This Just In ...

Janet Evans* and Mark Belling

Posted by Kevin Fischer on May 24, 2011

* A member of the Franklin School Board

Early last month, Franklin blogger Fred Keller took a video camera into a meeting of the local Jesse James Gang, officially known as the Franklin School Board. Keller proceeded what amounted to a waste of School Board time and taxpayer money.

On his own blog, Keller posted videos of the discussion on the agenda item where the board members performed self-evaluation. Hey, forget about student performance, test scores, dropout rates, etc. Let’s chat about how we get along.

I saw enough of the lengthy videos to fond totally revealing material.

Not surprising was School Board Vice-President Jeff Traylor literally scoffing and chuckling at the very notion of being “fiscally responsible” with a completely "could care less" facial expression and body language.

The best line I saw was from member Janet Evans. As her colleagues wrestled with how to form better “relationships” as a board, Evans chimed in:

“I’m not here to have a relationship (with any of you). I’m here to do my job.”

Thud!

She said what?

“I’m not here to have a relationship (with any of you). I’m here to do my job.”

The comment made so much common sense and because it did, Evans’ statement was stunning to the rest of the clueless robots on the Board.

You could almost sense the collective reaction from the others as they longed for a roll of TUMS:

MY WORD! THE ABSOLUTE NERVE!

When I watched Keller’s video, I must be honest, I did not leap from my seat…but I felt like it.

Which brings me to a segment on Mark Belling’s talk show Monday on Newstalk 1130 WISN

I’m pretty sure that Mark has never heard of Janet, and that’s no reflection on either of them, just a statement of fact. But I couldn’t help but think of Janet as I listened to a podcast of mark’s program from Monday.

Keep in mind Janet’s comments during that school board meeting last month:

“I’m not here to have a relationship (with any of you). I’m here to do my job.”

The problem is that there should be more school board members with that sentiment, but there aren’t.

I will paraphrase, and quite accurately, from Mark’s program.

He addressed a school board issue in Menomonee Falls (MF). By coincidence, MF has about the same population as Franklin and like Franklin is immensely conservative. In MF, the voting patterns are overwhelmingly Republican. As mark put it, the last place you’d expect victories by the teacher’s union with public officials thumbing their noses at the will of the people would be MF. I would add you could toss in Franklin, except that the Franklin School Board is beyond out of touch.

Mark mentioned that in some communities, especially smaller ones like MF (and I might add, Franklin) with 30-35,000 population, the teachers are often pals with the school board. They bump into one another and see each other in the community, at church, at youth school sports. They become buddies.

When a school board member’s “friend,” aka teacher asks for help, the school board member, rather than upset a “friend” and stand up for the electorate, instead caves.

Another factor needs to be considered.

Folks run for office with the best intentions. They are going to strive for fiscal responsibility. They will not be beholden to special interests. They will represent the taxpayers.

Then they get elected and rub elbows with the entrenched administration. They go native, welcomed into their new family, going from “one of us” to “one of them.” Prior to the election, they were outsiders. Now they’re insiders.

Mark also made this comment that again reminded me of Janet’s poor imitation of Rodney King. He said that if we was ever to serve on a governmental body, he’d be fine if the others on the body didn’t like him. Why? Because he wasn’t there to win their approval. He was there to work for the people that put him there.

It is 100% total, authentic, bona fide, genuine common sense. All the reason most of the Franklin School Board will never get it.

Mark got a phone call from a former school board member from a community in his listening area who expressed frustration at her being on the short end of many 6-1 votes (a la Evans).

Meanwhile, as expected from MF...