Disgruntled public to receive Colfax school board survey

A series of surveys to judge the performance of the Colfax school administration will soon be distributed to school district residents.

The Colfax School Board agreed at a May 10 public meeting to have Kirby Dailey put together several surveys for the public and school staff to analyze the district’s performance.

Led by Dailey, a 30-strong crowd of Colfax citizens gave answers to two key questions at the meeting: what are their fears about giving feedback on the administration and what kind of survey would they like to see.

Their answers were logged during a half hour work session in the school cafeteria before the board’s regularly scheduled meeting Monday night.

The point of the meeting was to gather from the public the best way to evaluate the performance of the school board and school administration.

The meeting was called by Dailey, who said he thought such a meeting was necessary because he had heard many complaints about the administration in the aftermath of the district’s failed $1.3 million levy in February.

The second levy proposal for $950,000 for the next school year was passed last month.

Dailey and his wife, Liza, have several children who attend school in the district part-time. Dailey does not have any other official connections with the school.

Colfax school board president Brian Becker stood during a later point of the meeting and told the audience he and other board members always welcome feedback.

“We don’t have any plans to let our foot off the accelerator with this,” Becker said.

Citizens among the crowd reported mixed feelings about the school board and Superintendent Michael Morgan.

There appears to be a split between school teachers and the actual administration that is contentious at times, said Terry Eng, treasurer of the independent Colfax Schools Foundation.

Eng said he came to the meeting because he wanted to see the district employees begin working on the same goals as the administration.

“The biggest thing from my standpoint is making sure both the administration and the staff are working together for a common goal,” Eng said. “There just seems to be a lot of talk that is going around between the two sides. It seems to be pretty contentious.”

Colfax citizen Mike Johnson, who served on the board for over 10 years before the 2000s, said he has full faith in the financial talent of Supt. Morgan. He added he thinks the board is giving its best effort toward transparency. Johnson said he felt voter criticism of the board was largely unfounded.

“I can’t believe anybody would think that,” he said. He added he worked side by side with a series of superintendents and believes Morgan is doing just fine handling district finances.

Johnson added he felt the levy failed because the public and administration had become complacent in thinking the levy would just pass as normal. He added the explanation of the $1.3 million levy was confusing, partly because of news coverage.

“When the levy was proposed, it was confusing to a number of people,” Johnson said.

Maureen Appel-Clausen said she came to the meeting because she still has concerns and unanswered questions in the wake of the failed levy in February.

“I don’t think there’s transparency in the way the finances are handled,” she said. When asked specifically what that meant, she said the administration has never shown the audience a simple, concise budget.

“We’ve never seen a budget- simple, understandable budget,” she said.

The workshop session adjourned after 30 minutes and the board convened its regular public meeting, also in the cafeteria. During the “items from the floor” segment of the agenda, Dailey asked the board if they would go ahead and decide on some type of action toward passing out a survey.

He suggested former Colfax superintendent Don Cox, who was present at the session, be asked to help as an experienced, independent source.

Cox said he wouldn’t be part of any finger-pointing surveys, but he would be part of a survey that served as a starting place for rebuilding trust and communication.

Cox pointed out the school district has had to deal with declining enrollment, a recession and massive cuts in state and federal funding.

“I don’t need to tell you you’ve just faced a perfect storm,” he told the board members, several of whom thanked him after he finished.

Cox, who served in the legislature after retiring from the school district, pointed out today’s state regulations place more restrictions on the use of certain public funds.

“We could mix money in the past, and we could get away with it. Now they’re being much more strict with those kinds of things,” he said.