Give KLSD more information and allow feedback before hiring Wisconsin's Dr. Paul Kreutzer

We the undersigned: community members, students and alumni of the Katonah-Lewisboro School District, strongly believe that our entire community has the right to know that the candidate the Board chooses to hire as the next superintendent, Dr. Paul Kreutzer, appears to be a seriously polarizing figure. In his current position as superintendent of the New Berlin School District in Wisconsin, Dr. Kreutzer recently stood alone among school superintendents in his state supporting Gov. Scott Walker's radical plan to drastically reduce school funding by almost one billion dollars, and to seriously hobble collective bargaining rights. (See the bottom of this text for links to more information)

We are alarmed and dismayed by your decision to hire Dr. Kreutzer as superintendent and to give him a five-year contract with a $245,000 salary.

In a sharp break from past practice in the Katonah-Lewisboro district, no community members, faculty or school staff were included in the interviewing or selection process. Who besides the School Board has even met or spoken with your final candidate or any of the other candidates? Were any educators involved in the process? Why was the announcement made during school break with the plan to finalize the decision on the first day back at school?

Our students and community deserve better than this.

In light of the grave concerns that have emerged about the Board of Education's proposed hire of Dr. Kreutzer as the District's superintendent,

We the undersigned respectfully demand that the BOE:

1. Postpone the decision of hiring Dr. Kreutzer for at least one month
2. Hold public forums to inform the public of their decision and get the public's feedback
3. Hold an internet-video-based question-and-answer session with Dr. Kreutzer where the public can ask him questions directly

We are interested in dialog, not rhetoric, in community and cooperation, not secretiveness and polarization. Let the BOE show that they feel the same way.


*** MORE INFORMATION ***
The School Administrators Alliance, which represents more than 3,000 public school administrators in Wisconsin, strongly opposes Governor Walker's budget bill as a crushing blow to education. http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/March11/0316/0316saa.pdf

Dr. Kreutzer's current district is the subject of a formal "Prohibited Practice Complaint" filed in December 2010 by the New Berlin education unions, charging that the District withdrew funds from a segregated health account for the health insurance premiums of union members and "deposited these funds in the District's general account beginning in 2006." An independent accounting conducted by Huttleston Associates concluded that "$7,064,838.28 is unaccounted for". Read the complaint here: http://sounder.com/pdf/SKMBT_50110123010020.pdf