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Baraboo school officials consider action after Nazi salute photo circulates online

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Baraboo school officials are considering action after an photo of students allegedly performing a Nazi salute circulated on social media.

In a message posted to its Twitter account, the school district says the photo, which allegedly shows members of the class of 2019 performing the Nazi Salute, does not reflect the district’s values.

It was shared under the Baraboo Proud hashtag that the school uses to promote itself on social media.

District officials did not immediately respond to calls for comment, but a posting on their Twitter feed says they are considering all actions, including legal.

Success for school funding referendums in Wisconsin

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Wisconsin taxpayers voted on Tuesday to invest at least $1.3 billion of additional revenue into their local public schools. Jason Stein, research director with the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said dozens of school funding referendums were successful with voters, noting that the majority of the 82 that were on local ballots last week ended up passing.

Stein said there’s not any single factor that can account for referendum approvals — but a healthy economy is one. “I think the fact that the economy is doing pretty well and unemployment is low is a factor,” he said. “Clearly, a lot of factors had to come together, for this many districts to seek this much additional money from voters, and then you had to have a lot of factors come together for the voters to agree to give that to them.”

Stein said districts go to their voters for different reasons. “Do they have a lot more students and they need to build a new school, or a lot fewer students and they’re having trouble meeting their budgets due to declining state aid and revenue limits.”

Voters agreed to raise their own property taxes, in what’s been another record year for school district referendums.

Dozens of school spending referendums on ballot in Wisconsin

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School districts around Wisconsin have referendums on the ballot this Election Day. Sixty-one districts are asking voters to approve more money than allowed under state spending caps.

Those districts are requesting a total of $1.4 billion for building and remodeling projects, security improvements and educational programs. The majority of the referendums are rural districts, where declining enrollment leads to reduced state aid, according to a report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Walker proposes two-thirds state funding for schools

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Walker

Locked in a tough reelection race with Democrat Tony Evers, Governor Scott Walker is out with a new campaign process – two-thirds state funding for K-12 education in the state.

“It’s not just about two-thirds, it’s about two-thirds combined with keep the (Act 10) reforms intact,” Walker said Monday. “Schools alone have have saved more than three billion dollars. That’s money that goes overwhelmingly into the classroom.”

Evers

That two-thirds commitment, first established by Governor Tommy Thompson, has not been met since the 2002-2003 school year. Over the weekend, Evers proposed a ten percent middle class tax cut – something the Walker campaign called “a gimmick.”

Walker is campaigning Monday with Thompson, who served as Health and Human Services Secretary in President George W. Bush’s administration. Evers is campaigning with Kathleen Sebelius, a former Governor of Kansas and HHS for President Barack Obama.

Standardized tests: modest math improvement and persistent achievement gaps

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Just half of public school students grades three through eight are testing proficient or better in English and math. The results of the Third Annual Forward Exam were released Monday.

They show that benchmarks haven’t been met in the previous two years, either.

Achievement gaps also persist. More than 40 points separate white and black students in many categories. Some 455,000 students across Wisconsin took the exam between mid-March and early May.

UW-Madison and Foxconn announce research partnership

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Foxconn and UW Madison have announced a research partnership. UW Madison Chancelor Rebecca Blank, announced Monday that Foxconn will give $100 million dollars to fund science and technology research. “I’m very excited about this. You don’t get $100 million gifts very often,” Blank said.


The UW plans to raise an additional $100 million in matching funds in this Foxconn deal, as part of a larger $3.2 billion fundraising effort. The Foxconn money will go towards development of an on-campus Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology, or FIRST.

Blank was asked who will own any “intellectual property” generated there. “We have an agreement about exactly how we’re going to work on this,” she said. “The understanding is that we will both have some ownership of the intellectual property.”

Also on Monday, Foxconn exec Louis Woo said the company’s commitment to the massive Racine County project is unchanged. “Our original commitment to the state of Wisconsin, 13,000 meaninggul and creative jobs, that has not changed. Ten billion dollars invested, that has not changed.”

UW-System approves name changes for two-year campuses

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A merger of the UW-Systems two and four year campuses is bringing new names to the colleges.

Eleven of the two year campuses are taking the names of their sponsoring University.

The former UW-Marathon County is now University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point at Wausau. And the former UW-Marshfield/Wood County is now University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point at Marshfield. New signage, reflecting the purple and gold school colors, will be in place in September.

Other name changes came in Waukesha, Rice Lake, Sheboygan, Marinette, Manitowoc and Richland.

The campus merger program was approved last year, and UW officials say the change allows for better access to classes and education, and hopefully attracts more students to the University system.

WSAU

UW-Stevens Point committee discusses restructuring and dropping majors

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A committee of faculty, students, and staff at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point has submitted a document with several ideas to help save some or all of the 13 programs that were proposed to be cut as part of a curriculum re-structuring proposal released in March.

Mick Veum, a professor of Physics at the University and co-chair of the program and/or units discountenance consultative committee, says the document contained several ideas that they would like to see those in power consider before making a final decision. “We’ve looked at a variety of options in terms of re-structuring, one of which is looking at a clustering model for curriculum.”

For example, instead of eliminating the German major altogether the committee would like to see remain in a scaled-back form as part of a language studies major. Veum says that would maintain the identity of the department while bringing students who are studying under similar majors together in a “home base” type atmosphere at the University.

He says the major theme of the proposal is doing more with less. “If we have to be smaller, how do we still provide the opportunities and the education that we have been able to in the past when we have been a bigger University with more personnel?”

Veum says he has taken the cause to heart because he wants what’s best for the students, both currently enrolled and those who will be enrolled in the future. “I’m not in a position to guarantee that student’s don’t have to be afraid of this. My concern that we are going to lose [some programs] is what’s motivating me as a faculty member to be involved in this committee.”

Ultimately Veum says he would like to hear from the Chancellors, Provosts, and Vice-Chancellors which ideas are viable and why. The committee says they would like to hear that feedback by August 22nd. Veum says just because they have put these new ideas out there doesn’t mean that they will stick. It’s still possible that some or all of the 13 programs could be cut.

WSAU

Secretary DeVos makes stop in Appleton to see technical college courses

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US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was in Appleton to see first hand how education can lead to a bright future.

“This administration and our President are very supportive of supporting multiple options and pathways for students to pursue their education and their learning beyond High School.”

Fox Valley Technical College’s Public Safety Program is an example of that,  merging classroom leaders with reality-based hands-on training.

“The goal is to highlight these kinds of opportunities and encourage more communities and more regions to adopt these sorts of opportunities for the students in their areas.”

Secretary DeVos says she supports having multiple pathways for students to pursue learning beyond High School.

She says Wisconsin is a good example of what that learning can lead too.

“Jobs that require some level of education beyond High School. Right here in Wisconsin, there are many of these kinds of opportunities, and they continue to grow.”

She pointed to FoxConn as an example of future job opportunities.

While in Wisconsin, the Secretary also paid a visit to Adam’s Friendship Middle School Tuesday.

“We know that there are best practices and we want to highlight those and encourage other districts to adopt them.”

She says the district is paving the way for safety procedures in school.

“This district has introduced comprehensive behavioral health services and programming into the whole system, and we want to see how they do that and what they have learned.”

The event included a building tour and roundtable discussion.

Secretary DeVos made her comments on the WTAQ Morning News with Matt and Earl.   You can find the complete discussion here.

WTAQ

UW Madison fraternity suspended

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Bros behaving badly has netted a suspension for a UW Madison fraternity. Videos seen on Instagram show two men dropping a heavy old cathode ray tube TV from an upper-floor balcony of the of the Kappa Sigma frat house. It appears to shatter on concrete below within inches of of a woman.


The national office of the Kappa Sigma fraternity has terminated the charter of that Madison chapter after last weekend’s incident. The university has also placed Kappa Sigma on interim suspension, and two 20-year-old “frat bros” have been ticketed for misdemeanor disorderly conduct.