School Board Candidate Pulls Out Of Race
Cronin said: "I am on the ballot for the February 21st primary. However, I have recently taken a new position with a company and will be working on second shift. Since the Board meetings and Committee meetings take place during hours I'll be working..."
Photos
Kevin Cronin, one of the candidates for the Racine Unified Board of Education will no longer campaign for the job.
Even though his name will still be on the ballot, Cronin said he just got a second shift job and he won't be able to do attend meetings. Here's what he had to say in his press release:
According to the 14th Annual Comparative Analysis of the Racine Unified School District, only 79% of Seniors graduate. That number is only 66% for Hispanics and 53% for Blacks. RUSD has the highest habitual truancy rate, dropout rate and expulsion rate. 54% of students enrolled in RUSD are minorities yet there is only one minority on the Board of Education.
As a product of the RUSD and a minority I was appalled by these numbers. So I decided to run for schoolboard. The current Board has obviously been irresponsible with our tax dollars, over spending millions on a new office building instead of putting it in the classrooms.
It is definitely time for a change.
I am on the ballot for the February 21st primary. However, I have recently taken a new position with a company and will be working on second shift. Since the Board meetings and Committee meetings take place during hours I'll be working, I won't be able to attend them.
It would not be fair to the students, the constituents or the other candidates for me to run for an office that I wouldn't be able to properly represent.
It is too late to have my name removed from the ballot, so I am asking people to please don't cast a vote for me but instead cast your votes for Scott Brownell, Brian Dey, and Roger Pfaust. It is time for a change, give the kids in our community a chance for a better life.I would also encourage parents, students, and teachers to attend RUSD schoolboard meetings. And I also would like to encourage the community to attend RUSD sports events, concerts and plays. There are many great programs out there and they are inexpensive to attend. There are also many fundraisers for these programs so please do your part to help the students in the RUSD.
James R Hoffa
8:45 pm on Monday, January 30, 2012
If you care about the kids, vote BRIAN DEY to the RUSD Board of Education!
Ron Clone
6:10 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
He encourages people to attend RUSD concerts, plays, athletic events... That is a small percentage of our student population and most of them will graduate. How about attending your child's conferences after fifth grade, spend an hour or two a week in your child's classroom, help with their homework, know where they are at night, read to them. In short, be a parent. It makes my job as a teacher so much easier (in a relative sense). Most of the local "experts" on these comment forums wouldn't last a week in a modern classroom.
GearHead
9:14 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Too bad. Kevin is a good guy who would have brought some sanity to a board which seems pretty much bereft of it.
SkinnyDude
9:51 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The home structure and RUSD structure for alot of these kids is awful . it's a marriage in failure on both fronts. Zero expectations at both places. At the high school level a lot of these kids reach without the actual skills to be there. At that point , Frustration and focus makes not going more and more likely . .The drop out numbers are not surprising.We have people getting through college that have very limited reading abilities. If we actually want kids to succeed in the real world . Lets start keeping score early on . Sometimes just participating isn't enough . I mean part of teaching is results and commanding the attention it takes to succeed. The world is a competitive place and by the time too many of these kids realize it ........they quit ! The public school numbers have a lot to do with Racine's embarrassing unemployment numbers. I mean so can't make it thru high school ? Who wants to hire a someone with less than minimal skills.
Racine Progressive
9:39 pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
If you care about kids then do NOT vote for Brian Dey.
The current board has done an exceptional job under very trying circumstances.
Brian Dey
9:58 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Racine Progressive- I am just wondering what you thought the Board did that was exceptional. Could it be the expenditure of the Admistrative Service Center of over $10 million that was purchased with no appraisal? Was it the 7% drop in graduation rates in the past three years? Was it the rushed contracts during the Act 10 passage that increase employee liabilities by 400% while most districts following Act 10 saw a $200 monthly increase with no change in out-of-pockets? Was it closing the achievement gap? Was it the 25% increase of the mil rate in the past 4 years? Was it the failure of every comprehensive middle school and high school to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress?
Racine Progressive, I know that most progressives will not support me because of my clear support of Act, the new Accountability measures and the structural reform from the state. I'm not concerned about the adult issues and have always seen the abuse of collective bargaining by the district unions as stealing money from the children. I won't pander on that issue.
What concerns me most is that it is clear tha those in the progressive movement are that out of touch with how poorly the current Board has performed. Again, you be your own judge and as long as you are more beholden to the adult issues, true reform will not be possible.
jt
6:15 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
i am not happy with the current board, but if you have followed brians comments on patch, you'll see that he is not the answer either.