Did Elmbrook’s Superintendent Attempt to Suppress Info on Board Candidates?
Emails from Superintendent Mark Hansen are raising questions among the community
On 2/14/23, Superintendent Mark Hansen wrote, “Our attorney is reviewing next steps and has advised us that not releasing the video would jeopardize our legal position.” He also wrote in another email, “I’m sorry this has turned into this mess. Our legal counsel will be helping us button up policy so we do not have a repeat.” Emails shown below.
The video and “mess” Mark referred to is the 2023 Board Candidate Forum - playback available here - which was hosted by Friends of Fairview South. The Board Candidate Forum is an opportunity for the community to educate themselves about the people wishing to serve Elmbrook residents. Board candidates, if elected, supervise, direct and determine compensation for Elmbrook senior leadership, which includes Superintendent Mark Hansen.
The individuals Mark responded to were two candidates who did not participate in the forum on 2/13/23. One candidate provided recorded responses after the forum’s completion that were made public on Facebook.
At the start of the Board Candidate Forum, it was stated:
“We learned roughly one and a half weeks ago that the prior sponsor of this forum would not be hosting it this year and that no other group stepped up to host. Although we are a very small group, we decided that hosting it would be a valuable service to our Elmbrook community that has shown us so much support over the years. If you will, it's almost a way for us to pay it forward.
We reached out to the District to confirm the availability of a venue and recording equipment and once that was in place, we invited all candidates to participate. We kept the same exact timeline, which is the Monday one week prior to the primary, and tried to keep the same format as similar as possible to the prior sponsor.
We put together the questions that will be presented here tonight as there wasn’t sufficient time to solicit input from the community at large. No candidate, nor any member of the current Board or the staff of the District, has participated in the drafting or review of the questions presented tonight. Consistent with how the event was run in the past, candidates that confirmed participation were given the questions in advance so they could prepare. The questions were delivered to the candidates here tonight this past Friday evening.
While we made every attempt to have all candidates participate, including offering virtual attendance and pre-recorded responses, unfortunately not everyone was able to participate on such short notice. You should not make any assumptions regarding a candidate’s attendance. We did discuss cancelling the event or rescheduling until after the primary but we felt it was important to maintain the practices established by the previous sponsor to host the forum prior to the primary, and because we truly want our community to have access to as much information as possible before voting begins in earnest. We all have a stake in our schools. We hope you will vote for whatever candidate you believe is best after learning about all of the candidates.“
As previously covered, the former host of the Board Candidate Forum, Elmbrook Parent Network (PN) and Elmbrook Parent Leadership Council (EPLC) quietly decided not to host in 2023. In the Board Candidate Forum, board candidates answer questions live and it is also recorded. It has historically been held the week before the primary election.
PN and EPLC’s unpublicized cessation of the Board Candidate Forum is, based on their feedback, due to them having to respond to questions and complaints regarding their process of hosting the forum in the past.
The Parent Network had ties to two 2023 candidates. Area 3 candidate Preetha Kurudiyara was the Director of Communications and Andrea Wheeler, wife of Area 1 candidate Scott Wheeler, is the Director of Hospitality. Some community members were surprised that a candidate in a role as Director of Communications of Parent Network did not appear to communicate the cessation of the Board Candidate Forum.
Friends of Fairview South also said in the forum:
“Finally, it is important for us to say that tonight’s Forum is not an endorsement of any candidate by the District, the Friends of Fairview South, or any individual involved in tonight’s presentation. We have all worked very hard to keep this Forum neutral. Our goal was to simply provide information and we are disappointed that a small minority of community members are questioning our intent. We will not be responding to email or social media posts about the event. We have done the best we could under less than ideal circumstances to assist you, our neighbors, with a difficult decision; we need to select the next members of our school board. Good luck to all of the candidates - present and not present. Thank you for putting yourself out there for the good of the community.”
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