Your Candidates for Wauwatosa School Board
Election is on April 5
Three out of seven seats on the Wauwatosa School Board are up for election on April 5, 2022.
Below are (1) a list of questions each candidate was asked during a Candidate Forum on March 2, with links to their answers, and (2) brief descriptions of each candidate and some of their priorities.
Candidate Forum
On March 2, 2022, a Wauwatosa School District Candidate Forum was hosted by the Wauwatosa Education Association in which each candidate was allowed to give an opening statement, answer a series of questions from the WEA and from the public, and then provide closing remarks. The questions did seem to focus more directly on the concerns of teachers (as opposed to students or parents). There weren’t questions on, for instance, extra-curriculars and sports, course offerings, academic rigor, teacher quality, after school services, or budgeting (other than the question on increasing teacher pay). Perhaps no one has questions about these things, because everyone is satisfied—I don’t know enough to say. But it seems like most candidates had a number of priorities and issues on their websites that they felt were important but weren’t able to address, and additional questions from other interested parties might have been useful.
Question 1: The WEA is required by the state to recertify each year. Each year since Act 10, the WEA has successfully recertified with a significant majority. How important do you think having a relationship with the teacher’s association is to the success of a school district?
Question 2: The school board employs the superintendent. How will you work through difficult situations with administration when your vision and their vision do not align with what you think is best for the students and the educational community?
Question 3: The school board makes decisions that affect all stakeholders including community members, families, students, and staff. What factors will influence your decisions and what resources will you use to determine your vote on plans or proposals presented to the school board?
Question 4: Data from the Department of Public Instruction shows that Tosa is the second lowest in average teacher salary for the districts in the metro area. The average teacher salary in Tosa is $7,269 annually less than the average teacher salary in the metro area. Do you support implementing a new salary system in Wauwatosa that truly values professional educators and retains them for the long term? Please share your thoughts on teacher compensation.
Question 5: Other than budgetary restraints, what are the current challenges facing education, and how do you see Wauwatosa overcoming these challenges?
Question 6: What is your position on diversity, equity, and inclusion and how we teach it in school?
Question 1 from the public: At many of the recent board meetings and listening sessions, teachers and parents have commented on the increase of behavioral, socio-emotional, and mental health needs of the students and the staff. What can you do to address these needs?
Question 2 from the public: What are you proud of about our district, and what would you continue to foster if elected?
Candidates
Seat 1
Jenny Hoag is a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and an associate professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She serves on the Wauwatosa School District’s Medical and Public Health Advisory Panel where she was responsible for policies and protocols related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of her priorities if elected to the school board would be to help children reach their highest potential, improve retention of teachers and staff, and help the school district meet the emotional and behavioral health needs of students.
Her campaign website
Mary Jo Randall previously served as a member of the Wauwatosa School Board from 2005 to 2016. In 2020, she emailed school board members and spoke up repeatedly during the public comment period of school board meetings about the suspicious lack of transparency surrounding a $170,000 contract for AVID, a college and career readiness program, that the school entered into in February, 2021, with limited debate. Her hunch proved right, and an investigation by FOX6 Milwaukee revealed that the Wauwatosa School District assistant superintendent Kristin Bowers, who was a proponent of the contract, failed to disclose until much later that her husband was employed by AVID. She was placed on administrative leave in November, 2021, and resigned in January, 2022, following an internal investigation.
The incumbent, Shawn Rolland, is not running for re-election. He is currently the 6th District Supervisor for the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.
Seat 2
Austin Jensen has been a resident of Wauwatosa since 2016. He has two young children, one of which attends Jefferson Elementary. He graduated in 2008 with a BA in Communication from Western Illinois University and earned his MBA in 2016 from Cardinal Stritch University. If elected to the school board, his priorities would be investing pandemic relief grants from the federal government in mental health resources for students, creating better policies to manage disruptive students, improving incentives to retain quality teachers, making school district operations more transparent to families, and ensuring the district’s equity plan serves all students regardless of race or religion.
His campaign website
(Incumbent) Michael Meier has served on the Wauwatosa School Board for nearly 18 years and has a long list of accomplishments during his tenure. He has been a resident of Wauwatosa since 1988 and has a BA in Political Science from UW-La Cross, a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, and an MBA from UW-Madison. Some of his priorities as a school board member include transparency, good stewardship of district finances, and broad curricular offerings so students can find their interests with an emphasis on increasing culturally relevant courses like African-American history, women’s history, and others. He would also like to increase the autonomy of teachers and prevent the elimination of extra-curricular activities for students.
His campaign website
Seat 3
Todd Dahlgren has been a resident of Wauwatosa since 2003 and has two children attending district schools. He earned a BS in Biomedical and Medical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in 1999, has spent over 20 years as a product safety engineer and would like to bring an analytical and problem-solving mindset to the board. He thinks the school district is heading in the wrong direction and that “the school board is majority composed of like-minded individuals with little diversity of thought.” He thinks that a lack of student engagement is responsible for some of the achievement gap in district schools and as a school board member, Todd would work to improve the measurement of engagement and better understand its relationship to academic achievement. He also has an interest in improving special education offerings and outcomes, better supporting teachers so that they feel empowered to speak up and offer suggestions, and reducing administrative bloat and spending.
His campaign website
(Incumbent) Eric Jessup-Anger has a PhD in Education from Michigan State University and currently serves as the Director of Student Involvement & the Associate Director of the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His goals as a school board member include ensuring students have the curriculum and support they need to prepare for their future, increasing mental health resources for schools, better engaging families, and re-imagining middle school which he feels “isn’t working to the degree we need.”
His campaign website