Top Stories, February 16th

WBEV Listeners Chime In On Budget Repair Bill

2/16/11 - Callers on WBEV’s Community Comment yesterday were split on the governor’s budget-cutting plan. Those supporting the union reductions said since taxpayers fund employee paychecks they have no right to collective bargaining. A struggling dairy farmer said he’s been without health care for two years and can’t understand how someone would complain about having to pay a little more for their coverage. Union supporters say it is a fundamental right to go to the bargaining table and the fact that police and fire unions are exempt from the change is nothing short of discrimination. Another caller said unions were originally formed because an employer will always give an employee “nothing” and a state with minimal salaries and little to no benefits will not have a strong economy.

Walker Plan Discussed At Columbus SB Meeting

2/16/11 - Proposed legislation to fix State Budget problems is not expected to bring relief to state school districts. Governor Scott Walker’s proposed Budget Repair bill was the primary conversation at this week’s Columbus School Board meeting. Superintendent Bryan Davis said the bill’s proposal requiring union employees to pay for retirement programs, health care premiums and to limit collective bargaining would apply to School District employees. Davis said governmental savings would be at the State level and would not help reduce the District’s $400 thousand dollars in anticipated Budget cuts for the next school year.

Wayland Academy Has New President

2/16/11 - Wayland Academy has a new president. Their Board of Trustees has appointed Brian Cheek to the position. Since 2008, Cheek has been the Director of Development at Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire, which is an independent, boarding and day school for boys in grades six through nine. During his tenure, the Idaho-native was responsible for the school's fundraising and alumni-parent relations, and launched a short-term $14 million capital initiative as part of a long-term capital campaign. Cheek graduated high school in Newport, Rhode Island, earned his bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and an MBA from Oregon State University. He is married with two children. Board Chair Susan Peterson says the appointment was the result of a nationwide search, which began almost a year ago and was conducted by a search committee with the help of an outside consulting firm. Cheek will officially assume his role with Wayland on July 1, which begins the school's 2011-2012 fiscal year. Until that time, Joseph Lennertz will continue to serve as Wayland's Interim President and Academic Dean. Cheek replaces the late Robert Esten, who stepped down last July after more than 8-years on the job. Cheek is the nineteenth president of the 150-plus year history of the school. He says that Wayland is (quote) “an experience and a way of life, being lived by students who will go on to be tomorrow's leaders and decision makers.”

Columbus Schools On Facebook

2/16/11 - Columbus schools have started using Facebook to invite new students into the District during the open enrollment period. The District office initiated a Facebook presence this week and received 28 hits the first day of operation. Administrators believe that that advertising on Facebook can be cost effective since the District only pays for “hits” from people who visit the Columbus Schools site. The District plans to monitor students who open enroll to determine if the use of social media can help boost enrollment numbers.

Chamber Warns of Solicitation Misrepresentation

2/16/11 - The Beaver Dam Chamber of Commerce is again warning local businesses of an advertising firm that misrepresents itself as a Chamber member. Director Phil Fritsche says they frequently receive complaints from Chamber members who say out-of-town companies try to sell advertising space on items like maps and placemats. Fritsche says the Chamber always strives to promote free enterprise and competition but a problem arises when these firms imply an association, or outright lie, about their affiliation. The most recent call came from Universal Ads, a company Fritsche says habitually misrepresents themselves as “working” with the chamber to sell their magnets. While the magnets may have value for consumers, Fritsche says Universal Ads is not engaged in a partnership with the Chamber and is also not a Chamber member. Fritsche recommends advertising with local businesses, or contacting the Chamber to verify any out-of-town advertising opportunity that mentions an affiliation with the Beaver Dam Chamber.

State Returns Fiber Optic Grant

2/16/11 - Hundreds of Wisconsin schools and libraries will not get high-speed fiber-optic Internet service, after the state returned a federal stimulus grant. Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said the state would have lost the 23-million-dollars anyway, had it not met all the stringent conditions imposed by the Obama White House. And Huebsch said it was too risky. The strings included environmental studies for all 467 schools and libraries that would have gotten the fiber optic lines. And Washington demanded a 20-year commitment to own a high-speed network. The state has a five-year deal with A-T-and-T to manage the infrastructure in Badger-Net, the network that schools and libraries have used since the 1990’s. State education official Robert Bocher said A-T-and-T did not want to be a sub-contractor in the grant, due to all the bureaucratic hoops. Bocher says the Walker administration has asked A-T-and-T how much it would cost to install similar facilities on its own. And he believes the schools and libraries will get something close to what the stimulus grant offered. But Bocher says they’ll need fiber optic service sometime, because the Internet itself is getting more complex. Assembly Democrat Mark Pocan of Madison slapped Governor Scott Walker’s people for rejecting the grant. Pocan said Walker is quote, “closing off potential business growth that comes with bridging the digital divide.” And Pocan said Walker was giving in to a big campaign donor. A-T-and-T and its employees gave over 20-thousand-dollars to Walker’s camp.