Friday, April 27, 2012
The School Board saw a summary of health insurance bids Wednesday night but will not choose a plan until hearing input from school district employees.
With a tight budget to meet this year, the Whitefish Bay School Board is aiming to hold the line on health insurance costs and cut the double-digit rate increases proposed by insurance carriers. The School Board discussed three health insurance bids at a Wednesday meeting, but the board will not adopt a plan or provider until it receives survey input from district employees. Shawn Yde, the district's business manager, is working with Hays Companies to achieve a zero percent increase in health insurance costs. "When we looked at moving forward with the budget this year, early on we made the assumption ... that it was likely we would have to implement salary freezes and keep insurance costs at zero just to balance the budget," Yde said. Of …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Kathy Rogers was also elected to her second term as School Board President at Wednesday night's meeting.
After being elected to the School Board on April 3, attorney Anne Berleman Kearney assumed her seat on the board for the first time Wednesday night. The board on Wednesday night certified the results of the election, in which three candidates ran for three seats. Former School Board member Gerry Steele did not seek re-election, and Kearney ran unopposed. Rogers received 1,588 votes, Kearney 1,633 and Pamela Woodard 1,722. At a special organizational School Board meeting Wednesday night, the board also elected its officers and adopted its organizational policies. The board unanimously re-elected board member Kathy Rogers as president. Jim Phillips, the former treasurer of the board, was elected as the board's vice president and clerk and …
Monday, April 9, 2012
District officials say the current costs are unsustainable, so the board will discuss changes, including eliminating health benefits for new hires, capping the district's health contributions and modifying eligibility requirements.
Whitefish Bay School District officials are mapping out reductions in retirement benefits, which they say are unsustainable due to state revenue cuts. Actuarial analysts have calculated the district needs to set aside $3.1 million per year to fund severance packages and health insurance costs included in the district's retirement benefits. Last year, the district's budget only set aside $970,000. Shawn Yde, the district's business manager, said these post-employment benefits were negotiated decades ago, and health insurance costs, in particular, have quadrupled over the past 15 years. Those increases, coupled with decreasing aid from the state, mean that continuing to fund retirement benefits would come at the expense of staff cuts, salary…
Monday, April 2, 2012
Whitefish Bay does not have any contested local races, but residents will see a new village trustee, school board member and county supervisor on the ballot.
Election Day is here, and although there are no contested local races on the ballot, Whitefish Bay voters are showing up to polls to weigh in on Milwaukee County races and the presidential primary. Follow Patch throughout the day for details on voter turnout and comments from voters about the races on today's ballot: 12 p.m.: Voter turnout is at about 17 percent so far in the southeastern portion of the village (Wards 8,10 and 12 voting at Cahill Square Park.) 12:30 p.m.: Spoke with a Democrat who is voting for Carolina Stark and Lindsey Grady for the non-partisan Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge race. Stark has been referred to as the "anti-Walker" candidate, but I have not read much about Grady's political beliefs. 12:45 p.m.: One …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Advocates For Education will host a meet-and-greet event with candidates for the uncontested School Board race Monday at the Whitefish Bay Women's Club.
The Whitefish Bay School Board election coming up on April 3 may be uncontested, but it is still important to know who will be making educational policy decisions for the next three years. Advocates For Education has held School Board candidate forums ever since the organization was formed in 1994, and the organization will continue to provide that opportunity this year with a candidate meet-and-greet event at 7 p.m. Monday at the Whitefish Bay Women's Club. The three candidates running for the three seats are incumbent Kathy Rogers, incumbent Pamela Woodard and newcomer Anne Berleman Kearney. Full candidate bios can be viewed here. Advocates For Education President Liz Sanders said the candidate meet-and-greet event will be somewhat more …
Monday, March 19, 2012
Whitefish Bay school officials say they feel "vindicated" by news of Stifel Nicolaus' large legal settlement, and thank the community for its patience over the last four years.
The Whitefish Bay School District has recouped nearly all of its $1.2 million investment and been relieved from repaying $9.7 million in notes from a failed 2006 investment under a legal settlement reached with its former financial advisor. Whitefish Bay was one of five Wisconsin school districts that filed suit against Stifel Nicolaus and the Royal Bank of Canada in September 2008 as a result of a failed investment. Those districts purchased $200 million in synthetic CDOs manufactured by the Royal Bank of Canada and purchased by the districts' trusts when Stifel served as their investment banker. The districts believed it was a safe AA-rated investment, but within 18 months, the CDOs became worthless. The settlement announced today …
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Three candidates running for the three School Board seats, and two candidates vying for two spots on Village Board.
With two Village Board candidates and three School Board candidates filing nomination papers by Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline, the April 3 election ballot will have enough candidates to fill the open seats on both boards. Resident Garry Davis filed his nomination papers Tuesday to run for the Village Board seat left open by Trustee Kevin Buckley, who is not seeking re-election. Davis is a professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A 14-year Whitefish Bay resident, he lives at 4787 N. Sheffield with his wife Suzanne, his 10-year-old daughter and his 15-year-old son. He said he has never held public office, but he was motivated to serve to help the village find a solution to its sewer problems. He said his …
Friday, December 30, 2011
The village is also seeking candidates for the Environmental Advisory Commission and Architectural Review Commission.
The paperwork needed to run for the vacant trustee seat in the April 3 election is due at Village Hall by Tuesday. Terms for Village Trustees Richard Foster and Kevin Buckley are ending, and while Foster is seeking re-election, Buckley is not. Village Board seats are three-year terms, and the salary is $600 per year. Nomination papers can be picked up at Village Hall Tuesday, as Village Hall is closed this weekend and on Monday. Nomination papers are also required for Whitefish Bay School Board candidates. The three School Board seats available currently belong to board President Kathy Rogers, and board members Pamela Woodard and Gerry Steele. Rogers and Woodard have both filed re-election papers, and resident Anne Berleman Kearney has …
2011 was a busy year for local governments, as the Whitefish Bay Village Board and School Board responded to budget cuts and collective bargaining legislation from Madison.
Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling successfully defended her 8th Senate District seat from Democratic challenger Rep. Sandy Pasch by posting an 8 percentage point victory in a key recall election. The recall election was sparked by 30,000 residents signing petitions to recall Darling. That movement was spearheaded by Shorewood resident Kristopher Rowe. Whitefish Bay could end up paying between $71.1 million to $93.5 million for repairs to village sewer systems, depending upon the approach village officials decide upon at future meetings. Trustees will consider two tiers of proposed storm sewer system improvements, which could cost either $23 million or $36 million. A village committee will be tasked with recommending one of three tiers …
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Five-year-old kindergarten students will spend an extra hour in school, mimicking the schedules of first- through fifth-graders.
Five-year-old kindergarten students will start an hour earlier next year, matching their school day to those of first through fifth grade students. Currently, Richards senior kindergarten students start at 9:05 a.m., whereas first- through fifth-grade students start at 8:05 a.m. Cumberland's K5 students start at 9:15 a.m, with first- through fifth-grade students starting an hour earlier. With the school board's unanimous consensus Wednesday night, kindergarten students at each school will start at the same time as other grade levels. The difference in start times between kindergarten and other grades dates back to labor contracts drafted 12 years ago, when the district first started offering full-day kindergarten. The district used to …
GlendaleCitizen
7:38 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
Were other carriers allowed to rebid after seeing the competitor's bids? And, after all the negative attention WEA Trust has received lately, why are they still putting out inflated bids at all? If the competitive situation is as close as this article suggests, I predict the board will allow themselves to be swayed to keep WEA Trust. And as long as there is not a significantly better economic … more ›