SF School District

Super Homan up to more secrecy and closed government. When are we gonna fire her? Seriously?

l3wis November 29, 2010 7Comments

Imagine that, Dr. Homan found a loophole in the new open records law to keep committee decisions secret;

A change to the state open records law in March aimed to make government committees more open to the public. In the Sioux Falls School District, it’s had the opposite effect.

Since the school board changed its policy in response to the new law, the names of committee members and the documents they receive and create have been kept secret.

Remember when she shredded naming suggestions to the new elementary school? Or when she shielded her communications director from taking responsibility for not proof reading a school directory which resulted in organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and the SF Soccer Association to not be allowed to advertise in our schools, costing them thousands of dollars. Homan ain’t budging on it – big freaking surprise!

Homan said the law does not apply to any of the school district’s dozens of committees because they all are created by the superintendent, not by the school board.

We pay Homan’s wages thru our taxes. So she is above us all of sudden? Not so fast.

“That is the kind of thing that irritates legislators,” said Knudson, who suggested additional revisions to the law are in order. “I think it’s going to take a decade to keep pushing on this issue.”

A decade? Huh? Hey Dave, we are not moving the RR tracks or developing Phillips to the Falls, we are conducting openness in government. People have told me that you are a very smart guy, but I’m starting to wonder. It takes only a few minutes to fire Homan. Then we can ask the school board to re-appoint the committees and require them to take minutes and have open meetings. That might take 30 days, tops.

South Dakota Newspaper Association General Manager Dave Bordewyk, who lobbied for the bill, said the original intent was to make all committees subject to open-meetings rules.

If lawmakers understood how school districts would interpret the law, he said, the bill would have contained different language.

“It seems like, obviously, the integrity of the law is not being followed,” Bordewyk said.

“It’s always amazing to me when you think you’ve made a step forward, but you find government officials getting around it,” he added. “I guess I shouldn’t be amazed.”

No, Dave, you should not be amazed. Power lies in controlling the message. Pam is controlling the message by stomping it out. The Argus Endorser‘s ED Board says it best;

Parents and taxpayers should have access to all final reports of all committees that work on the district’s behalf. That’s their right as well as common sense. And the school board itself limits its ability to respond effectively to committees’ work if it doesn’t even see those final reports. That’s common sense, too.

Boloney sandwich of the day; Todd Vik, Business Manager of the SF School district

l3wis August 9, 2010 9Comments

Vik’s justification for the 10% administrator raises;

“Average increases for private area workers was over 4 percent, so we thought if we don’t try to catch up, we’ll lose staff members to the private workforce,” Vik said.

I guess you can manipulate any study to suit your needs. Not only are people losing there jobs, the ones that are still employed are not seeing 4% wage increases. In fact not only are employees not getting any raises many of them are seeing cuts to their wages, hours, benefits and vacation time. And when you have a public sector job that is handing out 10% wage increases, why would you be tempted to work for the volital private sector?

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that you haven’t seen one single person (besides Vik) come out and defend this wage increase?

If you don’t vote or speak up, tough shit, you are not a part of the equation

l3wis July 29, 2010 8Comments

Democracy only works when we work it. It seems our crybaby school board doesn’t like people who are passionate about our school system talking to them, they only want to hear from the meek and the non-voting;

The next time Sioux Falls School Board members approve a budget or decide when school will start, they want to know in advance what the public thinks.

The problem, as they see it, is that only those people who feel strongly about an issue are going to speak up – such as the mother who board member Debbie Hoffman said recently “accosted” her at a grocery store to complain about the school calendar.

Gee willickers, how dare a constituent question a public official to their face. Bravo to that person.

“You need to bring the silent majority back in the conversation,” he said.

While I agree, if these people are informed voters, you and I both know that most people don’t give two shits about what the school board does – it shows in voter turnout. And the ones that do show up to the polls and meetings, are the ones you need to listen to. I’m tired of catering to the lazy, uninformed non-voters. Start listening to the informed, you know, the ones that “accost” you in the grocery store. This coming from an Event Center Task Force member that only showed up to the last couple of meetings to share her “uninformed” opinion.