SHAWANO, WI- A petition to remove Superintendent Randi Anderson and a staff survey that shows angst and frustrations in the district were not addressed at the Shawano School Board Meeting on Monday, because they were not allowed to be. At the start of the school board meeting, board president Michael Sleeper said he would not be listening to 20 community comments. Community members were told to sign up at the start of the meeting with their topic that they would like to speak on. Based on their topic, Sleeper said he decided who would be able to speak.
“We will not be listening to 20 comments tonight as we have other business to transact so this is beyond what is reasonable,” Sleeper said at the start of the meeting.

​School Board Member Mart Grams asked what policy gives Sleeper the right to determine who can and cannot speak. Sleeper says the existing policy gives the school board president the authority to administer the community public process. “That needs to be changed,” Grams said. “That needs to be a we, not a you.”

Ashley Raddant, a Senior at Shawano High School read some comments from the SEA survey that Shawano staff filled out. “Mr’s Anderson, do better,” Raddant said.

Sleeper than skipped the next two speakers due to the topic they planned on speaking about.

Outgoing Shawano 2nd Grade Teacher Lori Schwecke spoke, giving what almost sounded like an exit interview. “I thought if I could survive teaching through COVID, I could survive anything. Change can be hard, but it should not have been this hard,” she said. Schwecke said she never anticipated retiring early. “I don’t like it, so I am leaving.”

Sleeper than skipped two people who planned on speaking on the survey. The board then heard from 4th grader Wayne Lemerond, who told the board that teachers are important to him and called out the ones that helped him. “To be honest, if someone from administration got fired, I would not notice, but if one of my teachers did, I would. I don’t see why we have to fire so many teachers.”

Charlene Stuewer presented a chart comparing compensation and benefits in Shawano, with other districts. “You may dismiss the people who have been speaking out as a small group, but we are alarmed in what the future might hold for our district, we are growing and we are appalled,” Stuewer said. “We are paying attention now, we will share our opinion, and we will do our best to ensure that board members who prioritize staff are elected in the future.

Former Shawano teacher and current Gresham staff member Karen Braun also spoke about her history in the district, and read an email that the board received telling them not to speak with her after indicated that she was leaving the district. “That felt like a slap in the face.”

“I was not ready retire at the end of last year, but I felt I did not have any choice. Then a couple days before school started, I was approached by the superintendent at the Gresham School District about a 2nd grade job.

Braun then gave five to-do-list items that she said the board and administration should do to help the district including, listening to the teachers and pay attention to the recent SEA survey, stop micromanaging, don’t allow disrespectful and dangerous student behavior, quit looking at push-and-play computer problems to replace a teacher, and respect and retain teachers.

“These will not cost you a single dime, and I won’t charge you a consultant fee either.

Two more speakers were then skipped due to the fact that they have spoken before and the topic was on the petition and attacking to a staff member. “What are you afraid of hearing?” one community member shouted out.

Sheila Aumann spoke about her efforts to be heard, but she was interrupted by Michael Sleepers gavel. “Michael, you told me that it is inappropriate that I reach out to individual board members.”

Aumann closed by saying this is not fun and called the district a broken system. She finished by addressing Michael Sleeper and Randi Anderson. “If you are unable to do you job, I hope that you are willing to find it within yourself to find somebody to take your place.”

“The State Statues and State Recommendations policies say that community comment is an option.”

“We have checked with legal counsel in how we should handle this and part of what we implemented tonight was part of that prospective and receptiveness and redundancy are not very productive.”

Sleeper was asked about the comments that we scheduled to be presented about the recent superintendent removal petition and said he was not going to allow any criticism of any individual. “That is out of order and that petition as I have seen it is very specific to one employee so that is why I passed on that one,” he said. “They are free to submit it to us privately, but we are not going to do that publicly.”

Sleeper also addressed the staff survey saying it was not a complete survey.

“I think the number I heard was 114 and our total number of staff, paras and support staff is well over double that.”

After the meeting, those who were not allowed to speak, spoke to tchdailynews and read their comments on a Facebook Live Video.

First grade teacher Diana Boelter spoke about concerns in the district, including the plan to remove the Dean of Students position which is currently held by Brian Morstad.

“It was a determined that there was a need for a Dean of Students,” Boelter said. She said he is constant motion, engaging with students and assisting teachers. “He is their biggest allay. Our school needs our Dean of Students and if we lose Brian, the district is taking away a huge support for our students and staff.”

Bobby Lemerond was planning to read comments from the SEA survey related to their frustrations. “These comments break my heart,” she said as she read.

Ali Lemerond, an 8th grader at Shawano Middle School read comments from the survey about what needs to change for teachers to stay and Shelia Aumann read comments about the petition to remove Superintendent Randi Anderson that Jenny Olson was planning on reading, but was not allowed to during public comment. “It was created to show that it is more than a small group of 20 people who are concerned in how the district is run.”

Sleeper said he believes that the board can work on fixing issues in the district.

“There is no silver bullet,” Sleeper said. “If there were, we would have had it fixed a long time ago.”