Jill List in Her Own Words

After I blogged that Jill List was running for MG School Board several comments were posted and not all supportive. I sent her an email asking if she wanted to post anything. She sent two emails. The second one is a small addendum Here they are.

As to the question "who's Jill List?".

I am a transplant to Cottage Grove from Milwaukee. I am the eldest girl of a family of 9. My husband, Tom is from Green Bay originally. When we learned that we would be moving to the Madison area we chose Cottage Grove, in large part because of the school district and because there was a house big enough to accommodate us all. We have six kids, four which currently attend school here. Our kids range in ages from 25-6 and one grandbaby, Emma. We were told really great things about this district and for the most part this has all been true. The realtors that we worked with happily showed us the land where the new school was to be built. All seemed peachy keen here. We were completely unaware of the controversy brewing about the new school and the growing animosity between our two communities. Live and learn.

It was by chance that we landed here but we have grown to love it. In no small part this is the result of our school district. MG has provided us a way to truly become a part of this community. It feels to me that this school district is at the heart of who we are, maybe the best part of who we, are as a community. My husband is a football coach; our 15y.o. plays football, basketball, and track. He is also a show choir convert. All of our kids do sports and are involved in scouting and in 4-H. Our kids have about 10 more years in this district. Much of our life revolves around this school district. Because of this I am very committed to maintaining what has been successful. A unified district.

Life before CG and MG.

As I said I am from Milwaukee. I attended Alverno College where I studied Art Education and Art Therapy. I worked for a number of years teaching art to middle and high schoolers who were in residential treatment centers and in alternative schools. I then moved into the human services area serving adults with chronic mental illnesses. I worked for a day treatment program where I did program development, taught art, life skills and adult education classes. I also developed and implemented a number of vocational training programs. About 10 years ago, after several years working for non-profits, I made the move to corporate administration working for a construction company. I also started my own company doing construction management. Ultimately, Tom's career would land us here. I've worked a little outside of the home since our fifth child; John was born working part-time for the Part-time Teachers Union at MATC.

Working part-time has provided me the opportunity to do a bit of volunteer work. I have sat on the Cottage Grove PTO as Vice-president and the Winnequah MS PTO as the Treasurer for two terms. I am currently a member of the CG PTO Holiday Fest and Craft Fair committee. This was my third year as a member. I currently sit on the MG Policy and Personnel Committee. I am currently serving my second term as a community member on this committee. I also work at the elementary school as parent volunteer in the classrooms and for the support staff.

Outside of school work I have been a member of the Cottage Grove Community Library Committee since January of 2005. I was a member of the Capitol Campaign Committee and Chaired the Community Events Committee. I very recently resigned these library positions. So now I have all kinds of time on my hands :)

I am also a hopeless liberal that believes in fairness and equity for all, is shocked by the inequity in this country, the war and the Bush administration and the apathy of the people in this community and country.

As for the misrepresented information.

For the record.

I never voted to sell Nichols. As powerful as I like to think I am (and try to convince my family that I am) I am not so much. I did however second a motion made by Frank Salvi of Cottage Grove to allow the Board to consider and take action on the matter. I also voted in favor of the motion. The motion failed at that time. This occurred, I believe, over two years ago at an annual meeting at Cottage Grove Elementary (though I would have to double check that). As I recall the issue at hand was funding the expense of the facility and declining enrollment in the district. The Board has since considered and voted to in fact close Nichols for the very same reasons that a number of people argued several years ago.

I never voted to increase class sizes in Monona or anywhere else within our district. Again, I'm not the powerful. I did however vote to maintain the current policy regarding class sizes in this district. As I understand it the committee only has the power to make a recommendation to the full board. This is not to diminish the importance of committee recommendations, but the final authority lies with the Full School Board. The class size debate, as I understood it being presented by the Monona families at the special session, was that there was a specific class/grade that demonstrated special circumstance that would warrant reducing class sizes in Monona. The information presented by Bill Breisch and Ed O'Connor depicted a different scenario than that being presented by the community members in attendance. Given the information provided by Bill and Ed (and there was a LOT of it) and the fact that the policy is a "guideline" with a "goal" and does allow latitude for the administrators to make recommendations and if necessary drop below the "guideline" or "goal" when warranted seemed sufficient reason not to change the policy and drop the bottom out of the "guideline".

Addendum:

Just follow to clarify something. I was present during the special meeting at Nichols on June 26, 2007 when the issue of class size was addressed. I forgot to mention that John Faust was also present at this meeting and presented to the group. I was however, not present for the actual committee vote on July 19, 2007. The committee forwarded the matter to the full board without recommendation. So I never had the opportunity to vote on the issue. For the record I would have voted with the majority for the reasons that I stated before.

Also, I serve on the Policy and Personnel Committee not Curriculum.


Jill List