The February election results are in, and the four candidates who made it to the April elections are: Brian Bock, Tassia Hughes, Robert Kobleska, and Tony Novinska. In the midterm election Hughes led with a total of 944 votes, in second was Novinska with 917, third was Kobleska with 867, and Bock had 761 votes. This year there are many decisions that the school board could make that have an impact on teachers and students alike. 

Hughes is a Greendale resident with three children in the district. Raised in Wauwatosa, she earned a bachelor’s Degree in Actuarial Science from UW-Madison and an MBA in Accounting from UW-Milwaukee. Early in her career she was an auditor and actuary for two Milwaukee accounting firms and is currently a consultant for Northwestern Mutual.

Novinska is a Greendale resident with two grown children. He has worked in Sales and Sales Management for 25 and has over 30 years of business experience in the private sector and 31 years of community service in Greendale.

Kobleska is another Greendale resident with one daughter and two nephews attending the district. He received a Bachelors in Criminal Justice, and a masters degree in Administrative Justice and Security. He currently is a VP of Noble Backgrounds.

Bock is also a Greendale resident with two children in the district. He has a doctorate in pharmacy from UW-Madison, and a bachelor’s degree in Science in Biology and Chemistry from Valparaiso University. He is currently a pharmacist manager and has been registered for over 10 years.

Why do you want to be on the school board?

Hughes: I have always been a fierce advocate for my children. I now feel it is the time to expand and advocate for all the children in the Greendale School District. I believe the primary work of the board of education is to advocate for them. At all our schools, students need to feel safe emotionally, physically and socially in order to thrive in a learning environment. Children learn better when they aren’t hungry or worried about being bullied by a child in their class.

When outside stressors are removed, we all learn better. I also believe that the board must advocate for the teachers so they have the best possible environment to work in. It is important that the teachers, tasked with the learning and nurturing of our children everyday, know they are being heard, and that the board has their safety and well-being in mind.

Novinska: I have served Greendale for 31 years.  This year’s Village Days will be my 32nd year working and/or running the festival. I am proud to have raised two kids that both graduated from GHS.  Over this past time, I can say with high confidence that I am extremely proud to call Greendale “Home”.  My two kids graduated from Greendale in 2015 and in 2018.  I have met some of the best Teachers that I have ever known in the Greendale School District.  However, I have noticed a decline in academic achievement over the past 8 years and a steep decline the past three years.  This has motivated me to give back, in the form of trying to re-focus Greendale School District on academics.

Kobleska: I have enjoyed giving back to the community by volunteering, coaching, and serving as Vice President as the Library Board and I feel like I have more to give to a community that has done so many wonderful things for my family and I.  I also believe that I can create stronger ties between the School Board and the stakeholders.   Greendale is and always has been a prestigious school district and I am motivated to not only keep it that way, but to make it even better.

Bock: I cherish being part of the Greendale community. There is so much good the school board has already done to improve Greendale Schools. I would be honored to be part of ensuring the continued educational success of Greendale’s students. Education has always been important to my family. Several of my family members are involved in education and my

mother was a math and science teacher for almost 40 years. After high school graduation, I pursued an additional eleven years of education. I have a deep love of learning. Having someone passionate about education and having been a consumer of various community colleges and Universities over the years, would be a great asset to our district.

Being a member of the school board, I could assist where I saw the board struggle. The lack of proactive planning and introduction of stop-gap measures in September for the district health and safety plan, was one such area of struggle. The lack of planning hurt the student’s access to their course work and ability to be involved in extracurricular activities. Secondly, there are many opportunities for the school board to increase communication regarding decisions made to our parents, students, and the greater community. My full-time job as a pharmacist encourages planning, critical thinking, research, and great communication-all of which I excel at and believe to be necessary to be an effective board member.

What are the biggest problems you believe are facing the school right now? What are you going to focus on?

Hughes: One is staffing shortages, especially substitute teachers. Many schools are shuddering their teaching programs as there are so few wanting to enter the K-12 teaching field. I would look into creating a partnership with some of the local education programs in order to try and maintain an edge into the teaching hiring pool. In addition, I know that pre-pandemic, several moms obtained their short-term sub license in order to help out in the schools. I would look into removing some of the barriers these moms incurred. Greendale pays less than neighboring districts and some of the moms need before school care for their kiddos in order to be able to sub. I would look into the Bridge for Kids program to see if reduced or free care could be given as well as increased sub pay. Much of this would depend on budget restrictions.

Another is mental health help for the students. The pandemic has caused a significant increase in mental health issues such as anxiety and depression among students. The district has already put several programs in place to help these students including Sources of Strength, Kettle Moraine counseling, and Student and Family assistance program which allows up to 6 free counseling sessions. The district can form more partnerships in the community to aid our kids’ mental health needs.

Academic performance is another area of focus for me. There has been a lot of talk about this topic. I would like to understand how students’ performances have changed. I know that the state standardized tests have changed 3 times since 2010 and comparisons are hard to make as it isn’t always “apples to apples”. It would also be beneficial to compare our outcomes to other districts who are similar in size and socioeconomic diversity. In addition, the shortage of teachers mentioned above is impacting the students’ performance as well. Those students who require intervention work may not receive that help if that teacher is pulled into the classroom for the day. Also, students who are in need of mental health help will not be able to perform as well. Good emotional health is a must for students to be academically successful. 

Novinska: My top priority is raising the bar on academic achievement while maintaining fiscal responsibility. The school district needs to remain the heart of the district! I feel we have a very good Superintendent, but she has inherited a sad fact. Since 2010, I am seeing a decline in academic achievement. Specifically, in Math and English Language Arts (ELA).

I look for the root cause in things that are failing.  I must walk before I run, since I am not a School Board member yet, but in this short time researching things for my first ever campaign, I have found that the Greendale School District is faltering in Math and ELA.  I will also say that my research and experience putting two kids through GSD, that Greendale has excellent Teachers!  Our falling reading scores are not the fault of the Teachers. They are doing the best they can with programs that have been proven ineffective.

One specific area is the balanced literacy methodology, consisting mostly of the Lucy Calkins and Fountas & Pinnell programs. My rudimentary research utilizing the DPI website, points to very clear data that it is not effective as there has been steep declines.  Examples: 1)     In GSD ELA Scores, district wide, in the 2014-15 school year, we were 73% proficient or advanced.  By the 2020-21 school year, we dropped to 51%.

2)     Looking at it the other way, in 2014-15, only 28% of the kids were basic or below proficiency and by the 2020-21 school year, it shot up to 49%.

As you can see from the timeline – this decline pre-dates the Covid pandemic so we can’t put the bulk of the blame on the pandemic like may have tried to do.

Equity point!

1)     For black students, in 2014-15, their ELA scores, district wide, were 49% proficient to advanced.  By 2020-21, they dropped to 23%.  To me, this is a solid, concrete equity talking point.  Obviously, these programs do not work, but especially for black students. 

There is a second negative effect to all of this…  As schools become more and more diverse, we will see younger and younger kids where English is NOT their first language.  I realize that word decoding is taught, but it’s not the primary strategy. With young minds that are first learning the English language, decoding is essential, because context for these words are lost.  As they are slowly starting to lose the proficiency of their first language to learn English, there is a “limbo between the two language worlds” that is created.  The price we are paying is eventually, 15 year olds reading at a 6th Grade level or below. 

Kobleska: My School Board platform is three tiered: academics, transparency, and fiscal responsibility.  In my opinion, academic achievement has taken a back seat to COVID safety mitigation plans over the past two years.  I am going to focus on bringing academic achievement goals back to the forefront.  I specifically want to pay close attention to math and English Language Arts.  It’s my belief that the teachers are using ineffective programs, specifically Lucy Calkins and Fountas and Pinnell. 

This has to be a system change and it won’t be an overnight fix.  We have to first recognize and acknowledge that academic achievement is significantly down and take a deep dive into what changes are needed and how we’re going to do it.  A move from balanced literacy to structured literacy, a science based instruction, should seriously be considered.  These won’t be easy conversations to have but I am not only willing to have them but I’m also willing to lead them.  For example, the state of Mississippi has recently abandoned balanced literacy and switched to a structured literacy methodology and has seen a dramatic improvement in their overall reading scores.  One more example, the state of Wisconsin went from 3rd in the nation to now 34th in the nation in ELA achievement.  Why would Greendale go down with the Wisconsin DPI ship?  Rubber stamping the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Bock: Our district does a great job preparing our students and supporting our educators. We do have a few areas to tweak and make sure we are providing an exemplary education as compared to other local districts. Effective dialogue with the community and within the board are essential to our success and gaining trust amongst our community members. Increasing access to the trades would greatly benefit our students and our community. We already have a nice start regarding trades for our students. I would like to see the district add additional courses and transportation to these classes. As a healthcare worker, it is essential I listen to patients and guide therapy for the best outcome. Listening to and coordinating with others is a skill I would bring to the board. I guarantee to listen to all members of the community, use experts and research to make decisions for the best outcome for Greendale students.

I want to continue the high scholastic achievement of Greendale’s students by encouraging advancement of English, Math, and Science skills. I believe our schools should prepare students for any career path, college, trade, or job. A keen eye is needed to make sure we serve the needs of all students. I want to see our school’s partner with local businesses to create more student apprenticeship opportunities for the High School students. There is a great need to increase access to transportation for these programs. I have already begun talks with the district and the local community colleges to begin this work.

What specific initiatives would you support to attract and keep teachers and staff who work with us every day?

Hughes: Teachers and staff need to be heard. By building trust and open lines of communication between the school board and our teachers, I can begin to understand what would be especially valuable to keep our talented teachers and attract new ones. I heard recently at the pops concert (Well done, by the way! The concert was fantastic!) how many of our teachers are graduates of the district as well. This is a great start to inspiring the next generation of teachers, and bringing our talented new teachers back to the community.

Novinska: Academics MUST be the heart and soul of any school district.  Once academic excellence is achieved, a school district becomes a “destination school district” and with that, the tax base grows because it’s all connected.  Great schools >>>  excellent academic achievement >>> greater interest for families choosing to live here >>> more tax money to pay for an even better school system.  However, we have an uphill battle to get back to that status.  Between the high-turnover of Superintendents between Dr William Hughes and the complete mishandling of the Gary Kiltz felony theft situation, I feel we have the correct Superintendent in Dr Kim Amidzich to bring us out of the problems.  You see, in any entity, whether public or private enterprise, there is always public perception and it’s too bad that perception can over shadow fact.  The facts are that while Greendale used to be a destination school district, we are still very good, but not where we once were.  We need to be excellent again.

Kobleska: The teacher and substitute teacher shortage is affecting every school district in the state.  Salary schedules, health/dental benefits and good working conditions always attract educators.  Beyond that, I would like to see professional hours, flexible hours and mental health days added to teacher compensation packages.  As I previously stated, we have invested in improving our beautiful facilities for our teachers to work in and we also have excellent school administrative leadership.  Keeping our current administrators is obviously a must.  I would also propose adding a free hot lunch for teachers.  This is a popular perk in the business world and I think teachers should be able to count on this as a perk for all that they do for our children.

Bock: Teachers should be paid based on education level, years of service, extra-curricular activities, self, and peer reviews. Our district attracts some wonderful teachers, many of which have stayed with us around 10 years! Benefits for teachers in our district is one of the draws. Encouraging opportunities for students to enter the education profession by continuing to utilize Greendale Educators Rising (GER) and allowing them the opportunity to interview with the district when they graduate, as GER already does, would help to staff our schools. Guaranteeing employment with a letter of intent from our district to hire the student after graduation is an idea. Allowing High School Students to obtain credit for their coursework being completed prior to heading into undergraduate programming would also encourage our students to choose teaching as a career. I would like to look at possible loan forgiveness options as well for new teachers. Our teachers work hard and love our children, we cannot ask for anything more.

What is your opinion on the district’s COVID protocols throughout this pandemic?

Hughes: I believe it is the school’s role to keep the students and staff healthy and safe. It is prudent that the students attend in-person school as much as possible and that their school activities remain in place. It has been a tough road for many students and their families. I know our children were much happier once they could go back to school and participate in their extracurricular activities. I do believe that many students have been able to roll with the changing environment, while others have struggled. I applaud the teachers and administration who have worked with these students and their struggles. I wish the district would have been proactive in their safety plan instead of reactive. For example, the stop gap measure plan was not put into place until January. Most other districts had their plan in place before the school year started. Having a plan in place ahead of time would have allowed for easier transitions for students and staff alike.

Novinska: For all students that are able, in-person learning for those students MUST happen. The psychological, anti-social damage to kids will be irreversible if virtual learning persists. From a 300% increase in teen self-harm, anxiety and depression (Psychology Today, Sept 2021), schools being closed do more harm than good. Board focus on student achievement, engagement of youth, families and citizens, with a sharp eye on finances while working with the superintendent to hire top teaching talent will bring us out of the pandemic.  And, while the school district has done a good job overall in dealing with the Covid pandemic, two of my opponents have decided that they do not wish to move forward to normalcy any time soon.  Regardless that the surrounding districts have already done so!  So a vote for me is a vote for tackling academic decline with a keen eye on fiscal responsibility while  tempering further covid restrictions that are far beyond what is warranted at this stage of the pandemic.

Kobleska: I commend the current School Board and Dr. Kim Amidzich for the new, easier to read COVID dashboard and the new COVID guard rails that were put in place, building by building.  The new COVID mitigation plan seems to be fair, reasonable, and most importantly, working!

Bock: COVID protocols for the 2021-2022 school year have hampered parents’ ability to effectively balance their schedules and left many students without access to a great education. 2020-2021 was smoother with clear expectations for families and students. The 2020-2021 safety plan was controlled by the Superintendent and was much more successful. I would like to see the Safety Plan back under the discretion of Dr. Amidzich which is where such items such as students’ physical safety and wellbeing have been and should have remained. This year has been a series of reactionary measures which did not benefit our community. As a parent, I outlined a comprehensive plan (following CDC, AMA, ANA, and WHO recommendations) for masking and unmasking with set infection percentages for school and community last August. It was not until January, stop gap measures were instituted. If I was on the board, I would have also utilized our local health department and encouraged their regular attendance at meetings for their expert opinion. Had a comprehensive plan been in place in September, there could have been a better utilization of the school boards time. The focus could have been on education, policy, and budgetary concerns. 

The 2020-2021 school year health protocols were run better under the guidance of the school district administration. As a board member, I would recommend returning the power for making the health protocols back to the superintendent’s administration as it is intended to be. The administration would be able to flex as needed and not wait on a school board decision.