Remember when you wanted to make health decisions for your own child? Remember when you had to leave your child at home, to learn alone, because you couldn’t lose your job? Remember when you pleaded with them in a public forum, were told to stop speaking because your 3 minutes was up and they moved on without acknowledging your pain? Remember when they voted unanimously, almost every single time, without debate, rather than representing the diverse views of the community? Remember when their policies allowed a high profile protest to take place on school grounds where outside agitators were allowed to be present? Remember that the Prior Lake-Savage Education Association candidates are asking for you to elect them… AGAIN. VOTE FOR PARENTAL RIGHTS. VOTE FOR MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT. VOTE FOR SAFETY. VOTE FOR YOUR CHILDREN. VOTE 4 CHANGE! • ATKINSON • BULLYAN • MARKERT • ZAHN
Tag Archives: #PLSEA
Knock, knock… who’s there?
LAKERS4CHANGE! If you are looking for a way to make a positive impact in our phenomenal community, just answer your door when we knock! Our volunteers and the candidates have been knocking on thousands of doors since the summer to spread the word about the state our district is in and how much better it can be if we can… FLIP THE BOARD! If you are interested in helping make an even greater impact in our phenomenal community, volunteer to help! We have opportunities to knock doors, make calls, and more. Just email lakers4changevolunteer@gmail.com or call (612) 314-5248 to let us know how you would like to help. VOTE 4 CHANGE Vote ATKINSON, BULLYAN, MARKERT and ZAHN on November 8!
Outrageous LOVE
While the Prior Lake-Savage School District has been focusing on Equity and Inclusion, our children’s proficiency has been suffering. We know that the current school board directors have invested a lot of time, money and resources into Equity and Inclusion and the PLSAS stakeholders want to know how progress is being measured. Is this program working and what is the impact it has had on the culture of our schools and more importantly, the lives of our students? Equity consultant, Dr. Sharroky Hollie of CCRTL, was hired by the district in 2016 to coach teachers and staff on how to integrate culturally responsive teaching into the classroom. Dr. Hollie has been providing services in PLSAS through May of 2022, according to the calendar found on CCRTL’s website. It appears that his work was even involved in the Student Voices assemblies held in our schools last spring. More of Dr. Hollies teachings can be found here and links to his materials here. Additionally, the district has adopted an Equity and Inclusion Resolution, has hired a Director of Equity and Inclusion and has partnered with the Prior Lake Rotary Club to host events that support the district’s equity work. Six years of Equity and Inclusion work and what is the progress? Increased racial incidents and tension? Falling proficiency? Decreased in-district student enrollment? What is the goal? Is this working? The Union Endorsed Candidates are dedicated to continuing equity work in our schools. They have stated this in forums, on their campaign websites and in school board meetings. The incumbents even attended a professional development meeting last night to reinforce their dedication to equity and inclusion. The slideshow presented in the professional development meeting (which was found on the district website under board packet link) may have given insight into one of the reasons that proficiency is falling with the rise in equity. According to the graphic seen on slide 8 below, to be truly equitable, a person must remove the systemic barrier. Could this be why our children are no longer academically excellent? If you remove a challenge, you remove the drive to achieve. What the presenter also appeared to remove from the slide (found with a simple google search), was the descriptor of each image. Equality…Equity…Justice… (Image 1) Maybe this is why the Prior Lake-Savage schools are littered with “ERASE HATE” posters, classrooms are being made to watch videos about racism (like this one) and students are being taught that “people of color can’t be racist because they don’t have the institutional power to oppress others.” (Image 2) Maybe this is what justice looks like. Maybe we should let children focus on ACADEMICS at school and the simple act of being a child. Vote for CHANGE.
Not responsible?
Only 16 days left until election day and Lakers4Change endorsed candidates and volunteers are out meeting voters every day. We want to know what the greatest concerns about our school district are. We are not at all surprised that our well-educated voters overwhelmingly agree that the number one issue driving them to vote for school board candidates this year is ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT. Sadly, our district is not the destination district we once were due to academic excellence and this does not make parents and tax payers happy. They want CHANGE. Also not surprising is the expensive mailer (Image 1) we had predicted would be sent out to households by the teachers UNION (a.k.a. Prior Lake Savage Education Association or PLSEA) was already being handed out by their endorsed candidates Jessica Olstad, Michael Nelson and Jonathan Drewes at the City of Savage Halloween Bash last weekend (note that the disclaimer states that it is “not approved by the candidates nor are the candidates responsible for it. Which appeared to be untrue since candidates were reportedly handing out these mailers with treat bags to children). What is shocking are the priorities listed on this mailer that appear completely out of touch with the community these UNION ENDORSED CANDIDATES represent. In fact, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT is no where to be found on “These candidates” list of priorities and one may conclude that they “These candidates” do not support academics at all when reading that they “Believe there is more to student success than a test score and want to support the whole student in their learning.” While the UNION ENDORSED CANDIDATES, three of whom were given the opportunity to represent the people of Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools (PLSAS) for almost 4 years, have been busy not believing in the importance of test scores, our precious children’s ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT has been PLUMMETING. Well, we can guess what their answer will be for why PLSAS proficiency scores have been falling, the pandemic, of course. We do not deny that the pandemic has had a massive impact on ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT but what we do want to bring to light is that test scores were falling well before the pandemic (figure 1) and we expect leaders to take accountability for the impact that their failed policies have had on the wellbeing of our children. According to the most recent NAEP data, as reported by edweek.org, “Academic declines on NAEP were sweeping, spanning low-income and wealthier students, boys and girls, and most racial or ethnic groups in both subjects and grades.” Ironically, as our current school board also states that they are so focused on closing the achievement gap, it has effectively been widened which is also noted in the NAEP study. Don’t miss an opportunity to witness the current board’s priorities in action as they discuss the professional development workshop plans for our district teachers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid to the previous consultant, Dr. Sharokky Hollie and CCRTL to coach our staff on Cultural Linguistics. Make sure to attend the open session tonight at 4:30pm at the District Services Center. So the question really is, how do we get our district back on track and help our students become academically excellent, which will ultimately “support the whole student in their learning”? Do not vote for the people who think public education is not about academics. IT IS! LAKERS4CHANGE ENDORSED CANDIDATES want to put ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT at the forefront and support the whole student feel successful and optimistic about their future. These four vow to support policies that will graduate students that are not only confident to go out into a highly competitive workforce but proud to say they grew up a PRIOR LAKE LAKER!
Be on the lookout…
With the PLSEA teachers union endorsement at play, you will begin to see more of a presence of the union endorsed candidates in the district. There is a deep desire for the teachers union to maintain control of who occupies those precious seats elected to serve our children and our community. It is important to take note of how this process typically takes place. First, the union held a forum for all candidates to interview and allow all union teachers an opportunity to have a voice in the endorsement process. This Facebook live streamed interview process was almost immediately muddied by online comments from both candidates Michael Nelson and Jonathan Drewes, which means they were able to watch the other candidates interview and adjust their responses accordingly. This live streamed video was the only opportunity for all union teachers to watch candidates speak on important topics (other than the two Lakers4Change hosted forums that incumbents Nelson, Drewes and Enrique Velazquez declined to participate in) prior to submitting their candidates of choice by 9pm that same night, only 30 minutes following the last candidate interview. The video was promptly removed from the PLSEA Facebook page and has not been accessible to the public since (therefore, comments are also no longer visible). Numerous sources asked the union how many surveys were submitted as a representation of almost 500 district teachers and were all told a number less than 15 total surveys. Next, the union made the endorsement announcement of three incumbents and one new-comer, Jessica Olstad (leader of the TECH YES campaign in 2021 supporting a $35M technology levy on district tax payers). The endorsement announcement was made the day following the interviews with less than 5% of union teacher voices heard in this process. The also union left out the fact that these incumbents held up teachers’ contract negotiations for over 7 months (image 1) and that this same union asked for one of these incumbent’s resignation following racist remarks against a teacher. Next up… likely an expensive mailer that hits every household, paid for by none other than those same unionized teachers that were not allowed to voice their opinions during the endorsement process. $30 from each teacher’s annual dues is directed straight into the union PAC to be used for purposes of influencing elections. This mailer may even identify other state and/or local candidate names that the union supports in the upcoming election, like the one distributed in 2018. Image 2 Finally, phone calls will likely be made to reach voters in the district to make sure that voters are informed of “which candidates our district teachers support.” Tonight, Lakers4Change endorsed candidate Amy Bullyan, Bill Markert, Geoff Zahn and Lisa Atkinson will participate in another candidate forum at Savage City Hall, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Dakota County and will be live streamed on Savage TV. Be informed, inform others and remember… YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE! If you would like to donate to Lakers4Change to help this important information reach more voters in our community, you can donate online here or by mail to PO Box 474, Prior Lake, MN 55372.
28 days to go!
Lakers! We need your help! The PLSAS school board election is only 28 days away! We have a lot of work to do in the next month to educate the community about the candidates whom we believe would be best for our schools and our district. In 2018, the PLSEA (teachers union) executive committee spent $4,368.70 on endorsing 3 of the incumbent candidates that are running again: Jonathan Drewes, Michael Nelson, and Enrique Velasquez. The funds were used to pay for Postcards & Mailing, Newspaper Insert, Boosted FB ads, and Phone bank room rental. We would like to provide some of the same financial support to the 4 Lakers4Change endorsed candidates: Lisa Atkinson, Amy Bullyan, Bill Markert, Geoff Zahn. Would you PLEASE consider making a financial donation at the link below to help us accomplish this huge goal? Every bit of support matters!
In case you missed it.
There were two forums held to interview PLSAS School Board Candidates last week and last evening. The first evening, Amy Bullyan, Bill Markert and Lisa Atkinson participated. Last night Jessica Olstad, Bill Markert, Lisa Atkinson and Geoff Zahn were present. Over 50 questions were submitted by the public and 20 were selected based on the most common that fell under the topics: Background/Qualifications, Priorities, Finance, Policy and Conflict Resolution. Bill Markert, Lisa Atkinson, Amy Bullyan and Geoff Zahn are endorsed by Lakers4Change. Jessica Olstad, Michael Nelson (incumbent), Jonathan Drewes (incumbent) and Enrique Velazquez (incumbent) are endorsed by the PLSEA Teacher’s Union. Chip Sharrat submitted a statement of intent to “withdraw” but will still be on the ballot in November. He asked that Lakers4Change share his statement with the public and it was also read at each forum. His statement can be read in full here. The live stream videos can be watched immediately on our Facebook page. The videos will also be added to the website tomorrow and available, in full, for the public to watch and share. Make sure to contact us with questions and subscribe for updates on upcoming opportunities with Lakers4Change!