By Heather Graves
Staff Writer
BROWN COUNTY – The uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a community divide throughout the nation, including here in Northeast Wisconsin.
School boards have been tasked with making independent decisions over the past 18 months – stretching the scope of board members’ roles and bringing with it a heightened level of scrutiny.
Parents, teachers, students and community members pack boardrooms – both masked and unmasked, many with custom T-shirts, hats, signs, etc., depicting the version of the discussion they support – waiting for their turn to address the school board.
Social media is also flooded with comments and opinions on a daily basis.
The increased feedback has brought an increase of negative comments, which has sometimes been characterized as harassment.
In early February, Green Bay School Board members received hostility in response to their decision to remain virtual for the majority of the 2020-21 school year.
From phone calls to their day-job employers requesting board members be reprimanded, to calls for picketing in front of board members’ homes, board members said they felt the heat of their decisions.
More than seven months later, the focus has shifted to masks and quarantines with students back in school.
However, the questionable feedback continues.
Board President Eric Vanden Heuvel recently posted on his personal and official School Board Facebook pages he would be deactivating both indefinitely because the “safety of my family was compromised based upon information people were able to gather on Facebook.”
“I play many different roles in my personal and professional life, but being a husband and a father will always come first,” Vanden Heuvel said in his post.
Personal pictures of his family, including his two young children, along with screenshots of his address and phone number, were shared multiple times with accompanying text calling for the need to “start filming and watching the local leaders.”
“Watch, film and share their posts and daily movements when you see them,” it stated.
Green Bay Superintendent Steve Murley confirmed the district has received “concerning emails and phone calls.”
“As a district, we take all communication with parents seriously and do our best to respond appropriately,” Murley said. “If there is communication that is perceived as threatening, we do notify law enforcement.”
He said recent feedback has reached this level.
“Yes, we have received concerning emails or phone calls (some related to board activity and some related to student/school activity) and we have shared those with law enforcement when appropriate,” Murley said.
Howard-Suamico community reacts
The Howard-Suamico School District is also experiencing some pushback from its current masking and quarantine policies.
At the Oct. 11 Howard-Suamico School Board meeting, Superintendent Damian LaCroix shared an email from a district parent, which included profanity and communist comparisons.
“I’m embarrassed to show you it tonight,” LaCroix said at the Oct. 11 meeting. “But, I’m showing it to you tonight because I think it is necessary and important to say ‘This is not how we are. We are bigger than this. We are better than this.’ In my 17 years (as superintendent), I can’t think of a more insulting email and the fact that someone would write this to the superintendent of schools is appalling. Again, it is an extreme and dramatic example, but our community needs to see and confront this together. That is why I am showing it to you.”
Brian Nicol, Director of Communications for Howard-Suamico, said the district has received other feedback disagreeing with its current COVID-19 policies, but none have reached that level of inappropriateness.
Howard-Suamico School Board Clerk Jason Potts said he isn’t aware of any school board members receiving any “threats” or “wholly inappropriate” communication from the public.
“There certainly has been a lot of chatter on social media as well, and that can get a little out of hand sometimes, but that hasn’t really been directed right at board members, it is more communication between members of the public,” Potts said.
He said he has been on the receiving end of a handful of borderline inappropriate texts and emails after something he said was misquoted on social media.
“Unfortunately, something I said at the Oct. 11 board meeting has been misquoted on social media and also on a local talk radio show,” he said, “and so there have been some direct emails and texts from members of the community related to an inaccurate representation of what I said at the meeting… drastically changing the meaning of the comments I made, and that has been the focus of messages I have received from parents that were borderline inappropriate. But, I understand that they were operating from a false understanding of what I actually said.”
Potts addressed the issue at the Oct. 25 School Board meeting saying the misquote was being used “inside and outside the district community for political purposes.”
“While I believe the context and content of my comments were clean, it is also important to set the record straight on this matter to allow the board to continue doing our work without this distraction,” he said.
Potts, as well as others, reviewed the audio recording of the Oct. 11 meeting to confirm his exact words.
At the meeting, he said “We can’t rely on parents to make safe choices for the other students.”
Potts said the word “other” was misqouted as “their,” therein sparking the outrage.
“Taken into context with the rest of my words that evening, my concerns were related to some parents who have chosen to defy quarantine protocols by sending their sick children to school, and therefore placing other students and staff in an unsafe situation,” he said. “I stand by my statements I made, and hope that clearing the air on this misquote will allow us to move on and get back to the important work of governing this district with excellence.”
Potts said he has checked in with his fellow board members multiple times over the past 18 months to make sure no one else is receiving threatening messages.
“Many of us do receive very frequent communication, and frequent angry communication from members of the public, but I wouldn’t say it falls into a category of something that is inappropriate or threatening,” he said.
Other districts vary
West De Pere School Board President Jenni Fuss said the board has received criticism for its pandemic-related decisions.
“The past 18 months have been a challenge for everyone – personally and professionally,” Fuss said. “The challenges experienced by School Board members is no exception.”
She said there have been threats of recalls, community members encouraging others to photograph board members in public without masks, threats of lawsuits, threatening letters sent to their homes and hundreds of emails from individuals on both sides of each topic.
“At a time when our community has never been so divided, it’s important to remember that our Board of Education, which is nonpartisan, is committed to a common purpose – to do what’s best for our precious children, our community and the dedicated employees who work in our schools every day,” Fuss said. “While these have been difficult times, every board member continues to make decisions that they feel are best for West De Pere.”
Seymour Superintendent Laurie Asher said up to this point, public communication has been appropriate.
“I am not aware of any inappropriate emails,” Asher said. “It is important that we continue to have an open line of communication between schools and our parents/community, and as long as it can be done in a civil manner, it can be very productive.”
Other area school board members weren’t comfortable commenting on the record, but said it’s unfortunate they are being targeted when the focus should be the students.
Police presence
Another common staple of recent school board meetings is the presence of school resource officers (SROs).
Before returning to a virtual format last month, SROs were present at numerous Green Bay School Board meetings.
Communications Director Lori Blakeslee said it was at the request of the administration and the board.
Blakeslee said it’s not uncommon for SROs to provide assistance with crowd control when a large audience is anticipated at a meeting.
SROs have also attended recent Howard-Suamico School Board meetings, which Nicol said is a precautionary measure.
There was also a police presence at the De Pere School Board meeting Oct. 18, when the board discussed whether or not to mandate masks for the district’s older students.