Election 2022 — Shawano School Board

In the April 5 general election, voters in the Shawano School District will be deciding on three seats for the Shawano School Board.

Incumbents Mart Grams, Chris Gull and Diane Hoffman will be defending their seats from challenger Jeana Winslow to serve another three-year term on the board.

NEW Media sent questionnaires to the candidates to provide readers with the candidate’s views on some key issues the district has dealt with in recent years. Gull and Hoffman did not provide answers by press time.

What qualifies you to be a member of the Shawano School Board?

Grams: As a second term is what I’m looking at, I see as a former teacher and seeing our decline as a district that used to be the cutting edge of staff, curricula and technology. All are declining rapidly.

Winslow: I think what qualifies me to serve on the school board is that I have an open mind and am willing to listen. I also feel that I am able to work well with others.

The pandemic has dealt education a hard blow in terms of teaching tomorrow’s generation and has put children behind. What should Shawano School District do to get learning back on track?

Grams: First off, the pandemic is being used to cover the failure of leadership to fix the problems that were there beforehand. Our test scores are horrendous compared to the rest of the state, and they went through the same pandemic. It was our response to the pandemic that is causing the decline.

Winslow: Put faith and trust in our teachers. The teachers are the ones spending most of the time with the students and are seeing those possible gaps and shortfalls. I feel empowering teachers and relying on their expertise is the best way to help students get back on track.

The school district is looking at continued declining enrollment numbers. What do you think should be done to try and encourage people to enroll their children in Shawano’s public schools?

Grams: I don’t know if that should be our goal. Rather give the community kids what they need to succeed after we are gone. A good solid liberal arts education with practical, financial, historical discernment and true critical thinking skills which all require a rigorous curricula based on longstanding traditional knowledge. Gimmicky is experimenting with children, has never worked and costs dollars we cannot afford to waste. Many parents, as are teachers, are going elsewhere, enrolling online or homeschooling.

Winslow: There’s not a whole lot that the school board can do about declining enrollment when it comes to numbers. Declining enrollment isn’t just a problem in Shawano, it’s a problem everywhere. There is just a lack of population. What we can do is keep our current student body. When students and parents have issues, whatever the reason, and those issues go unresolved or unheard, that gets people frustrated and they look elsewhere for education. Being able to listen to community members about issues and creating policies and procedures to fit the ever changing needs is a way to do that.

There has been some criticism that the school district has not been communicating effectively to parents, students and the community as a whole. What steps should the board take to make sure that the work of its schools is open and transparent?

Grams: It’s not just poor communication with community and families. Staff know little about what’s going on, and we board members are kept in the dark as well. Admin feels disdain for this community in many ways. Few are asked their opinions, and when they are asked, it’s a select group handpicked to rubber stamp already set policy.

Winslow: An important piece of being transparent and communicating to everyone would be through board meetings and committee meetings. Letting people know when and where those meetings are happening and then what happened in those meetings. With such an easy tool like Facebook, why wouldn’t the district make a post on the Mondays and Wednesdays of those meetings stating when the meeting is with a link to the agenda? When you make people have to search and dig for information, sometimes they give up.

What is the most positive thing that the school district is doing, and what do you think should be done to keep it alive and well?

Grams: Our kids are great and can achieve much more. Great staff struggles with hopscotch gimmicks, poorly implemented and usable technology, a central office sinking in deep water. A change of coaches is essential.

Winslow: The most positive thing about Shawano schools is our amazing teachers and staff and the passion they have to continue doing their best. When we have counselors reaching out to students they haven’t seen at school, teachers spending extra hours on how to reach a student so they learn something, aides who show extra love and patience to students, teachers teaching new classes they’ve never taught, staff listening to students when they’re having a rough day and the countless other acts that go unnoticed — those are the positive things that are going on in our district.