Blaska Policy Werkes

David Blaska, going out of his way to provoke progressives in Madison WI to make America safe for democracy!

Friends of Mirilli have inside track on Madison school board pick

UPDATE 07-23-19: It’s Savion Castro, also a friend of Mirilli and Muldrow. We checked four of the first five boxes correctly.

We handicap the field of 29 applicants for the vacancy on the Madison school board.

The six current members will select a replacement for Mary Burke among 29 applicants (twenty-nine!) early this evening (07-22-19). The new school board member will select a new superintendent to succeed privileged white woman Jennifer Cheatham, will pass on a new fiscal year budget, and probably O.K. another referendum to continue blowing state spending caps. We have zero inside information but here are some semi-educated guesses in order of decreasing confidence

Let’s check the boxes:

  1. It will be a progressive. (Leaves Blaska out!)
  2. It will be a minority race.
  3. It NOT be a former school board member. (Four of them have applied!)
  4. It will be an Asian (the only major ethnic group not represented on this identity politics-conscious body).
  5. They will pick one man to so it’s not an all-female board.
  6. It will be Tamara Mouw (who worked with Ananda Mirilli at DPI) or Nancy Vue Tran (their homage to Freedom Inc.). The latter is actually running for the appointment. Both are friends of Mirilli, who was elected this April on a “ticket” with Ali Muldrow; they are likely to vote in tandem.

 

The applicants are (as described by the WI State Journal):

  • David Aguayo, executive assistant at the state Department of Workforce Development.
  • Nino Amato, CEO for the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging & Health Groups.
  • Erin Arango-Escalante, administrator for state Division of Early Care and Education at the Department of Children and Families.
  • Micah Ariel-Rohr, assistant director at UW Hillel.
  • David Blaska, former Dane County Board member and conservative blogger who ran unsuccessfully for a School Board seat in April.
  • Carol Carstensen, former Madison School Board member, 1990 to 2008.
  • Savion Castro, legislative aide for state Rep. Shelia Stubbs.
  • Maia Chen, parent and South Side community member. 
  • Alexis Dean, Schools of Hope literacy tutor and coordinator.
  • Rafael Gomez, retired after 33 years working in Madison School District.
  • Erica Halverson, professor of curriculum and instruction at UW-Madison.
  • Ed Hughes, former Madison School Board member, 2008 to 2017.
  • Lorrie Hurckes Dwyer, executive director of the Dane County TimeBank.
  • Angela Jenkins, project manager at American Family Insurance.
  • Lillian Kelly, budget and policy analyst at the Department of Workforce Development.
  • * Steve King, semi-retired, former Fluno Center executive director.
  • Pamela Klein, 22-year Deerfield teacher.
  • Juan Jose Lopez, former Madison School Board member, 1994 to 2006.
  • Tamara Mouw, an educator who has worked at school, district and state levels.
  • Dwight A. Perry, academic dean and professor at North Park University in Chicago and Madison pastor.
  • Terjuan Short, recent West High School graduate.
  • Arlene Silveira, former Madison School Board member, 2006 to 2015.
  • Jeff Spitzer-Resnick, civil rights attorney and special-education advocate.
  • Calista Storck, nursing student and recent La Follette High School graduate.
  • Nancy Vue Tran, director of grants and development for Freedom Inc.
  • Zachary M. Watson, an educator and musician with 10 years of experience working with families and students.
  • Danielle Wendricks, former Madison School District Student Senate president and recent La Follette High School graduate.
  • Jake Winkler, conservation biologist at the state Department of Natural Resources.
  • Sonja Worthy, a mental health social worker.

Interesting fact: Most of the people on this list are Facebook friends of
Ananda Mirilli and Ali Muldrow. 

If it was Blaska’s pick, it would be Dwight A. Perry, executive minister and regional president of Converge Great Lakes, a group of 120 religious congregations in Wisconsin and the U.P. He holds four degrees in education, including a doctorate from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Perry serves on the board of directors of One Hundred Black Men of Madison.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: No, wait, I’d pick Blaska.

David Blaska
,
Take me back Home, Jeeves!

5 responses to “Friends of Mirilli have inside track on Madison school board pick”

  1. Batman

    One thing for certain is that whoever is picked will not provide any diversity of thought (box #1).
    The concept is much too frightening and some board members would be spending all their time in some designated safe space curled up fetal hugging a teddy bear.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Ana

    Six questions for the community to ask a candidate for school board of for superintendent:

    1. How often will you be visiting the schools under your jurisdiction, and what will be on your checklist?
    2. How do you tell the difference between a fad based on faulty research and a program based on validated research?
    3. Do you believe that children and their parents need to respect
    teachers, and police officers who are respectful toward them or do you believe that disrespect will fix society’s systemic problems and help close the achievement gap?
    4. After a mentally ill or traumatized child, who continually assaults others, has been treated by special education teachers, psychologists, behavior specialists, and social workers, but remains unable to control assaults, should that child be sent to an alternative placement? What does “Least restrictive environment” mean to you?
    5. How will you measure whether a new program is working.? Will you be transparent if a program isn’t working and move to change that program?
    6. If a child is NOT mentally ill or a victim or trauma, but chooses to be a bully, or disrespectful, over and over again, how will you handle this situation?

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Dan B.

    Nailed this one. Nice work.

    Like

  4. Dan B.

    Put Charlie Church on the Church School board.

    Like

  5. Cornelius Gotchberg

    Veddy interesting! Castro is the legislative assistant of Shelia “Campaigning While Black” (CWB) Stubbs.

    First question for Castro: “Are YOU the prescient political guru that resurrected the potential for Race Baiting the CWB incident provided?”

    There was, after all, a 5 freakin’ week PLUS time lag (8/07/2018 -09/19/2018) before this “victim’s” story hit the fan, am I right?

    Not only that, but the spittle-flecked slobbering guilt-suffocated that ensued (national news!) was the stuff of legend!

    Locally, White Madison Lefties (especially this blog’s Lefty regulars), hilariously contorted themselves in spectacularly secular contrition apologizing for something with which they had nothing whatsoever to do.

    Alas, t’was not to be but another Covington Kids/Jussie Smollet/Whitehorse MS/Justice Kavanaugh, etc., etc., etc. in the NEVER-ENDING line of Lefty conjured up Hate Crime Hoaxes.

    Why? The demand for RACISM/HATRED/BIGOTRY is exponentially greater than the supply.

    (bolds/caps mine throughout)
    Public Information Officer Joel Despain says before the incident was made public, Stubbs spoke to Madison Police Chief Mike Koval at length. Despain says Stubbs indicted “SHE WAS QUITE HAPPY WITH THE POLICE RESPONSE ALTHOUGH SHE WAS VERY DISPLEASED THAT THE OFFICER WAS SENT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

    “SHE IS SAYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT NOW.” says Despain.

    Now; were Stubbs & her staff’s feet ever held to the fire for what was clearly a load of horse $#!T? Short answer: no. Long answer: HELL NO.

    Why? It would have been racist!

    The Gotch

    Like