Monday, May 19, 2014

Shame On The Wauwatosa School Board!

Tonight the Wauwatosa School District board, the wealthiest school district in the Milwaukee area, voted to layoff almost half of its custodians and outsource their work.  

Approximately 35 family supporting jobs will be eliminated and replaced by poverty wage jobs provided by the contracted employer. The board made this decision based on an alleged “structural deficit”, despite the fact that the district has run budget surpluses for the past seven years averaging over $2.3 million dollars per year and have millions and millions of dollars squirreled away in the bank. 

Perhaps they are looking to give themselves and the superintendent big fat bonuses and raises to reward themselves on their "tough decision making?"

The two school board meetings at which the outsourcing proposal was discussed were packed to overflow and dozens of community comments were unanimous in their opposition to the outsourcing proposal. Nevertheless, the school board voted 5-2 in favor of the proposal to outsource the custodians’ work. 

Voting in favor of outsourcing were Mary Jo Randall, Sharon Muehlfeld,  Anne Fee, Kristy Casey, Michael Meier.

Please feel free to contact these people and ask them to reconsider their foolish and ill-considered decision.  You can find their contact information here.

Also please contact Wauwatosa School Superintendent Phil Ertl at 414-773-1000 Ext. 1010 or email him at ertlph@wauwatosa.k12.wi.us.

And if they choose not to listen to the people again, I hope the good people of Wauwatosa will remember this come election time.

6 comments:

  1. I've seen this happen time and again with government buildings. What they are giving up are people who care for a building as if it were there own home for people who have no vested interest in caring for the site. Also in school settings the custodians not only maintain the building but they assist teachers and many go out of their way to help students and even befriend them. It's a shame that schools continue to come under attack when they serve our most valuable resource, our kids. our future!

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  2. Yes, but outsourcing is a Walker thing and Tosa is his homeland. Look for the jobs to be filled by some outfit (a) from Arizona, or (b) operated by Scooter's cronies. It's working, Walker. Sure it is - for you.

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  3. ummm....one of your writers here...serves on the Monona Grove School Board- and that board privatized the bus drivers-meaning lay offs.

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    1. actually there wasnt a single lay off. All drivers were able to keep their jobs and routes

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  4. This decision will give non-district persons unsupervised access to our schools, both on and off hours. Who will ensure the safety of students and staff?

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  5. that is cool so the we won't be outsourcing union jobs to private bus owners or did you just double talk?

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