And the survey says....

Weigh in on your thoughts on the decision to delay the vote on consolidation last night.

Tonight's School Board Meeting

The Board will be making decisions on the budget, including the consolidation of Maywood and Winnequah, tonight at 7 pm in the Winnequah cafeteria. If you are interested in speaking to the issues or hearing what others have to say, please plan on attending.

Let the music play!

Tonight my family spent the evening at Glacial Drumlin to hear Samantha sing with the 6th grade choir. They did a great job, singing songs from France, Israel and Ireland. What an amazing gift we are able to give our children in this district - the gift of song. Nice job, sixth graders!!!

If you give a child a teacher....

All three candidates were present and accounted for at the Monona Cable Forum last night. With the impending vote on consolidation and budget cuts coming up on Wednesday, many of the questions centered on Maywood and priorities for budget cuts. While answering one of the questions, I stated, as I have before, that teachers and programming were my main budget priorities and that anything that affected that should be cut as a last resort. Imagine my amazement when I looked into the audience and saw a person shaking her head at me...did I say something wrong??? If teachers and programming are not what is most important to our district's budget, than how can we possibly hope to educate the children? I am still in awe over what I saw in the audience last night and have been trying to figure out how anyone could disagree with that statement.

Are you sure you still want to do this???

Oh, the timeless question. I have been asked it roughly 5000 times now in the past month. At Board meetings, in the school hallways, in the grocery stores...inquiring minds want to know. The "campaign trail", as it were, has been quite a trip for me. I have gotten to talk with people that I may not have had the opportunity to talk with...amazing! I have also gotten to hear about myself from other people...not so amazing. I walked into Glacial Drumlin School the other day and one of the the students cried out, "Aren't you Jennifer Pickel?" I smiled and said, "Yes, why do you ask?" He said, "Well, I have just seen you signs EVERYWHERE!!" I had to laugh. Some of my kids' younger friends ask me if I am running for president...hardly. "Going public" has been quite the experience!

So, to answer the question, yes. I still want to do this. There is just too much at stake not to.

Enjoy your day!

Jennifer

The proverbial cart before the horse....

Just a thought.... Before you decide to go ahead and make judgements about people, it would be a wise and prudent idea to actually speak with that person - or *gasp* MEET them - before you make your decision on who they are and what they support. It is incredibly easy to get in front of a computer and sermonize into cyber space, but until you actually speak to that person, you are merely spreading your thoughts, not facts.