Covid funny business

Aka, things that piss me off Vol 2020... or why there should be an ethics policy at De Pere.

I just noticed that our shift differential went away.  Honestly I wondered about this since it appeared they were giving us the option to work first or second shift since the schools are closed.

The language that covers this:

Shift Differential: The parties agree to establish a night shift differential of .40 per hour for second shift, and an additioial $.20 per hour for third shift (total shift differential of .60 per hour for third shift). The differential will not be included in the total package costing. On second shift, an employee is eligible for the shift differential if 75% of his/her regularly scheduled work hours occur after 4:00 p.m. On third shift, an employee is eligible for the shift differential if 75% of his/her regularly scheduled work hours occur after 11 :00 p.m. Shift differential is only available during the school year, except for those High School employees who return to second and/or third shift pursuant to Article X (13).

I am actually not sure if this language made it into the stripped down support staff handbook, but that isn't what bothers me as the district pretty much always did whatever it wanted even when we were "paying for representation".

What bothers me is the underlying questionable integrity of the districts actions or lack thereof.

In this case specifically there were a number of memos, and not one single person/memo had the decency to convey that we would be loosing that shift differential.  News flash, take home pay is the number one reason anyone works, so knowledge of changes to it is very important!

Other inconsistencies that bug me are that there are a few persons in higher rank positions that are taking off for extended periods of time.  The normal protocol is when someone is off for more that 5 consecutive days, the district is supposed to assign their job and pay rate temporarily to someone else.  That clearly hasn't happened.

Then there is this business that some people are "essential" and have to report to work, while others can "work from home" (and I question how aides are doing this, etc)

All staff are being paid whether they are at their buildings working or staying at home.  None are collecting unemployment.   If the schools don't pay all employees they lose their federal funding.

For example: CESA put the school aids back on payroll

So some people are getting paid and are not even working. But we are expected to work for less pay. Nice double standard.  Paying us with our normal differential is budgeted, so where is that money going now?

So take all that into account, and you should arrive at the same conclusion that I have where you are questioning the integrity of the district.  I have felt its been poor based on a number of things over the years, but this makes it shine.

Since these issues of character pretty much fall on the shoulder of the actions or lack thereof of the district's superintendent, lets review his background:

Feb 7, 2003
By Kevin O'Brien, Ashland Daily Press
 
A former employee in the payroll department of the Ashland School District has filed a wrongful discharge suit against the district, claiming that she was forced to quit her job when she uncovered wrong-doing in the district's payroll.

Belinda Miller was fired as a payroll benefits specialist in 1994, and during her work at the district, she allegedly discovered at least one legal discrepancy in the payroll and also found that several employees were not being paid for all the hours they worked.

Miller claims that she told then-superintendent Benjamin Villarruel and the business manager Bonnie Stegmann that full-time custodian John Lavassuer was incorrectly classified as an "independent contractor" for his work cleaning offices, which he did separately from his full-time duties. 

Miller said Villarruel and Stegmann knew that is was an intentional mistake designed to defraud taxing authorities, but they refused to correct the incorrect classification. 

In addition, Miller said she called their attention to several errors in the payroll which deprived non exempt employees of regular and overtime pay, as well as accrued compensatory time. Villarruel and Stegmann ignored Miller's complaints, according to the lawsuit, and retaliated against her accusations by isolating her work station from other workers, not allowing her to attend seminars, and by sabotaging her work by denying her timely access to payroll information.


Miller brought her accusations to the Ashland School Board at its meeting on Dec. 13, 2001, but according to the lawsuit, the members refused to take her side or protect her if the tax code violations did exist.

According to the suit, Miller's working conditions became "so intolerable she was compelled to resign" as a payroll specialist on Dec. 21, 2001, effective Feb. 13, 2002.

As part of her lawsuit, Miller is asking to be reassigned to her position, and is seeking reimbursement in past and future earnings, as well as court costs and compensatory damages for mental and emotional distress.

The school-district has up to 45 days to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed at the Ashland County Courthouse on Feb. 3. 

Ashland School District Superintendent Ken Kasinski said he could not comment on the lawsuit.

Aside from that well know debacle that hit the press about the time he came to the De Pere district, we also know this from the June 13 1990 Kenosha News:

Benjamin Villarruel, presently director of student services for the Cudahy School district and the Racine Handicapped Childrens's Education Board for the Waterford and Burlington School Districts, has been named assistant principal at Washington....

Villarruel holds master's degrees in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in religious education from Mt. St. Alphonsus in New York.  He currently is enrolled in a doctoral program in urban education, with an emphasis on administrative leadership and supervision....

He is originally from Detroit, perhaps I should look there.

Should I go on to the next person I was also less than impressed with. (professional job hopper with extensive civil circuit court activity)? 

Account Executive
Gannett / USA Today Network
Apr 2018 - Present

Sales Executive
Midwest Communications Radio
May 2016 - May 2018 (2 yrs, 1 mo)

Fundraising Manager
World's Finest Chocolate
Feb 2014 - May 2016 (2 yrs, 4 mos)

Sales Executive
Ganz
Nov 2011 - Jul 2014 (2 yrs, 9 mos)

Regional Account Executive
Carsoup.com
Apr 2007 - Nov 2011 (4 yrs, 8 mos)

Territory Manger
Autotrader US
Oct 2003 - Apr 2007 (3 yrs, 7 mos)

Account Executive
Green Bay Press Gazette
Nov 1990 - Jun 1996 (5 yrs, 8 mos)

Changing the system

When a system is so dysfunctional that it no longer proactively addresses its own issues in a timely manner..... whats a person to do?

In a perfect world the so called leaders would be thrown out.

And while I am re-posting memes, here is another point that is right on, and relevant to this excessive bird bucks bologna.

#DPride

If you recall last year the district added a "Communications Director" position.  The first thing I noticed was the hi-jack the USDD twitter account that was previously only used for school cancelation notification.  That inappropriately morphed into this chest beating #DPride shit.

So a large portion of this position is self promotion on social media. 

In my entire life I have never worn anything that had any type of advertisement on it.  I never understood the logic of paying sometimes top dollar for some name brand shirt or whatever so that you can be their human billboard.  Nope, not me.

And I certainly am not doing that with good old De Pere Schools.  So all that self promoting crap that we get this time of the year for education week promptly goes in the trash.  Back when I started we actually got more useful gifts.  Like a frozen turkey.  Or a gift card for one / or to be used at any De Pere business.

In all honesty working for De Pere is embarrassing.  More-so when someone asks what they pay.  So I usually tell everyone I am a greeting card salesman (Get Smart reference).

In case you are wondering, yes I will eventually inquire what this communication position pays.  Seems to me if you have money for that, and to give a replacement business manager a 5.7% increase a few years ago.... well you should be at least able to give a non selfish gift instead of this chest beating shit.

Recent newspapers snippets

Oct 8, 2019 Green Bay Press Gazette: "Why Can't Schools Find Substitute Teachers?  Hundreds needed as competition offers higher wages"

Fon du Lac - Just a month into the start of a new school year, school districts across the state are scrambling to address a shortage of substitute teachers & support staff.

--
Oct 11, 2019 Green Bay Press Gazette: "Four Things To Watch As Schools Start Grappling With Benefits"

Sheboygan Area School District - Mark Boehkle, assistant superintendent of business & operational services, said the district was using its increased general aid to perform a pay & benefits study for support staff.

One of those social media things that should be in PTO newsletter

A young man went to seek an important position at a large printing company. He passed the initial interview and was going to meet the director for the final interview. The director saw his resume, it was excellent. And asked,'

"Have you received a scholarship for school?" The boy replied, "No".
'It was your father who paid for your studies? '' Yes.' He replied.
'Where does your father work? ' 'My father is a Blacksmith'

The Director asked the young man to show him his hands.
The young man showed a pair of hands soft and perfect.
'Have you ever helped your parents at their job? '
'Never, my parents always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, he can do the job better than me.

The director said:
'I have got a request: When you go home today, go and wash the hands of your father and then come see me tomorrow morning.'

The young man felt his chance to get the job was high.

When he returned to his house he asked his father if he would allow him to wash his hands.

His father felt strange, happy, but with mixed feelings and showed his hands to his son. The young man washed his hands, little by little. It was the first time that he noticed his father's hands were wrinkled and they had so many scars. Some bruises were so painful that his skin shuddered when he touched them.

This was the first time that the young man recognized what it meant for this pair of hands to work every day to be able to pay for his studies. The bruises on the hands were the price that his father payed for his education, his school activities and his future.

After cleaning his father's hands the young man stood in silence and began to tidy and clean up the workshop. That night, father and son talked for a long time.

The next morning, the young man went to the office of the director.
The Director noticed the tears in the eyes of the young man when He asked him,

'Can you tell me what you did and what you learned yesterday at your house?'
The boy replied: 'I washed my father's hands and when I finished I stayed and cleaned his workshop.'

'Now I know what it is to appreciate and recognize that without my parents, I would not be who I am today. By helping my father I now realize how difficult and hard it is to do something on my own. I have come to appreciate the importance and the value in helping my family.

The director said, "This is what I look for in my people. I want to hire someone who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the hardship others go through to accomplish things, and a person who realizes that money is not his only goal in life".

'You are hired'.

A child that has been coddled, protected and given everything he or she wants, develops a mentality of "I have the right" and will always put himself or herself first, ignoring the efforts of parents, family and friends. If we are this type of protective parent are we really showing love or are we helping to destroy our children?

You can give your child their own room in a big house, good food, a computer, tablet, cell phone, and a big screen TV, but when you're washing the floor or painting a wall, children need to experience that too.

After eating, have them wash the dishes with their brothers and sisters, let them fold laundry or cook with you, pull weeds or mow the lawn. You are not doing this because you are poor and can't afford help. You are doing this because you love them and want them to understand certain things about life.

Children need to learn to appreciate the amount of effort it takes to do a job right. They need to experience the difficulties in life that people must overcome to be successful and they must learn about failure to be able to succeed.

Children must also learn how to work and play with others and that they will not always win, but they can always work harder to reach their goals. If they've done their best, then they can take pride in all the effort they put forth.

Life is about giving and serving and these qualities are taught in our homes.

----------------------------------------------


Perhaps you have seen the video Navy Seal Admiral William H. McRaven, where he shares the reasons to make your bed everyday.

The wisdom of this of this simple act, has been proven many times over.  Making your bed will reinforce the fact that the little things matter.  If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things.  If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

It has to be with integrity, responsibility, discipline, character and a sense of pride.  Sometimes this lower level simple logic gets overlooked.

So simple things like the expectation of being prepared for class; meaning bringing a pencil is an equally important "little thing."

The problem is for whatever reason they have switched to a community pencil bin.  And what is more, rather than being responsible for sharpening your own pencil, there is now often one member in charge of sharpening the pencils in community bin.

Another expectation used to be at the end of class, to put your stuff away on your desk.  Again for whatever reason, many times the class is leaving their binders and such on the desktops.  The equivalent of leaving for the day with a messy bed. 
These smaller expected behaviors, I really think are how you maintain order in the schools and society.  Without them you have chaos.  Be it shenanigans in the bathroom, disrespect to others, etc.  There is no real remedy other than instilling the right behaviors, and consequences to steer them back to the right behavior.  You might think you can remedy the situation some other way, perhaps automatic paper towel dispensers, but without the right instilled behaviors, they will just find some other way to be destructive.

Yes the argument is that this sort of thing is the parents responsibly.  The problem is the schools provide way to many "baby sitting" opportunities, rather than promoting some down time, for family time.  I mean if you have the opportunity to keep your kids in several after school sporting activities, then where is that family supper time, etc?

The other problem is schools are all about saving face than having a down to earth approach or even business approach.  If there was an ongoing bathroom behavior problem, in a school that sort of thing should make it back to the parents, via a PTO newsletter or whatever.  And if this behavior is destructive enough (vandalism), then prosecution should be pursued.  This sort of thing almost never happens, because it makes the school "look bad".  What looks really bad is when we are becoming a undisciplined society that is going to cost future generations a lot of money.  Not just in criminal justice, but in work productivity etc.

But this illogic is all to common in the schools.  The same folks who are "concerned" about the school shootings, etc.  But you never hear them address it at these lower levels, and if you do, its very one sided.  I mean we bribe kids to be good with gimmicks like bird/ voyager bucks.  But it doesn't work that way in the real world.  I mean have you ever heard of a cop pulling someone over to commend them on their excellent driving and maintaining the speed limit, and then offering them a sticker or cookie  No. I haven't either.

We remember

Back in 1998-99 Mike "Kaz" proposed that there be difference between the benefits from the district differ between the teachers the union and support staff union.  He as president of the De Pere teachers union at the time.

I also wrote Mike back in 2002, when I was concerned that the lack of support staff union meetings and the support from above, the UNE office that he was the president of at the time.

He wrote back explaining that while the what was written in the contact that was differing in practice wasn't as "simple issue," and that the "deviation was a critical issue to the district in maintaining its open door, community-based school system."

I of course am referring to a practice where on non-school days they (who ever they are) expected someone (not specified anywhere) to adjust their normally scheduled work hours to accommodate whatever was going on in the evening at the school (in lieu of offering it as overtime).

This of course was seen by others  (myself included, and later the new business manager, Sue Buchholz) as a conflict of the fair labor standards act, as a device to evade overtime.

From then till 2011, there were a number of other bad union experiences.

Many years netted less than 1 union meeting held.  And we never had that annual financial disclosure that our bylaws said was to be a yearly thing.

So when Scott Walker came along with Act 10 , in 2011 most members really saw no benefit to what they had been paying for. 

In the years preceding this there were a number efforts from the membership to get the union to shape up and fly right.  Petitions were circulated just so membership meetings were held.    I suggested we go through, revise and understand our own bylaws.  There was a membership movement to replace some of the long time officers, like Sue Smits (treasurer).  While she was replaced, only a short time later she was re-powered when another officer stepped down mid-term and then the president (Janice Counihan) appointed Sue to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the term.



Overall the thing on a local level was run like a good old boys club, and the lack of support from above spelled its ultimate demise.

Toward the end that good old boys club stuff was obvious to everyone.  Basically local officers were in it, for the paid trips (and drinks/lodging) to meetings in Madison, etc.. Yet there was never a general membership meeting following those trips to share what they learned at the meeting etc.  So members nothing productive was coming from those.  I proposed rather take any money that would have been spent on such foolishness and contribute that to the scholarship fund that the teachers union had.  I also encourage we work closer with the teachers union.  Something that I saw happen in the Denmark District towards the bitter end, and in the grand scheme of thing makes sense.  That or I suggested we find a regional union that better reflected us, like AFSCME.

$448 dollars a year in union dues to WEAC wasn't work that we were getting out of it.  And should something really stupid come from the new governor, I would fight tooth and nail against any type of forced rejoining without the ability for the local to set their own dues policy.  Ultimately I'd be totally against dealing with the old uniserv officer, Sue Britz ever again.  I am all for trying another union, but it has to be totally controlled by the membership.

Compensation Schedules?

From the August 6, 2018  School Board Special Meeting Agenda:
Personnel Committee
1. Review of Employee Exit Surveys (Pages 16-20)

From the September 17, 2018 School Board Business Meeting Agenda:
7. Presentations of Compensations Schedules (pages 16-22)

From the March 4, 2018 School Board Committee Meeting Agenda:
B. Personnel Committee
1.  Presentations of Compensations Schedules (pages 20-26)

From the March 18, 2019 School Board Business Meeting Agenda:
III. Action and/or Discussion Items:
5. Motion to Approve New Compensation Schedules Beginning with the 2019-20 School Year and to Approve Adjustment Plan for Selected Staff (pages 7-8)

From the May 20, 2019 Board Business Meeting Agenda:
III. Action and/or Discussion Items:
7. Motion to Approve 2019-20 Tentative Agreement with the De Pere Education Association (pages 12-15)
8. Motion to Approve Salary Increases for District Support Personnel for the 2019-20 School Year (pages 16-17)
9. Motion to Approve Salary Increases for District Exempt and Administrative Staff for the 2019-20 School Year (page 18)

Since 2016 I have been asking someone at the district level to inform support staff of their raises.  The typical fashion has been that one can expect to not hear a word of any results till it appear or doesn't appear on ones pay check.  And creating a "Communications Director" position won't fix this.

Well after years of basically bitching about this, this is the first year they informed everyone.  I'd almost say hooray, except that there was that much bureaucratic red tape for such a simple request and that is essentially an issue of basic human decency.  So no hooray...  Next time/ next issue should be a proactive thing where they, the guys making the big bucks think of this and take care of it, without anyone having to nag them to do it.

"Openness, accountability, and honesty define government transparency. In a free society, transparency is government's obligation to share information with citizens. It is at the heart of how citizens hold their public officials accountable."

In light of some board/adminstative actions in years past, you'd think these dunderheads would try to work on that transparency/trust thing.... nah.. they are too good for that.

And that is really what I see as an underlying problem to all of De Pere. 

Report Card
Student: USDD
Communications: F-

-
This seems to be a once in every 20 or so years sort of thing where they look into wages deeper than the annual rate approval.  Sadly for support staff this yielded increases between 28 and 46 cents.  And that high end position is only held by one person, the payroll person, so more like between 28 and 36 cents.  Sadly most people learned this was happening from the newspaper, instead of from their own employer.



In my opinion this kind of raise is the level that should be regular, not the 20 year adjustment exception to the rule.  It's inline with Green Bay and Manitowoc's raises in the last year.