One of my newest school board colleagues offered a pretty unflattering critique of a current school board candidate, Dr. Wade Wheeler. This candidate, whom I strongly support, has been involved in observing the operations of Ozark schools for several years now and actually has some very good ideas. I commented on my colleague’s post, hoping to share some facts supporting another viewpoint to attempt to balance the slanted view, but my comment was almost immediately deleted from the post and commenting turned off. While that is certainly very clearly his prerogative to limit what is written on his own personal page, it is an unexpected halt to the free exchange of ideas one expects in the political arena.
It also gives a pretty blatant example to support one of the issues Dr. Wheeler addressed as one which he wants to work to improve: the need to listen and seek community input, even – and I would argue, especially – if it differs from the standard “party line”.
——— Here is the original post (also pictured below), followed by my perspective:
All 3 candidates for Ozark School Board had a chance to speak last week at the Ozark Chamber of Commerce.
Here’s what they had say.
Wade Wheeler sent in a video. It is a little hard to hear, but here is his reason for running, per the video:
“Became interested in Ozark School Board a little over 2 years ago when a highly respected and successful teacher was inexplicably removed by the administration…
-we’ve uncovered several actions by the board and administration, that I believe could’ve been handled better…
“It’s for this reason that I’m running, to try and fix these issues.”
-Wade Wheeler
Personally, I find this reason for running to be disturbing.
What are the issues he cites? I will point out a few things:
-the issue he alluded to per his example was over 2 years ago.
-It was under a different Superintendent, a different high school principal, and a different board. I’m not sure what he is going to fix
-Board should hear and listen to patrons that speak at meetings and seek public input – it does
-What faculty and staff are at odds with the administration?
-Be more transparent? See below.
Here are a few real facts about Ozark:
Ozark Schools has had the HIGHEST enrollment (5,904) of all districts schools in our area for years, except for Springfield.
Ozark has the highest graduation rate (98.58%) of all districts except for 1 with the LOWEST dropout rate (0.6%) and LOWEST student to teacher ratio shared by some other schools (17).
Ozark has the HIGHEST average ACT scores of all schools last year and in the top for last several years.
Ozark retains the BEST teachers as proven by having the highest avg years (13.9) of experienced teachers of all districts the last few years.
Ozark does this and more with LESS than others.
Ozark has had the same tax rate (4.14) for over 20 years, which is also lower than others and lower than Nixa.
Ozark is more transparent than ever. Nearly every aspect of expenditures are listed for the public
FY 24 – the Ozark Budget Book was 13 pages
FY 25 – the Ozark Budget Book increased to 23 pages
FY 25 – (Feb 25 approved revision) Ozark Budget Book is 93 pages!
Sure there are always issues and things to fix, especially in an organization the size of a medium sized company.
That said, the level of excellence we have in Ozark could not exist if those problems were real.
Let’s keep Ozark great.
Vote between now and April 8: Sarah Adams Orr and Rae Ann Wade
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I would like to provide a little perspective to this post. Yes, the improvements over the past few years listed above are great, the result of FABULOUS teachers and staff doing an AMAZING job reaching our kids and helping them do more than ever. As both this post and Dr. Wheeler said in his video, Ozark is a very GOOD DISTRICT.
As both Dr. Wheeler alluded and as this post acknowledged, especially in such a large organization “there are always issues and things to fix” — and the only way to continue the trend of improvements is to find and fix those issues. Dr. Wheeler sent a video for the Chamber luncheon since he was at work seeing patients. In it, he mentioned six ongoing issues which are still very current– and very real to the patrons of this District. He listed paying down debt, reducing the tax burden, hearing faculty and staff, seeking input, transparency, and resisting outside influence on board policy. Let’s address some of those:
- Our District continues to maintain an enormous debt load, which seems manageable in the short term, but, as every family on a budget knows, is not sustainable nor healthy for the long term.
- When property taxes are reassessed and it is discovered that the overly large increase in revenue has once again exceeded the constitutionally allowable increase, the District engages in what the county treasurer has called “creative financing” by moving money rather than obeying the state constitution to reduce taxpayer burden like other taxing entities have to do.
- The high school parents (through the PTA) and the faculty and staff were surveyed (twice) about their calendar preferences for the next year, and the overwhelming response was to protect access to dual enrollment classes, even devising a commendable “fix” of moving teacher PLC days from Mondays to Fridays in order to avoid disrupting OTC’s scheduled Monday classes. Yet, the daily schedule was then later revised so as actually harm rather than protect those dual enrollment classes. Teachers report shock after watching the board meeting and learning of the schedule change showing that their clear preference was disregarded. Possibly that explains why staff responses to surveys continue to be so very low; their opinions are not heard.
- Just last year, a policy was proposed that would provide a pathway for employees who have exhausted administrative avenues for appealing decisions to have a chance to appeal to the school board (something the board is supposed to provide, as we learn in our first year’s training), yet the board – including the incumbent running this year – voted against it. In fact, in not just “the one example” at the high school referenced by the original post, but in other cases (plural) when employees from other buildings throughout the district would attempt to appeal an administrative decision to the board, that same incumbent, as board president, wrote to the employees to tell them the board would not ever hear from them and not to ask again.
- The process used just earlier this year for the appointment of the newest board member completely denied community input in its most basic form, the ballot box. The “different board” referenced in the original post continued the same pattern of refusing to exhibit transparency during the selection of the appointee, refusing any sort of objectivity in its selection and denying candidate interviews or even board discussion of positive qualities the candidates could contribute to the district. Did the board get a good new member? Yes, fortunately there were many good ones to choose from, and we got what seems to be a great one. But was the process transparent, and did it allow (let alone seek) community input? Far from it.
- As noted by an appellate court decision, our District’s Title IX policy needs to state in writing how sex and gender are to be determined. That one definition would be used for all District decisions, including in bathroom and locker room usage, sports, overnight trips, and other times when boys and girls have different accommodations, preventing any hint of discrimination. Our community overwhelmingly supports the position that it should be determined by student’s original birth certificate. However, outside influences on our board policy have prevented that needed amendment from happening (or even being discussed.) The Missouri School Boards’ Association provides policy recommendations in order to keep district policies aligned with state law. This one should be updated to match our state law defining sex and gender by original birth certificate. (https://senate.mo.gov/23info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=44496)
Each of the items Dr. Wheeler mentioned is actually a real issue, waiting for the Board to address it. The allusion that there aren’t any “real” things to fix is disturbing, especially for one who is charged with oversight of District operations.