Continuing comentary on Ms. Franzen's editorial

Ok today we are going to look at the committee. First a refresher of what Ms. Franzen said.

“First in forming the committee the administrators set specific criteria they felt most beneficial to the productive meetings. The committee needed to include both mayors, someone who would represent younger citizens as well as older citizens, fine arts, athletics, academics and overall community leaders. Included were: Mark Moine (architect) Tim Neil (my edit Plainfield Mayor), Shawn Geer, Dawn Koob (school bard), Cindy Hannemann (this is my edit I felt full discloser was needed Assistant high school softball coach daughter), Sue Baldwin, Chris Skilton, John Phyfe (my edit Nashua mayor and whose wife is employed by the school), Randy Strabala (again my edit superintendent), Erik Smith (again my edit high school principle) and Ed Anderson (again my edit elementary/middle school principle).

In looking at this list, it is a very respectable group of individuals from each community.”

I concur with Ms. Franzen’s assessment that it was a very respectable group of individuals from each community. In fact I never said it wasn’t a respectable group and I never inferred or implied that any of these people were less then respectable. What I wrote was it wasn’t a diverse group.

4 of the committee members were employees of the school district, and except for Cindy Hannemann all were administrators. I don’t know for sure but most of them were probably from the middle to upper middle class white collar workers. No single moms, on the committee, no working class members, no support staff employees. But that wasn’t really my biggest complaint it was the fact that Mark Moine was an employee of Gardner Architecture and was a key person on all the school building projects that he brought and showed to the committee.

Now in case you did not make the connection. Gardner Architecture received the contract to do the feasibility study for the proposed building plans of the long range committee. Probably what bothers me the most is that this doesn’t seem to bother Ms. Franzen at all. Nor did it seem to bother anyone else. Now I would have been fine with Mr. Moine coming in and explaining architecture details, informing us of what needs to be updated and giving us all possible options. However, Mr. Moine seemed fixated on limited options and really pushing geo-thermal heat. When I questioned him about the alleged cost savings he stated some cost savings for school districts who had put in geo-thermal in the new buildings they had built and how much money the geo-thermal was saving over the old buildings with old boilers. However, that comparison was comparing apples to beef, the items are not even in the same category.

It’s rather misleading to compare energy savings for a type of heating unit in a new structure with all kinds of energy efficiency improvements, against a 50+ year old building with older heating units.

Mr. Moine was also always pointing out how that these building projects really didn’t cost these school districts much money because of all the grants and how many of the cities they were built in contributed money to them.

Well more to come.

New Letter to editor of Nashua Reporter

The following is my letter to the editor I submitted to the Nashua Reporter in response to Mr. McMichael and Ms. Franzen's response to my original letter.

Dear editor,

It is good to see that my letter sparked some lively debate and that is always healthy and good. Apparently though I was not clear enough in my previous letter and my main point was missed.

You will notice in both Mr. McMichael’s and Ms. Franzen’s letters there are not any statistics offered. Ms. Franzen wrote that, “it doesn’t take a Masters in Theology or Education to predict what will happen if we are not proactive.” Of course she never voiced what would happen, instead ominously insinuating that something dreadful will happen like our communities will cease to exist which could happen but I think is highly unlikely. I never advocated against being proactive. In fact I believe both Mr. McMichael and Ms. Franzen helped prove my point that the school board is operating under the assumption of “If we build it they will come.” They seem to be happy with this assumption.

This assumption may be true. However, I like to see hard evidence. Show me the statistics that say in X number of communities where major building projects were undertaken by the school student enrollment increased by X percent. Or show me the studies that show that where schools closed in X number of communities X percent of communities ceased to exist. Or show me the statistics that say in X number of schools that spent millions of tax dollars on infrastructure, academic performance of students increased by X percent. Show me these statistics and I’ll be on the “If we build it they will come” band wagon, I’ll even hitch up the horses.

I’m not against change, I’m not against proactive action, I’m not even against brainstorming wild and crazy outside the box ideas. But the administration and the board have a history of picking one idea that is usually the easiest and the one that everyone else is doing and not seriously considering any other ideas. Before the committee was even formed the rumor going around was that the school wanted to build a gym/wellness center/pool and move the 7^th and 8^th grade up to Nashua. Is it wrong to ask that my elected officials show me what they are basing their decisions on and to want them to base those decisions on facts not anecdotal evidence, speculation, hope and hunches?

But to reiterate my main point and hopefully it will come across this time and that is; as far as I can tell the reason these building projects are being proposed is because they believe “If we build it they will come.” And neither Ms. Franzen nor Mr. McMichael stated otherwise. And in my humble opinion that’s not really a good reason to spend hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of tax payer dollars regardless of where they come from.

Sincerely,

Shawn Geer “Cave Person”

Letter to the editor regarding my letter from school board member Ms. Franzen

I am writing in to respond to the editorial from Shawn Geer regarding the Nashua-Plainfield school district’s long range plans. I am one of the most conservative members of the Nashua-Plainfield School Board; I can see that we, as a district, need to do something to remain viable. I would like to present some other facts and information that I feel is more representative of the issues.

First in forming the committee the administrators set specific criteria they felt most beneficial to the productive meetings. The committee needed to include both mayors, someone who would represent younger citizens as well as older citizens, fine arts, athletics, academics and overall community leaders. Included were: Mark Moine (architect) Tim Neil (my edit Plainfield Mayor), Shawn Geer, Dawn Koob (school bard), Cindy Hannemann (this is my edit I felt full discloser was needed Assistant high school softball coach), Sue Baldwin, Chris Skilton, John Phyfe (my edit Nashua mayor and whose wife is employed by the school), Randy Strabala (again my edit superintendent), Erik Smith (again my edit high school principle) and Ed Anderson (again my edit elementary/middle school principle).

In looking at this list, it is a very respectable group of individuals from each community.

Mr. Geer stated that he was asked to serve on the committee that would look at a long range plan to decide if there was need to improve the schools and what the improvements entailed, which in turn would hopefully improve our communities. He also stated that he did not attend many meetings.

My personal feeling on this is, if he was offended by the diversity of the committee and felt it was biased then why did he not address this at the beginning of the meetings? If there was an objection I did not hear of it. Also, his comment that he did not attend many meetings bothers me, as a leader of the Plainfield community he did not feel the meetings important enough to attend. This could have taken a different course and the Plainfield community could have been better represented.

Along with this Shawn could have declined and given someone else the opportunity to voice an opinion and work with the group.

There are members of each community that would love to see their hometown businesses flourish. In order to do this, it is essential we work together as a community and school to come up with ideas to make this happen. Each town has seen a decrease in business as well as students. With the current trend and declining students it does not take a Masters in Theology or Education to predict what will happen if we are not proactive.

I grew up in the Plainfield district and loved it. My parents/family moved and I graduated from Nashua School before the consolidation and now I live in Nashua with my family. I drive 90 miles a day to work, do I need too? Absolutely not, this is a great district to raise kids. I will not have my kids driving to another district for any reason when I can help prevent it.

There are many students who choose to be a part of FFA, FCCLA, band, choir, speech, TATU, besides all the regular sport activities that are available. These activities may be the area that they excel in and keeps them interested in school. For some students this may be the only time they have to feel included, this time is important socialization for them.

I am not saying this is more important than academics, but it goes along way for developing a well-rounded individual. Many students are active in multiple sports, band, FFA and 4-H and still maintain high grades. I guarantee that the students who find these activities important are working hard academically so they may continue to participate.

The editorial also addressed athletics and academics. In my humble opinion, if you take the athletics from students many will not stay in the district if they really want to participate in extracurricular activities.

I, for one, love to watch the Huskies in action whether on the field, or presenting for speech or watching my son get first place in state in FFA for his tractor. Where will he ever have that experience again if not for the school?

From what I have seen, kids who are out for extracurricular activities have a higher standard academically to maintain if they want to participate in anything. They are expected to make the grades, and most do.

I noticed a focus on the athletics in the editorial; it seems he should have attended a few more meetings. If he had, he would know that a science/tech/middles school wing with new and remodeled classrooms is also a high priority and would probably be done in conjunction with the wellness center.

So is the focus really on athletics? I would say definitely not. Is it a part of the whole, yes it is.

Again, to clear up another issue addressed on the houses purchased, he stated that they will most likely be demolished. This is also not true; they are nice houses and may be auctioned and moved. A few more questions and research would have answered a lot of questions instead of assuming.

The Board Members of Nashua-Plainfield and staff of all three schools do not want to give up on our schools, businesses or member of our communities. Many of us grew up between the two communities and they are important to all of us. At this point they are more important than writing both off as bedroom communities.

We will work to ensure a better outlook for both communities and hopefully add businesses that can thrive in our small towns. We can only do this with everyone’s help and backing. I encourage everyone interested to attend the community information meeting information meeting regarding facility improvements that will be presented on Feb. 3, 2011 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the High School gymnasium to get accurate information. We welcome your input.

Lisa Franzen,

N-P Board Member

Well there you have it letter to the editor number two after my letter. I might comment latter but I'm tired.

Ok I’m beginning my address to Ms. Franzen’s letter and decided to start with this section here where she talks about her love of the Plainfield district.

“I grew up in the Plainfield district and loved it. My parents/family moved and I graduated from Nashua School before the consolidation and now I live in Nashua with my family.”

Why does Ms. Franzen bring up where she grew up and that she loved it? I never questioned where she grew up nor did I question her love of community. So one can only assume that she did so to imply that I do not love Plainfield and to point out that I didn’t grow up in the community and as such am suspect and so everything I say if it opposes those views of the ones who grew up here should be discounted because I am an outsider and do not love my community.

It is true that I did not grow up in Plainfield. I grew up in the Kansas City, KS metropolitan area some 330 miles from here. So one might ask how did you and your family come to move 330 miles from a major metropolitan area, to rural Iowa?

Before I answer that question I want to talk about the community I grew up in. I went to primary school grades k-6 at Mark Twain elementary in Kansas City, KS. Even though it was in a large city and large school district it was smaller then our own elementary school. The summer after my 6th grade year we moved to a bedroom community of Kansas City, KS. We had a Stillwell address but we physically lived in Stanley. The school district I attended and graduated from was Blue Valley Community Schools. It was a little larger then the Nashua Plainfield District with 2 elementary schools 1 middle school and 1 high school.

It was a growing district and today Stanley, Ks has been annexed and absorbed by Overland Park, KS. The primary reason that Stanley, KS grew so fast was because it was a bedroom community and people wanted to move out of the city but still be close to their jobs. That was one of the reasons we moved out there. It was a little closer to my dad’s job and he didn’t like the city nor the street lights and my parents didn’t want me to attend the Kansas City, KS public schools not because they didn’t have good facilities, which they did and still do, but because of poor academics and gang problems that plague the inner city schools.

So how did I end up so far from where I grew up and so far from my family and roots? Mainly my job as Pastor of First Baptist Church in Plainfield, Iowa. In the fall of 2001 I was finishing up seminary in Kansas City, KS and searching for a church praying for the one God would call me to. It was around December of 2001 that I got a call from the area minister in Iowa asking how I would open to moving to a town called Plainfield, IA. I told him I’d have to talk it over with my wife.

So we got out the map and looked up Plainfield, Iowa, googled it and saw that it was a long way from where we grew up but it had all the things we where wanting. It was rural, it was a bedroom community, which where I come from means small town near a big city which means you don’t have to drive 100 miles one way to get to the hospital or grocery store or anything else, the elementary school was 4 blocks from home. It was ideal. So we prayed about it felt the Lord might be leading us here and I called the area minister back and said yes we were open to it.

Well I talked to the search committee I liked what they had to say they liked what I had to say. Two couples took a road trip to KC to hear me preach they liked what they heard and we immediately took to these two couples after a luncheon meeting. The search committee called Yolanda and I up to interview we had a wonderful home cooked meal in the home of one of the church members and In July 2002 I came up to candidate with the family they loved it, I loved it and the church loved us and called me and my family to be their pastor.

When we pulled up on August 5th 2005 in the pouring rain with our belongings stuffed in a U-haul 330 miles from our roots we discovered that the church had built a swing set in the side yard of the parsonage just for us. To even insinuate that I don’t love the community I live in well lets just say one should do some research first.

Those who disagree are "Cave People"

Every year I am given the chance to talk with the Nashua-Plainfield government students about the financial health of our community, local financial history and future opportunities for our students in the Nashua-Plainfield area.

It is a great opportunity for me to hear what our young people think about our community and what they would like to see from our community. We talk about the positives and the negatives. In this lecture we also talk about “Cave People” and how this type of person will always be involved in their lives.

They will be involved in their city, in their jobs, and in their schools. “Cave People” are “Citizens Against Virtually Everything.” We all know one. When these “Cave People” speak, it is usually very loud and often.

It is a lot easier for them to say “no” to everything than to try and do something. To say “no” takes no effort, takes no initiative, takes no commitment.

It is very simple, if you don’t forge ahead, you will go backward. It will not stay the same.

In the previous edition, there was an editorial regarding the proposed Nashua-Plainfield school building changes. In this editorial, it was stated that we have gotten by in the past with what we have so why do we need to change. (I am interjecting commentary here because it is my blog and I want you to see the original statement that Mr. McMichael is referring to. I am going to give Mr. McMichael the opportunity to express his opinion I believe that freedom of speech and opinion is the very bedrock of our great nation and without it we are doomed. Here is the original quote. Having grown up doing my best to live within my means and doing the best I could with what I have it is my firm belief that for the most part the majority of the “recommendations” from the committee are luxury wants and not really needs. The primary one dealing with Athletic Curriculum / Community Wellness / Performing Arts. The main questions in regards to this are, “Why, for so many years with more students where the current facilities adequate?” and “Why, now with declining enrollment do we need more gym space and a performing arts center.” I guess “Cave People” question what those in the know have decided is best for everyone else) it was stated that we have gotten by in the past with what we have so why do we need change. Things do not stay the same. Education needs are different now then they were 25 years ago. Twenty-five years ago we didn’t have computers in the schools. Government regulations on teachers, budgets , and buildings are ever changing and we have to evolve as well to stay within their guidelines.

People tend to get caught up in the specifics and not look at the big picture. The big picture is community! Our school is the heart and soul of our community and whether you want to believe it or not, extracurricular activities are a big part of community. (So some things don’t change? Who will tell us what changes and what doesn’t and when it happens?) You attend a football game or basketball game and you gather with your friends and neighbors. You get that hometown feel. You know what I’m talking about. You go to a game, you hear the cheers of the crowd, the singing of the national anthem, the band, the students all coming together.

It is a sense of family, a sense of belonging. That is what living in a small community is about and that’s why I live here. I want that quality of life for myself, my children, and my grandchildren.

This Nashua-Plainfield school building project makes sense for the future of our school and our community.

I choose not to be a “Cave Person.” Will it cost? Sure, everything costs, but the real cost comes with doing nothing.

Glenn McMichael, Nashua

Okay that’s one of the letters to the editor published in the January 27^th, 2011 issue of the Nashua Reporter. Where to begin?

Let’s begin at the end. I never advocated doing nothing in fact if you look at my blog post with my original letter to the editor I suggested we look into renting gym space. Now there’s some change. Guess it’s not the right change.

Mr. McMichael wrote the, “…building project makes sense for the future of our school and community” Okay where is the statistical evidence that shows that school districts with declining enrollments were able to halt that trend or even reverse it as well as bring in new business because the school took on a major building project? Somebody point to the statistics that this is the case and I’ll cease to be a “Cave Person”.

Now Mr. McMichael also wrote, “Our school is the heart and soul of our community and whether you want to believe it or not, extracurricular activities are a big part of community. You attend a football game or basketball game and you gather with your friends and neighbors.” What about State History day presentations? Well there’s no National Anthem, and no cheering, no ball involved, doesn’t take a lot of muscle, no pep-rally for them either. Maybe we need to seriously look at cutting athletic programs. So that’s change so if you are against cutting athletic programs when money is tight are you a “Cave Person” or are “Cave People” just people that disagree with Mr. McMichael? Maybe we should just elect him as our dear leader so that he can lead us properly and tell us when we are being “Cave People”.

Mr. McMichael brings up the computer as an analogy. I was out of high school by the time computers where available in class but the school I attended did have a computer lab prior to that which I used (It was the old kind that you had to dial the phone then plug the receiver into a modem". It was an extra curricular activity but we actually wrote programs for the computers. The school spends thousands of dollars on tech every year and my children can’t even use the built in Macro’s in word to generate a table of contents page after having “computer” classes. Seems to me that the school could get by with late model Pentium I machines because all they use them in class for is glorified typewriters. So you will excuse me if I’m skeptical about the wise use of my tax dollars in the name of "progress".

Which brings us to the beginning of Mr. McMichael’s editorial letter. I’m called a “Cave Person” and a “Citizen against virtually everything” as near as I can tell simply because I disagree with Mr. McMichael. Mr. McMichael’s opinion, and that is what it is an opinion, is that spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of tax payers money is warranted and will bring students, families and businesses to the community. My opinion is that it won’t. Basically it’s a gamble and personally I feel that if Mr. McMichael wants to take that gamble why doesn’t he do it with his own money and other private investments. Create a private investment firm build the facilities and then allow the school to lease them. If his gamble is correct he stands to make a good deal of money. If his gamble is wrong we the tax payers are out nothing. Unless of course we have to bail him out but that is another editorial.

Letter to the editor

Here is a copy of the letter I sent to the editor that is supposed to be published Next Tuesday in the Waverly Independent.

Dear Editor,

I felt the need to write this letter because I served on the Nashua Plainfield Community School Districts Long Range Planning Committee. I will admit that in the end I did not attend very many meetings. The primary reason for this is I felt the meetings to be overly long with a foregone conclusion and that my inclusion on the committee was to simply give it an air of unbiased community participation.

I don’t feel that the members represented a large cross section of the community but were instead hand picked to deliver the wanted conclusion. I also felt uncomfortable and that it was inappropriate for an employee of Gardner Architecture serving on the committee and especially serving as the de-facto chair of this committee. I don’t believe anything untoward happened: however; I think it was a case of “Caesar’s Wife” that elected officials and public entities should not even have the appearance of inappropriateness.

Having grown up doing my best to live within my means and doing the best I could with what I have it is my firm belief that for the most part the majority of the “recommendations” from the committee are luxury wants and not really needs. The primary one dealing with Athletic Curriculum / Community Wellness / Performing Arts. The main questions in regards to this are, “Why, for so many years with more students where the current facilities adequate?” and “Why, now with declining enrollment do we need more gym space and a performing arts center.”

In the January 2011 Husky Hotline, Brian Bierschenk, School Board President and Randy Strabala, Superintendent wrote, “In order to better market to potential businesses and families looking to relocate or establish themselves in the area, the school system must be able to offer education, programs, facilities, extracurricular activities etc. at a minimum of, equal to, or better than other surrounding school districts. Enrollment numbers have been, currently are, and will continue to decline for the foreseeable future. Overall improvements to the school district would be a necessary step to help curb these declining numbers, or hopefully, even reverse the trend.” There was never any statistical evidence given to support this hypothesis. Only anecdotal evidence primarily in the case of Postville’s recent building projects and other school districts building projects of which Gardner Architecture had direct involvement in.

In my opinion their solution to our declining enrollment is what I like to call “The field of dreams syndrome” or “if you build it they will come.” If their theory is correct, then we all ought to be packing up and moving to Waverly or Postville or other communities, where large scale school building projects have occurred, in droves, because let’s be honest, even if we could afford facilities to match Waverly and Postville’s specifically or other towns we could never realistically maintain them. The W in Waverly is not even self sufficient requiring a large yearly contribution from the city to remain functional.

And while the administration has stated its desire to help curb declining numbers it purchased three homes which I assume it plans to demolish. It is highly unlikely that these three house could be replaced for what they were purchased for thereby shrinking the already small affordable housing pool.

In my humble opinion the only real hope for our school is to choose what it will excel in and then pursue it with unwavering single mindedness. Personally I believe that the one and only purpose of school should be education and that when cuts are made they should be made in extracurricular activities first, hence the name extracurricular. Many will disagree with me but I really don’t see a lot of jobs where a major requirement is being a first string starter. And while it’s been a while since I took my ACT’s, I don’t recall there being an athletic section. If you look at our district’s annual progress report while it shows some improvement in our 8^th grade math and reading scores they are still below state averages. Again, on that report there is no section that ranks our standing in any athletic event.

Could we use more athletic practice space? Sure. A performing arts center? That would be nice. But maybe instead of building our own, which would sit empty the majority of the time like our current facilities, (do the math estimate 14 hour days say 8am to 10pm 365 days a year and I believe they are empty more then they are in use) we ought to partner with existing facilities, like the YMCA in Charles City or the W in Waverly. I believe that for a mere fraction of what we have already spent on property acquisition we could rent the needed facilities in areas around us. Would it mean driving farther? Sure. But we already drive to Charles City and Waverly for groceries, auto parts, Wal-Mart, K-mart and a host of other things we need that are never going to be available in our communities.

The reality is that our towns are bedroom communities. We need to face that fact, accept it, and then seek ways to capitalize on that instead of thinking that “if we build it they will come.”

Shawn Geer

These are pictures of the three properties the school is going to acquire to tear down to make room for whatever.

I think 3 families with children could have lived very nicely in these homes.

The Kindle and other ebooks

While I was on Christmas vacation I happened to stop into a Barnes & Noble and as I walked in I spotted a large group of people gathered in one area of the store. My heart raced a little thinking that maybe I had stumbled upon some book signing by some popular author. But alas as I approached I discovered it was a class teaching people how to use a Nooke. I thought to myself that is just silly, needing to know how to use a product to read books.

I am diametrically opposed to the Kindle and all e-readers for a multitude of reasons. The first being a matter of practicality because I think it is completely ludicrous to shell out $100 or more so that you can then be able to read books that you have to buy. Of course there are free books you can download but really, why are they free? And I highly doubt that the latest Harry Potter book will be in the free down load books.

I am also opposed to the Kindle because what do you do with it if you take it to the pool and decide you want to get in the pool? With my paperback I leave it on my towel and go get in the water without a care. I usually buy them used for next to nothing and if someone steals it oh well. But if they steal my Kindle I'm out alot of money.

Other issues that the Kindle and other e-book readers pose is durability. If I drop a book it could damage the spine if it gets wet the pages may curl and stick together but it is still readable. But what about an e-book reader? Maybe it will survive a drop out of my hand but what about a flight of stairs, being stepped up, giving a good swat to a naughty child or killing a bug? And what about highlighting a favorite passage?

But the biggest objection I have to the e-book reader is it's impact on property ownership. With any e-book you have surrendered your rights to own a copy of that book. As far as I can tell you can never lend that book, nor sell it to someone else nor even give it to someone else and at some time if the makers of the Kindle, or Nook or whatever platform you read the book on decide that they need more money from you so that you may enjoy the book they can render it unreadable by you until you pony up more money.

Now I'm speculating but I'm guessing that with e-books if you look at the fine print you have not purchased the book but only a license that gives you certain permissions for the book. In short it is a step in the direction for the entertainment industry to move to a pay per use system of distribution. In short the entertainment industry wants nothing more then to be able to charge you every-time you watch a movie, listen to music or read a book. In fact I believe they would love nothing more then to be able to charge you per person just like at the theater.

Now some will think I'm being hysterical or am some conspiracy theory kook. But if you look at some recent court decisions as well as how the entertainment industry determines piracy you might agree with me to some extent.

First the industry measures piracy by subtracting actual sells from what they would like their sells to be. So if actual sells are $100,000 and they want sells to be $200,000 then piracy loss is $100,000. And they take that number to our elected officials and lobby them saying you have to do something about this theft is 100% of sells.

The other has to do with some recent court decisions. One dealt with ebay in which a seller had several copies of a C.A.D. program for sell. I believe the copies had never been installed. The company who had produced the programs sued the seller and forced him to take them off ebay basically because, "he did not have a right to resell them". The other case concerns Omega S.A. maker of Swatch watches and Costco. Costco bought some high end watches that where not to be sold in the U.S. from a third party that were manufactured by Omega S.A. Costco then sold the watches for less then the suggested retail price in the U.S. Omega S.A. had printed a special emblem on these watches to some how mark them. Omega S.A. sued Costco basically stating that Costco had violated copy right law. Costco filed a counter motion and won legal fees however Omega S.A. appealed and on that appeal the 9th circuit court of appeals (big surprise there) reversed the lower courts ruling and agreed that Costco had violated Omega S.A. copy right.

What does this have to do with the Kindle and other e-books? Purchasing those devices and other hi-tech electronics devices only gives the companies more money in which to further erode property rights for individuals. We are financing our own inability to own anything.