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Paul's Falls

I have lived in the Falls since 1968. My great-great grandfather was one of the village founders. I have served the community in multiple ways: Firefighter, various boards and commissions and for many years was president of the Falls Cable Access Corp. Currently I own, and am active in, a restaurant equipment manufacturing company.

Menomonee Falls PAC Meeting comment

By Paul Wickesberg
Monday, Oct 15 2007, 05:03 PM

 

Karen Taubenheim, in her blog today, posted a summary of topics discussed at a recent PAC meting regarding the Menomonee Falls School District.  One of the topics was: Why don’t we have school board reaching out to residence/parents?  Meetings should be more inviting rather than to have an “invisible fence” around themselves ~ Not approachable for most people.

I have been involved with the broadcasting of School Board meetings in the Falls for over 15 years.  For all those years, for the most part, the only time any involved parent shows up at a board meeting is when a son or daughter is singled out for recognition for excellence.  Otherwise a few vocal taxpayers show up now and then to voice opinions during budget preparations. Watch the broadcast sometime.  There are rows and rows of empty chairs visible on the camera.  Nobody cares.  Show up and say something if there is something bugging you.  You voted these people in and they’re doing the best they can. 'There ain’t a conspiracy against you!'

No board member is unapproachable.  If you are too shy to get up in front of a meeting, (every meeting has time set aside for comments from citizens) then call them.  Their phone numbers are not unlisted.

So, get off your fanny and each and every one of you contact a board member.  Don’t depend on someone else – or worse - a mob of people who may have opinions other than you own.

Finally, if that doesn’t motivate you, run for office.  The election process starts again in December.

 

 

Comments

SILENT MAJORITY   

Wha'da ya know!  2 sides to this story.  This great community has great people trying to do the best they can during trying times and all we hear from are those that sit and complain.  I listened to the annual meeting replay on TV and heard three staggered voices vote against the budget and over 100 voted for it. When I read about it in the paper and in the NowBlogs I saw a different version.  Here are a couple of excerpts from that Aug. Blog... "Then  I was surprised at the turn-out. I have been told that these meetings in past years usually take place in near empty rooms. If I had to guess, I'd say a hundred or so people were there."  " Probably the most surprising event of the night occurred when it came time for the public to vote on adopting the budget including the 8.8% tax levy increase. For the first time in many years, the vote was not unanimous. I am not sure how many people voted for or against, but the fact that this school board and administration heard that some people are not in favor of this excessive increase was a good thing." "Those of you who voted for it have demonstrated an absolute disregard for the taxpayers in this district."

An uninformed reader would have taken theses comments as fact.  Why is it that a 3% vote is encouraging and a 60% referendum is a landslide?  It's all in the spin. Here's a note to all bloggers, state your opinions loudly and proudly, but remind people they are your opinions and not necessarily fact.  If not, you sound more like the people you are accusing of conspiracy.  More suggestions with less complaining and finger pointing might help.

October 16, 2007 10:15 AM

Ted Klumb   

Greetings:

I am a member of the MF School Board and am pleased to serve all citizens of this community. For those of you who do not know me, or my position on issues please refer to my web site. www.tedklumb.com It was constructed before I was elected and left intact except for the removal of our family picture.  I left it unchanged so you can see what has and has not changed since I was elected. A more current picture of me is on the site so that if you see me at Pops or around town you can identify me and ask me questions or give me suggestions.

I send out an E-newsletter on a semi regular basis to people who have contacted me on school matters in the past. You may contact me at ted@thatsbrilliant(REMOVE THIS).com and ask to be on this list. I will be conducting a town hall meeting on November 30th at 7pm, at Holy Cross Lutheran Church. The public is invited. Email me if you would like an invitation.

My home phone number is 255.0931 but I ask that you respect my family dinnertime from 5:00 to 7:00 and not call then. Thank you.

Ted Klumb

October 16, 2007 3:26 PM

Karen Taubenheim   

Silent,  If you desire to quote me and things that I have written please do so accurately.  You have completely made a false representation in the quotes that you took from my August blog are piece mealed together.

The final sentence that you claim is a quote of mine from my blog titled, "Annual School District Review" is false and made-up.  It is not in the blog entry.  See for yourself:

www.menomoneefallsnow.com/.../index.aspx

I beleive that Paul would be uncomfortable with someone not being honest on his blog and hope that he would do the right thing in requiring commenters on his blog to be accurate and truthful.

Secondly, you should know that the blogs that are printed in the paper are edited and condensed for size.  I have no control over that, it comes down to layout and space available.  Again I urge you to read the entire blog entry to see what I said, unedited.

www.menomoneefallsnow.com/.../index.aspx

Third, EVERYONE knows that blogs are people writing about their opinions on a variety of topics.  If you don't like or agree with my opinion, then don't read it.  No one is forcing you to click the button.

October 16, 2007 8:39 PM

Oleg Tumarkin   

Would it be practical to include more information about the board deliberations in the Community Education & Recreation brochure that is already published and delivered to every household every 4 months. For example, I do not even know enough about the issues that the board deals with, and I am one of the more informed citizens of this area. I've read through the minutes, but with exception of tax increase debates, see no ways to get involved.

September 19, 2008 2:15 PM

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