BURKEonBOARD

(Nov. 20, 2008) – A Wall Street Journal article on Thursday, Nov. 20, (This Time Around, Health-Care Revamp Has Wings, link good for seven days) makes it pretty clear that, whether it’s next year or sometime soon after, universal health care is coming to our shores.

We can argue whether this is a good thing or not, but one thing is clear; it means that the Farmington school board shouldn’t be talking about raising taxes and selling bonds to fund future school district retiree health benefits 20 and 30 years into the future.

The board has already tentatively approved a tax increase to fund a $12 million bond sale in 2009. They have to confirm that tax increase with another vote in December sometime after the state-mandated Truth in Taxation hearing on December 2.

The reason for the bond sale (a bad idea in any case) would vanish if universal health care were established in the U.S. But the school district’s tax payers would still be saddled with the repayment of the $12 million bond sale regardless.

The fact is that our district can handle the anticipated retiree health insurance bill for the next several years, paying for it as we always have, from the district’s general fund. We have time to see how the health insurance dance ends in Washington before binding our local taxpayers to yet another tax increase for an expense that may not materialize.

We need to tell our school board members to “wait just a minute, or a year” on this tax increase. We probably won’t need it at all. We certainly don’t need it now.

Here are their email addresses:

Julie McKnight, chair – jmcknight@farmington.k12.mn.us
Tim Weyandt – tweyandt@farmington.k12.mn.us
John Kampf – jkampf@farmington.k12.mn.us
Terry Donnelly – tdonnelly@farmington.k12.mn.us
Bob Heman – bheman@farmington.k12.mn.us
Ann Manthey – amanthey@farmington.k12.mn.us

(Nov. 14, 2008) – This a correction of sorts.

My message earlier today used the metaphor of a country club to describe how the school board was getting ready to behave in the filling of a the pending school board vacancy.

Rereading that message, I see that in more than one place I substituted “County” for “Country.”

Such is life without an editor.

However, the slip of the keyboard might have had a subconscious subtext to it.
(continue reading…)

(Nov. 14, 2008) – I suppose there’s a reason we hold elections, although that reason may be lost on our current school board. Perhaps they should avail themselves of my daughter’s ninth grade civics class.

If school boards and city councils were left to pick their own members, they would be nothing more than county clubs with a public portfolio.

As it happens, that’s exactly what’s about to occur. The Farmington school board will discuss, yet again, at its untelevised, 5 p.m. “work session” on Monday, how to fill the pending board vacancy of Terry Donnelly, the soon-to-be city councilman/ex-board member.

The Farmington Independent paper yesterday ran a story on the matter with the headline, “Board members seek dedication, teamwork skills.”

That caused me to chuckle. As if anyone would seek this job if not dedicated (or a little crazy). And teamwork skills? Whose team? Certainly not the people’s.
(continue reading…)

(Nov. 10, 2008) – It looks as though in the dying throws of their current term, the school board will try to undo what they did back on May 27th of this year.

That’s when the board voted to hold a primary election if more than six candidates filed for the school board election. As it turned out, eight filed and the primary was held on September 9th when Jim Peroutky came in last and Carol Kappes tied for sixth and was eliminated by a coin flip.

The rationale for the primary, as the debate went on May 27th, was to trim the field from an unmanageable number down to six so all us simple folk could handle it. So be it.

Fast forward to October 27 and the board is now wrestling with a plan to fill a vacancy on the board if Terry Donnelly wins his bid for the city council (which he did). The board decided that they would allow only those who had been candidates for the primary election to apply to fill the vacancy, eschewing the most obvious alternative, to simply take the fourth place vote getter in the general election.

So in the space of five months, the idea of a primary to trim the field of candidates went from being a good idea to being a bad idea.

What happened? I’ll tell you what happened.
(continue reading…)

(Nov. 5, 2008) – First things first.

Thank you for your support. I’m honored to have been elected to the Farmington school board. No matter the office, it is humbling to win an elected office and understand the trust placed in you. I promise to act on the words spoken during the campaign, but I also promise to work with the other members of the board to make a better school district.

Enough for savoring the election results. Apparently, we’re not done picking a school board.

Terry Donnelly’s win in his city council bid means he will soon have to resign his school board seat and the school board will have to select someone to complete his term. At its last meeting, the board decided that it would accept applications for the open seat from anyone who was on the primary school board ballot.

That means Veronica Walter, Kim Simones, Bruce Westover, Carol Kappes and Jim Peroutky could all apply. And the board could pick any one of them.

If the board picked anyone but Veronica Walter, however, it would be a complete miscarriage of justice. Walter finished fourth in the primary election and fourth in yesterday’s general election, more than 1330 votes ahead of the next closest candidate.

It would be wrong for the school board to substitute their judgment for the clear preference of the voters.
(continue reading…)

(Election Day 2008) – Bet you thought it would never get here. All the ads and emails, and ads and phone calls, and ads and yard signs. Did I mention all those ads.

But, finally, we get to vote. So after putting up with all that stuff, we get to decide where we want to take our country, our state, our county, our city and our school district.

I decided to run because I want to take our school district in a different direction.

I think our school leaders have made some bad decisions about spending our tax dollars and haven’t done enough to make sure our school do a good job teaching our kids.

I don’t think that anyone running our schools, elected or appointed, is a bad person. I believe they all want what’s best for us and our kids. But wanting and delivering are two different things. If wishing made things true, then Farmington would be more like Lake Wobegon where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

Good intentions don’t make things happen. That’s why this election is so important for us in the Farmington school district.

We need to transform our school district from a place of good intentions to a place of good results.

That means we need new people on our school board, three new people, willing to give how we do things a fresh look, willing to ask questions, challenge the status quo and to trust all the citizens in the school district with as much information and as much government done in public as we can stand.

I’d appreciate your vote today. And if you give me your vote, I’d appreciate your vote for two other new thinkers on our school board.

Running for school board these past few months has been a privilege. No matter how it turns out, I’m grateful for all your kind words of encouragement, your support, your willingness to place a sign in your front yard and your generous contributions.

If we win today, we get to start putting our ideas into to practice. If we don’t, we still stay engaged, because it is our duty and our responsibility as citizens.

Thank you.
Tim