School District of NB Communication Falls Short of "Excellence"
The District of New Berlin tells us to “Expect Excellence” but its communication falls short of achieving excellence. I raised that issue in a privilege of the floor speech I gave at the May 23 New Berlin School Board Meeting.
I brought up my November 8 email to the District, which had requested three records and asked some questions about District spending.
District Office Makeover Costs/Public's Right to Know
Citizens should be able to access information easily from the District of New Berlin and understand how government officials are spending taxpayers’ money. The District should be sharing information willingly with its citizens.
But instead, the District seems to prefer secrecy to transparency. Getting information from that government entity sure can be a hassle.
Sexting Stupidity
The notorious case where New Berlin Eisenhower student Anthony Stancl got numerous boys to send him nude pictures of themselves shocked our community. It made us aware of an activity called 'sexting' and its perils.
Sexting: the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs via electronic devices
Thuggery (Violent Behavior)
Some commenters to blogs try to denigrate the people they disagree with by calling them “thugs”.
Isn't that an exaggerated, inflammatory, inappropriate use of that term?
New Berlin Gets Another Black Eye
Did you catch the Journal Sentinel editorial in Saturday’s newspaper?
“ The ugliness of the opposition last year to a proposed workforce housing project in New Berlin is detailed in a suit filed Thursday by U.S. authorities. The suit alleges that race was the primary reason the city blocked the project and spells out the lengths to which city leaders and staff went to block the project, even revising the city's 2020 comprehensive plan. The complaint also details threats against the mayor and his children. Some of the good people of New Berlin expressed concern that the prospective tenants would be African-Americans or other minorities and used racially derogatory terms to refer to the prospective residents or implied racial bias as the reason for objecting to the development, according to the complaint. Some in the opposition talked about "white flight," "crime," "drugs," "gangs," "families with 10 or 15 kids," of needing "to get a gun," of "slums," of not wanting New Berlin to turn into Milwaukee, of moving to New Berlin "to get away from the poor people" and of not wanting to provide housing to people "who work but do not live here." Certainly, not all of the opposition was driven by racial bias, and there were legitimate arguments against the project, which nevertheless should have been approved. But if the allegations are correct, poisonous racism tainted the opposition and should not be ignored. Maybe the suit will wake up the greater community to the continued segregation of the region, and what helps to drive it.”
