their students in private schools
Public school money goes to private schools for the school vouchers, but private schools do not operate under the same regulations and do not, for example, have to accept special needs students and provide an education for them in the least-restrictive environment.
Camera footage
One parent wanted to know when camera footage is reviewed.
Presumably, the parent was talking about footage from security cameras at the school district.
Camera footage would be related to personnel, Kragness said.
When is camera footage “allowed to be pulled?” the parent asked.
It was not clear what the parent meant by “pulling” camera footage — whether that referred to an internal review of camera footage by administrators in the district or whether it referred to releasing camera footage to the public upon request — or something else entirely.
Kragness said he would have to find out.
“You don’t give a sh*t about our kids!” the parent yelled.
“That’s not true!” Neuburg and Kragness replied in the same breath.
According to school district policy 7440.01, surveillance cameras and electronic monitoring equipment are permissible in common areas, such as hallways, entryways, front offices, gymnasiums, cafeterias and libraries, school parking lots and other outside areas and on school buses.
Surveillance cameras and electronic monitoring equipment are not allowed in classrooms during instructional times.
The policy does not prevent members of the public from videotaping events that are open to the public, such as school concerts or sporting events.
According to the policy, recordings by surveillance cameras or electronic monitoring equipment that capture students may be student records, and as such, will be treated as confidential, subject to the school district’s public records and student records policies.
School personnel may view relevant portions of any video relating to any disciplinary charge against them, upon written request to the building principal, provided that viewing the recording does not violate state and/or federal law (i.e. the privacy rights of any students whose images appear on the recordings). Otherwise, such confidential recordings shall only be released through subpoena or court order, the policy states.
According to the policy, surveillance video and electronic records shall be destroyed after seven days. If, however, action is taken by the board or the administration, as a result of a formal complaint or incident, recordings shall be kept for a minimum of one year from the date of the action taken.
Mandated reporting
One parent asked about mandated reporting, and another asked about mandated reporting for supervisors and whether it was up to Health and Human Services.
Another parent asked about an employee suspecting abuse — and is a mandated reporter under state law — but what if school personnel is the abuser?
If there are any concerns, those concerns should be put into writing and will be reviewed by the school district’s legal counsel, Yingst said.
According to school district policy po8141, “The District Administrator shall investigate any allegation of misconduct by District employees which affects the health, safety, or welfare of a student or staff member, and shall report the alleged misconduct to the State Superintendent as required by State law. Staff alleged to have committed such misconduct shall be reassigned or placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a misconduct investigation.”
The policy also states, “The District Administrator shall send a copy of any report made about a staff member, as described herein, that is made to the State Superintendent to the staff member who is the subject of the report. An administrator, or any other person who in good faith reports or fails to report information to the State Superintendent, is immune from civil liability for such acts or omissions.”
Abuse and neglect
School district policy po8462 deals with child abuse and neglect.
According to the policy, “Each District employee who has reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or neglect has occurred or is occurring, or has reasonable cause to believe a child has been threatened with abuse or neglect and that abuse or neglect is likely to occur shall be responsible for reporting immediately every case, whether verified or suspected, the circumstances giving rise to the reasonable cause.
“Reporting is mandatory even if the staff member has reason to believe that the abuse or neglect occurred, but is no longer occurring (for example, the child is no longer living with the suspected abuser). Staff members should make reports based on reasonable cause to suspect abuse or neglect and are not permitted to first investigate the circumstances in an effort to verify abuse or neglect. This can cause a loss of time and jeopardize law enforcement or social services investigations into child welfare concerns.”
The policy also states, “Each principal should be mindful of the possibility of physical or mental abuse being inflicted on a student by an employee. Any such instances, whether real or alleged, should be dealt with in accordance with the administrative guidelines established by the District Administrator. Staff member reporting obligations under this policy and applicable law are the same regardless of whether the suspected abuser is a parent, guardian, or another staff member, and reports should be made accordingly.”
Transparency
The school board’s minutes should be posted on-line, and the school district should be transparent about “what we are allowed to know as parents,” said another parent.
There should be protocols for incidents, and parents should know “when do we get to know or what are we not intended to know,” the parent said.
Administrators deal with emergencies in the school district, so parents should talk to the administrators, Kragness said.
The parent said she had talked to administrators.
Other school districts livestream school board meetings, and the Colfax school district should livestream school meetings, the parent said, adding that her husband was at home with their children and that “he would love to be able to know what’s going on here.”
The school board can consider live-streaming school board meetings, Kragness said.
The minutes of the school board meetings, as required by state law, are published within 45 days in the Colfax school district’s official newspaper, the Colfax Messenger, Yingst said.
The minutes also should be put on-line, the parent said.
The school board can consider putting board minutes on-line, too, Kragness said.
The school district now posts agendas for upcoming school board meetings on-line, which came about as a request from a community member, Neuburg said.
