Nicolet's finances chief concern of School Board candidates

Nicolet — An insurance broker, a banker and a small business owner want to fill a vacant seat on the Nicolet School Board. Joe Kasle, Ellen Redeker and Bruce Brocker, respectively, will compete in the Feb. 16 primary election. One will be eliminated, with the top two moving on to the spring election ballot. Mark Majeski is not seeking re-election to the board.

All candidates are concerned about continuing to provide a quality education with a shrinking budget in the Nicolet district.

Redeker, who does business and personal banking at The PrivateBank, believes her financial background along with a history of mentoring inner city middle school students and working on a United Way Teen Pregnancy Prevention Committee, give her a good perspective and tool for the School Board. As the former president of the Glendale River Hills School Foundation, she helped increase fundraising from $7,000 in 2001 to $80,000 last year.

"I am running because I believer there are a lot of challenges today, both financial and academic," she said.

Redeker wants to provide the highest quality education with the money that is available.

She has met with the district's business manager and attended Finance Committee meetings to gain an understanding of the financial challenges facing the district in a time of declining enrollment, budget cuts and the uncertainly caused by the elimination of the qualified economic offer. The QEO allowed districts to offer a 3.8 percent minimum pay and benefits package increase to avoid binding arbitration with teachers unions.

Balancing education, taxes

Brocker, a part-time work incentive benefit specialist who does contractor work for the state, said his background would offer much to the district.

"I have worked as a counselor for autistic and emotionally disturbed teens and been a Boy Scout leader for 14 years," he said. "As a business owner for many years, I recognize schools are a business."

The challenges facing many families because of the recession, including job losses and tax bills, must be part of the equation, he said.

"Nicolet spends more per pupil than other district in the state," he said. "We need to spend wisely. We still need to educate kids but we are in a recession."

He said he would want to put all spending on the table and look for ways to reduce spending without sacrificing the quality of the high school education.

Brocker was partly drawn into the race, he said, after hearing that Kasle was a candidate.

"That lit my fire because taxes went up greatly in that district," he said.

Restoring Nicolet's reputation

Kasle, the president of the Maple Dale-Indian Hill School District, chose not to seek re-election to that board. His youngest son will graduate from Maple Dale this year and he believes board members should have children in the schools.

He shares the financial concerns of Brocker and Redeker and said the tax increase in the Maple Dale district came only after voters approved a referendum allowing the district to borrow both for capital improvements and to restore fund balance.

"We had cut as much as possible without cutting education," he said. "We did not cut the arts, feeling that is part of having well rounded students. We had fund balance left to get through only 18 months. If the referendum had failed, we would have had to go to referendum again. After 17 years of 2 percent funding from the state and 4 to 5 percent increases in costs, there was just no money."

Besides the declining enrollment at Nicolet, Kasle is concerned about the perception of Nicolet.

"My kids have friends who don't attend Nicolet," he said. "Some people don't think the school is what it was many years ago."

Kasle said population changes, changing demographics, particularly in Glendale, and programs such as Chapter 220 and Open Enrollment may be factors in the perception.

Kasle said there will always be good private schools but he would like Nicolet to continue to be viewed as one of the best schools in the state.