Shorewood Citizens for Responsible Government has found that our School District of Shorewood and the elected officials of our Board of Education have a long history of disregarding Wisconsin Statutes on the publication of meeting minutes and the availability of detailed receipts and expenditures.

On September 28^th, 2011, the Shorewood school board meeting minutes from April 12^th, 2011 to July 12^th, 2011, which were approved by the school board on August 9^th, 118 days after the April 12^th meeting, were made available to Shorewood residents and business owners at the Shorewood Village Library, 124 days after the 45 day requirement.  These minutes have extremely limited substance and no detailed record of receipts and expenditures for the school district.

Presently, there have been no school board meeting minutes published since the July 12^th meeting; once again, 65 days, to today’s date.  Residents and business owners can safely assume that these minutes will not be approved until at the very soonest, the next regularly scheduled school board meeting, October 25^th, which will be 77 days until approval, again,  well past the 45 day publication requirement.  Residents and business owners should keep in mind that this is a tentative approval date and not a publication date.

SCRG would also like to point out to Shorewood residents and business owners, the most blatant, recent disregard of state law by our School District of Shorewood and the elected officials of our Board of Education.  School board meeting minutes from June 8^th, 2010, that’s right, June 8^th, 2010, were not approved until April 12^th, 2011.  This was a full 307 days after the June 8^th, 2010 meeting and again, these minutes contained extremely limited substance and no detailed record of receipts and expenditures for the school district.

Shorewood residents and business owners should be aware that this has been a long-term problem for our school district and the elected officials of our school board.  It is not, as it is being portrayed in the local media; a one-time, temporary staffing problem due to budgetary issues.  It is a long-term, oversight and compliance issue.

To repeat an excerpt from the SCRG presentation to our school board on Tuesday, October 11^th, which is posted in its’ entirety below:

The purpose of the school board meeting is to conduct the financial and intellectual business of the School District of Shorewood, in an open forum, so that residents and business owners are able to fully participate in and understand the formulation and implementation of our continuous commitment to expanding excellence in our public school district. Many residents and business owners are unable to attend these school board meetings due to: physical challenges, work schedules, family commitments, inclement weather, travel conflicts, etc.  In short, life sometimes gets in the way.

In lieu of the varied and legitimate reasons that many Shorewood residents and business owners are unable to attend the annual, regular, special, and committee meetings, we expect, indeed, rely on, a detailed accounting of the reports and transactions of our school district.