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More Fallout About Dr. Swanson

Harlan

Tit for Tat between

Dr. Swanson and Dr. Amstein
BY MARK FOEGEN

Atlantic
Dr. Swanson may have spoken the truth, or not, about
our school system. He doesnt have the right as a elected
ofcial to air out the School Boards dirty laundry before
the public.
If he were just a citizen it would of been ne. But since
he chose to run for public ofce, he must uphold his responsibilities and ethics of his ofce. If he has issues with
Dr. Amstein, he should bring it to the Boards attention, and
they could address it behind closed doors.
The way I see it, Dr. Swanson is now part of the
problem. Dr. Swanson has every opportunity to voice his
opinion and bring his ideas to the School Board. It is his
job to try and convince two other Board Members to vote
his way. If he feels that Dr. Amstein needs to be red, he
should take that up with the rest of the Board Members.
Now, about Dr. Amsteins speak up. Dr. Amstein
works for the School Board. Some of his article was unprofessional. However, I believe he has the right to defend
our kids and their achievements. This shouldnt be about
Dr. Swanson and Dr. Amstein, it should be about the kids
of our community. How does this look to the families that
are looking to move to Atlantic?
We have a Board member who doesnt care what he
says in the media. Instead of spilling your guts to the public, lets make changes. Our Football program has suffered
for a few years. And the blame rests on the coaching staff
and whoever hired them. Our kids give it all on the eld.
Our teacher turnover is extremely high. It seems teachers
dont want to stay. I dont see how we keep on getting
young qualied teachers, to just watch them move on in a
few years. The School Board needs to get their priorities
straight.
The students in the Atlantic community have proven
by their test scores and diligence that they are among the
top in the state. The parents of our students have to
take responsibility for whats going on also. If you voted,
you helped elect this School Board. This is the sad part.
Most parents with children in our schools dont vote, leaving the election to the Senior Citizens.
Im in my 50s and I never knew about bullying in
school. Now this is one of our main problems that the
School Board and Administration is overlooking. If we
dont address this issue we may nd ourselves in the middle of something major. Our community doesnt need this
going on. It will just give Atlantic another black eye, which
may take years to recover from.

To participate just call the News Telegraph at 243-2624

and ask for extension 204 and just record your message
(please keep it short - someone has to type these!)
The paper does reserve the right not to run any comment
we deem to be offensive or slanderous. Comments must be
left on our phone line. Unsigned written comments will not
be accepted

friday 2-26 2.indd 5

School Board Misses the Point

Let Your Voice Be Heard!

Im commenting on the letter from the Superintendent

of Schools in which he addresses Dr. Swanson and Mr.
Swanson. What a disrespectful letter. I actually put more
basis in school board members than I do superintendents.
School board members are members of the community,
have children in the system. Superintendents are basically
just there for a job. I live in Harlan, Iowa, but I am an Atlantic High School graduate.

Friday, February 26, 2016

By Jeff Lundquist
Wednesday night the Atlantic School Board members
decided to work on improving their trust and communication skills. Board members had lost their team spirit - their
ability to work together all on the same page - and that,
they thought, was the root of the recent problems facing
the board. The only thing to x this problem was a good
old fashioned team building exercise.
So they agreed to call in State ofcials skilled in that
sort of nonsense and presumable after much falling blindfolded into each others arms, group hugging and singing
songs around the campre, they will emerge a well-oiled
cohesive unit and all the problems of the last few weeks
will be gone.
Right.
The problem with that plan, in my view, is that the
districts current problems stem not so much from personalities as from policies. And group hugs dont address policy differences. The boards dysfunction was in full-bloom
this week after Board Member Dr. Keith Swanson wrote a
letter to the editor outlining a number of problems he had
with the district and stating he was embarrassed to be on
the board. Swanson questioned the districts nances and
its willingness to share information with board members
and the public, among other things.
District Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein responded a few days later alleging Swanons had his facts
all wrong. Which led to Wednesday nights exercise in
group denial.
Arguing over who can and cant put items on an
agenda and scheduling group bonding exercises wont do
anything to address the real problem the board is facing.
That is the Atlantic community is quickly losing faith in
the boards ability to run the district while an increasing
number believes the administration is not being forthright
in providing information to the public.
That point was driven home Wednesday night when
the dozen or so people who attended the meeting and patiently waited a hour and a half or so for their chance to
address to the board, were no thanks. The board wasnt
interested in listening to what they had to say. They hid
behind some baloney about the issues not being on the
agenda so they couldnt be discussed - which is completely false - and claimed that the issues would be on a

Speak Up
Support for Swanson
BY DONNA ROURICK
Atlantic
I was on the school board with Dr. Swanson in the 80s.
He often made the Board squirm, but he made us think more
deeply about the issues before us. I believe we got more information from the administration because he pushed for it.
Iowa was rated top state on achievement in the nation
and Atlantic was on top in Iowa. As a result we were invited
to give a presentation at the national school board convention. At that time our nances were in great shape too.
As our scores plummeted and the nances took a dive
in the past few years, my rst thought was that board needs
another Keith Swanson. I didnt dream Dr. Swanson, himself, would run and win. Way to go Keith! We are happy to
have you back.

future agenda. But I wouldnt hold my breath.

This was a Public Relations disaster for the district.
Already facing a perception of withholding information,
the board doubled down and sent them packing.
And this isnt an isolated example. Last year when
the district was considering a list over around $600,000 in
budget cuts, the News Telegraph requested the list prior
to the meeting so that the public could have time to fully
consider them. The district refused and instead released
the list on the night of the meeting.
Wednesday night a dozen people took time off from
their home lives to meet with the board and instead were
greeted with what certainly seemed like a concerted effort
to make sure that the public and the issues important to
them would not be heard. Did they really need the districts attorney there to tell them .... well what exactly?
That the public couldnt speak because public comments werent on the agenda? Hogwash.
The board should be seeking out and welcoming public input. They should go out of their way to encourage
people to participate in the process rather than working on
ostricizing them.
Why not engage the public? How about working to
invest the community in the district?
Swanson suggested Wednesday that the board spent
too much time discussing, what he termed uff rather
than issues and hes not wrong. While its nice to hear how
the (ll in the blank) club did at their (ll in the blank) its
hardly the sort of thing the community elected the board
to oversee. The district is facing important issues regarding budgets, academics and facilities. That should be the
focus of the board.
Board Member Ali Bruckners suggestion that any
single board member be allowed to place an item on the
agenda which should then be discussed until all members
are satised is a good one and should be added to the board
policy immediately. After all whats the point of being on
a board if you are not allowed to discuss your ideas?
Some board members resisted the idea, suggesting three members should agree before placing items
on the agenda. But that idea is sure to lead to problems
with the open meetings a law and will end up alienating
board members whose ideas are left out. Remember were
building teamwork here.
The district should also begin making public all information provided to board members in their agenda packets prior to meetings at the same time they are provided
to the board. The districts policy states that The tentative agenda and supporting documents will be sent to the
board members two (2) days prior to the scheduled board
meeting. It should also be placed on the website at that
time.
Last year the News Telegraph asked the Iowa Public
Information Board to require the district to release the information. And while the IPIB agreed the information was
public, Iowa law doesnt stipulate when the information
has to be released. It can be before a meeting, during the
meeting or, presumably weeks after a meeting. But it does
have to be released. So why wait unless the goal is to purposely withhold pertinent information from the public?
The public has a right to know and engaging them early
and often will lead to a better understanding of the issues
and the decisions faced by the district.
Certainly there are personality conicts among board
members. And maybe trust building exercises will help
with that - I dont see how it could hurt. But it would be a
mistake to belive that will solve all the boards problems.
The more important job they are facing is rebuilding trust
with the community.

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2/25/16 3:11 PM