SF School Board Member

See what happens with public engagement in Sioux Falls

Not sure which SFSD Board Members pulled their arses from their heads, but this was a wonderful way to engage the public about elections, etc.;

Nearly two dozen people attended an informational meeting about what it takes to be a school board member, and how to run for school board, for the Sioux Falls School District on Tuesday night.

Sioux Falls School District Board of Education President Carly Reiter and vice president Dawn Marie Johnson led the meeting, and explained that board members approve budgets and policies, hire and oversee the superintendent, develop and review policies, represent community interests in education and attend appropriate city, state and national events.

Imagine that, when you have a meeting at 6 PM on Tuesday night you can actually get people to attend (though this is at the same time of the council meeting.) You are also helping people to navigate the political landscape. While I appreciate the public engagement, we know that they will be handpicked, funded candidates that Poops and Matt Paulson pull from one of their prosperity gospel churches. The right wingers will likely put someone up to, though they didn’t have much luck the last two elections. I wonder if they also talked about how to file a campaign finance form that is not perjured?

I think it would be great if 24 people ran for school board. That’s what public engagement is about, not hiding in your basement doing jumping jacks.

Sioux Falls School District asks parents about cell phone use

The SFSD put out this survey recently;

Hello SFSD Parent/Guardian,A committee is meeting to learn more about cell phone/smartwatch use during the school day. Please take the survey by clicking the one-time-use link. Do not forward the link.

Each email address we have on file for parents/guardians receives one invite for the survey.  If you have more than one child, consider answering with your oldest child in mind or coordinate with the other parent to submit responses that represent your feedback for two levels – either elementary, middle, or high school.

The deadline for the survey is Friday, January 31, 2025.

We thank you for your time and participation.

Sincerely,  

Sioux Falls School District

I think they should be banned, and I wouldn’t even allow them to bring them on school property. If your parents need to get a hold of you they can do like my mother did, call the front desk and ask to speak to your child.

Is the Sioux Falls School District recruiting school board candidates?

This is pretty odd coming from an organization that does everything in their power to make sure nobody votes in their elections. There was also the illegal finance report they filed and edited. There is also the dubious school bond election where the citizens voted in the Putin Bonds (Lalley said the results of the election seemed Soviet). I don’t think Carly and Nan want to run again and they are looking for replacements. Also, just a note, when asking folks to get involved with local government, try not to schedule that meeting conflicting with another local body (City Council Meeting). I see this often where the school board will have an important meeting at the same time as the city or county. Can you folks coordinate? I know the mayor meets with the Super on a regular basis (probably working out more closed government strategies). I was glad to see Nold replacing Stavem, but why didn’t they just hire him before Stavem? The things this body does in executive session really makes you scratch your head.

Local Sioux Falls Government & 4th Estate dropped the ball on election corruption

The Sioux Falls School District and former Sioux Falls City Councilor Marshall Selberg got away with it.

And why wouldn’t they?

The school district allowed a candidate to use perjured forms, TWICE, with NO remedy.

Marshall Selberg PERJURED a finance form, possibly lied about his voter registration over the past year, and served OUT of his district for at least a year (a close friend of his confirmed to me he was living out of the SW district for at least a year.) AND he told a reporter on a phone that he was in fact living out of the district and that he needed to ‘move on with his post council life.’ So you moved out a year in advance to prepare for your future life?

These are ACTUAL crimes, not just ethic violations.

The media looked the other direction and local government officials who have the power to fight corruption and unethical behavior also looked the other way.

Where was the City Attorney? The State’s Attorney? The SOS? The Attorney General? The County Auditor(s)? The School District’s Super and Board and many more in City Government, including councilors, who dropped the ball.

And the media hid under a rock while they battled who can get a couple grand from the city a year for legals.

So why did the media help the school district and the city cover this up? Because by saying nothing, you are a part of the problem. You can’t blow your horn every year during Sunshine Week then hide when you see corruption and say nothing. Open government is a 24/7 thingy, not just when it is convenient for you to transcribe a press release.

I don’t think it was a conspiracy at all by the media, just plain old laziness.

SCOTUS thinks ‘entities’ make decisions all by themselves

“Captain, we have encountered the Sioux Falls School District.”

The Title IX case concerning gymnastics has been interesting to watch. While I don’t have a dog in the fight, I do think that gymnastics is a legitimate high school sport, AND they had a very good case against the Sioux Falls School District. In fact, I was surprised the District didn’t concede before the hearing.

But what I found interesting in the judge’s injunction is how he dropped the athletic director and superintendent from the suit citing SCOTUS has concluded that individuals are normally dropped from these suits and only the ‘entity’ itself can be sued.

This happened recently in the Bunker House case against the city. The defendant claimed he was racially discriminated against and the city (the mayor) requested that these claims of racial bias be removed from the case. I don’t know what was said, or even if the mayor said it, but if he did, that racial bias is ON him and should not have been dropped from the case UNLESS the mayor can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he never said or did anything to discriminate.

While our local Federal Judge has no control over SCOTUS rulings and essentially wants to follow their case law I find it interesting that SCOTUS thinks individuals can’t be held liable for making bad decisions on behalf of the entity. I would have sued not only the Super and Athletic Director, but the entire school board and any staff associated with this decision.

People are NOT naive, we know since the Pam Homan days that decisions come directly from the administration and they hog house the board into going along with their poor planning.

Sorry SCOTUS but entities like school districts don’t make decisions on their own, PEOPLE do, and when those people make decisions that clearly violate Federal statutes they deserve to be sued in their official capacities AND should be permanently removed from their positions (fired).

I’m not sure how you can keep someone around who clearly advised the school board to make this decision and violate Federal law. If these are the kind of decisions she is making, do we want her running the District?

I also take issue with the fact the school district felt it necessary to spend district money fighting this. They could have probably funded the program for the next 3 years for what it cost in lawyering. I certainly am NO expert on Title IX law, but this seemed like a pretty good case that the district was going to lose. Who is giving them legal advice? Oh that’s right, no one, just the ‘ENTITY’.