Elmbrook Superintendent a Director of Entity That Awarded Him “Superintendent of the Year”
It's revealed that Mark Hansen applied for his WASDA award after nomination, and as a Director of the WASDA he could vote for himself as the award recipient.
Elmbrook has been publicizing Superintendent Mark Hansen winning the 2024 Superintendent of the Year from the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA). When community members reviewed this award, they discovered that Mark is a Director of the WASDA for 2023-2024. Per the WASDA, this award requires the applicant to apply, along with one nomination letter, and is voted on by the Board of Directors. Based on this procedure, Mark would have applied for his award after nomination, and as a Director of the WASDA, could vote for himself as the award recipient.
Applications for the award were due 9/1/23, so as Mark Hansen was negotiating his contract renewal in fall of 2023, he would have been aware of his award application. His contract was approved on 2/20/24, putting his salary at $224,404 and extending his employment through June 2026. The Superintendent of the Year award, which he applied for and could have voted on himself, was specifically named in the contract:
With Mark an active Director for the WASDA, community members are questioning if he was able to influence this award selection to benefit himself monetarily and non-monetarily.
Questions and concerns from community members about undue influence from Mark Hansen are not new.
Delays and Potential Attempted Suppression of Board Candidate Forum
As noted in the start of the 2024 Board Candidate Forum, the district took over 2 months to confirm the facility reservation to Friends of Fairview South, the sponsor of the Board Candidate Forum. Friends of Fairview South is a parent organization that represents Fairview South, a school that “is designed to meet the unique needs of secondary age students with significant intellectual disabilities, students who are medically fragile and students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” The 2024 Board Candidate Forum occurred at the usual time, date & location of previous years.
The delay in booking the 2024 Board Candidate Forum follows emails discovered related to the prior year’s event that raised questions.
In 2023, emails from Mark Hansen suggest that he may have looked into suppressing release of the Board Candidate Forum playback when he said to candidate David Irwin, who did not attend the event:
He also said to (then candidate) Preetha Kurudiyara, who also did not attend:
Emails also show Mark repeating to Preetha “we all deserve respect” after she said her name being mispronounced was “reprehensible.” As it was, the host who said her name stated “I hope I said that correctly.” Her opponent’s name was also mispronounced.
Preetha was elected to the board by a slim majority and has since been arrested with charges of domestic abuse and is subject to an injunction where she has no contact with her own children. Preetha remains on the Board of Education and is the clerk in charge of this year’s election.
Mark Hansen’s Attendance at “Parent-Run” Organization
The Elmbrook Parent Network is a “parent-run volunteer organization.” They were a prior sponsor of the Board Candidate Forum, but quietly stopped hosting the event in 2023 due to them having to respond to questions and complaints regarding their process of hosting the forum in the past. In 2023, Parent Network had ties to two candidates.
In 2024, Parent Network stated they would be doing a candidate survey. In an email from 2/13/24 regarding that survey, they state, “the school district is not supporting any new school Board election coverage. They grandfathered in the Candidate Forum for this year. We’ll see what happens in future years.”
Meeting minutes show that Mark Hansen is a frequent attendee of Parent Network meetings. Parent Network communicating the position of the district gives some community members the impression that Mark Hansen may be giving inappropriate information to and potentially influencing the actions of this “parent-run” organization.
Mark Hansen Tied to Furniture Vendor From Rushed ~$500,000 Library Remodel
In March 2022, in a rushed vote, Elmbrook approved a ~$500,000 expense to remodel the relatively new Brookfield Elementary library, a building established in 2000. These cosmetic updates included $153,000 of furniture provided by CJ & Associates. Mark Hansen and Kim Hastings, President of CJ & Associates, were both of the Waukesha County Business Alliance for the 2021-2022 year.
Based on official board documents, it did not appear any additional bids for the furniture (or other expenses) were requested from other vendors. Additionally, when the district was asked to provide research to back up claims about academic performance increases to justify the remodel, nothing was provided.
Mark Hansen on the Executive Committee of the Elmbrook Education Foundation (EEF)
Another concern by the community is Mark Hansen continuing to be on the Executive Committee of the Elmbrook Education Foundation (EEF). EEF is supposed to provide scholarships to Elmbrook students and grants to Elmbrook educators and schools. The question continually is raised - does the EEF serve students, educators and schools in a non-partisan manner or do they sometimes serve the administration, certain board members and get involved with elections?
In 2021, Board member Mushir Hassan received an Excellence in Volunteering award (which is sponsored by the EEF) and the same year Mushir’s immediate family member received a scholarship from the EEF.
Additionally, a Director on EEF since 2019, Bushra Zaibak, who has been sponsoring EEF events from the business she co-owns, Hayat Pharmacy, was given an Excellence in a Community Partnership award (which is sponsored by the EEF) in Spring 2021. In Fall 2021, Elmbrook honored her business with a Wisconsin Association of School Boards 2021 Business Honor Roll award. As we previously covered, in January 2022, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that her business paid $2 Million to settle a medicare/medicaid fraud lawsuit.
Members of the EEF also have shown up on nomination papers for candidates. Deborah Nustad, former Board President of the Elmbrook Education Foundation and current Director-at-Large, signed nomination papers for current candidates Mary Wacker and Jean Lambert.
Bushra Zaibak also signed nomination papers for Preetha Kurudiyara in 2023.
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