Recently, the Keep scott walker in power campaign funded largely by out of state special interests, ran an ad where he used a Monona Grove Elementary teacher said things were great under Scott Walker. Well it did not take much time or research to realize that said teacher was lying. For more information you can go here or go here. Well the rest of the staff of Monona Grove wanted to clear the air with whats really happening in the district.
The LTE in our local paper was filled with clarifications:
Class size an issue at MGHS
An ad aired on local television stations featuring one Monona Grove teacher’s opinion on how Governor Walker’s cuts to education have affected local schools. The ad stated the elementary school where this teacher works did not suffer dire consequences, so his conclusion was the budget cuts have not been detrimental.Perhaps the teacher in the ad did not notice many changes in his classroom, but that is untrue of the situation at MGHS.
There are sections of some departments that have been totally eliminated; chorus classes of 72 students; and labs designed for 24 students who now do not have the same learning opportunity because there is no longer enough equipment for each student.
There are not enough computers in computer labs for the larger class sizes. There are a number of sections where different levels of subjects are taught at the same time, in the same classroom. A writing lab was closed due to cuts in staffing.
A recent high school survey indicated that there are 21 of the 212 total classes with 31-35 students and 95 classes with 26-30 students. Recently, classes of 24 were the norm. These numbers are expected to go up in 2012-13, as Walker’s cuts continue.
There is a focus on using technology to better prepare our students to compete in the global marketplace, yet, just this week we received an e-mail letting us know the district technology department has been asked to reduce their budget by $59,000. Governor Walker’s cuts to education not only adversely affects the quality of education your children will receive, but also students across the state.
Maintaining smaller class sizes in the elementary schools was a priority of the Monona Grove School Board this year, but this is a biennial statewide budget.
These additional cuts will have severe consequences and MGSD cannot continue delivering quality programs unless something is done about the underfunding of public education in Wisconsin.
Despite the claims of recent television ads, Monona Grove elementary class sizes will be negatively affected next year, just as middle and high school classes have this year.
Susan Howe, FACE teacher, Monona Grove High School
Signed by the following high school teachers:
Linda Alexander, Guidance
Juan Botella, Science
Patrick Dorn, Band Director
Erin Flesch, World Language
Nicole Hafele, Math
Dan Harris, Medical Occupations
Tom Howe, Mentor Teacher
Denise Meyers, Math
Denise Peterson, Social Studies
Kiley Ramirez, World Languages
Jenifer Smith, English
Maury Smith, Math
Anne Spires, Special Education
Kelly Sullivan, English
Jeremy Wallace, Social Studies
John Willauer, Science
Walker ad untrue about MGSD
After seeing the most recent Walker ad on TV, I feel it’s important to share my own perspective on the state of education in the district in which I teach. It is totally untrue that the Monona Grove School District did not suffer from the $1.6 billion Walker has cut from education.We did have teacher and support staff layoffs and reductions, and large class size increases at the middle and high school levels. This is leading to losses in educational opportunities for kids. It is just not possible to do things the same.
Also, this ad failed to mention the real reasons why many of us are still employed. The MGSD was able to use $850,000 in Federal stimulus money to help maintain programming and keep the elementary level class sizes low.
In addition, we had over 20 teachers who retired from the school district thus saving teacher jobs. While the ad makes it seem like the district did not layoff teachers, this is simply untrue.
Teachers and students have paid for the “tools” Governor Walker has created. With more cuts coming: over $374,000 for our elementary schools and over $600,000 for our middle and high schools, our schools have already been tasked with the job of finding even more places to cut.
The school district will not be able to maintain the programming, class sizes, and staffing it has that has made it an exceptional school district for our kids and our communities. Walker’s cuts are eroding our great schools, and this is unfortunate for all of us.
I hope that we can reclaim Wisconsin by holding Governor Walker accountable for his misguided priorities.
Kristine Wollermann
Monona Grove Education Association President
I was proud to see the teachers of Monona Grove stand in Solidarity to correct the falsehoods sent out by Governor Walker and one rogue teacher.
