Sleeper apologizes for limiting comments

School board president admits last two months have been ‘contentious’
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

Shawano School Board President Michael Sleeper admitted he made a bad decision when he limited community comments at a school board meeting two weeks ago.

Sleeper made the admission April 28 during a community meeting held at Life Church in Shawano. The meeting was the first event held by CLASS, which stands for Citizens Listening and Advocating for Shawano Schools.

“I’ll acknowledge, right up front, that I didn’t have my finest moment last time. We’ll do much better moving forward,” Sleeper said. “The other night, I was thinking of doing what was best for efficiency and so forth, and obviously, it didn’t go well.”

At the April 18 board meeting, 20 people had signed up to speak during the community comments. Sleeper said that the board would not be listening to all of the speakers, and he chose which ones could speak — sparking irritation in the audience.

Sleeper said that, despite the negative tone that has been taken during board meetings and other community listening sessions, he appreciates that people are taking an active interest in what the district is doing.

“Unfortunately, these last 60 days have been contentious at times, but it is good — and I mean this sincerely — to have people there, to have people paying attention and to have people be interested,” Sleeper said. “Hopefully, this initiative (CLASS) keeps the community involved much more moving forward, and that’s good for everybody.”

Sheila Aumann, a member of CLASS, facilitated the Life Church meeting as a way to educate the public about what she has learned about school board meetings, the committee meetings that feed into it, and how she has conducted research to learn more about the current state of the district.

Aumann said she’s hoping to further improve communication with board members. She said something simple as a message that says “Got it” would make people realize they are looking at community concerns.

“When I send an email to nine people, but I only hear back from one, it’s kind of like, ‘Do they even hear me?’” Aumann said. “There’s definitely room for improvement when it comes to communication between the board and the community.”

Christine McKinnies, another member of CLASS, said that the community should keep in mind that the comments portion at the beginning of the board meeting should not just be for complaints. Once everything stabilizes, she hopes people will comment on agenda items that they believe should be approved.

“I had never thought of community comments being a proactive kind of thing, because right now, we’re in a district that’s very much reactive and very much in a volatile environment,” McKinnies said. “Moving forward, as the district gets healthier, the community comments can be used to move the future of the district in the right direction.”


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com