Montagano Gaining Ground On Souder
In a survey of 504 likely voters Mark Souder’s original 27-point lead has been cut in half. Currently Souder leads 50-37 over Democratic challenger Mike Montagano. However a closer look inside the poll shows Souder is in trouble - a few highlights:
- Montagano’s name recognition is up from 16% to 59%.
- Montagano leads Souder 47-41 among voters that recognize both candidates
- Montagano leads Souder 47-37 among voters that have seen Montagano’s TV spots
- Montagano leads 43-35 among independent voters
- Souder’s job performance is only rated as positive by 48% of the voters. Anything under the 50% Mendoza line means an incumbent is in trouble.
This continues to look like a golden opportunity to oust a completely ineffective Congressman. Republicans can seize the opportunity to term-limit Souder (since he reneged on his original pledge) by voting for Mike Montagano. After all, I’m sure you could find a better Republican candidate to run again in two years…
Voters Need To Send FWCS Lifer Into Involuntary Retirement
FWCS lifetime incumbent Steve Corona officially filed for re-election on Friday. Saturday’s JG story on Corona should remind voters on why it’s time to send him packing. Corona was the president of the board during last year’s remonstrance battle and there was absolutely nobody pushing the $500 million property tax increase more than he was - well except perhaps the JG editorial board.
Only after being resoundingly defeated by the populace has Corona begun to change his tune:
“I think we need to take a look at every significant repair item proposed and justify it and there may be items that we initially thought were essential that may need to be scrapped,”
Gee, that sounds a lot like what Evert Mol, Jon Olinger and the entire Code Blue group was saying last year. Of course at that time Corona not only wouldn’t listen, but was also steadfast in his opposition to any reasonable compromise including a scaled down $300 million project that he voted against. He later went on to say that knowing then what he knows now he would’ve supported it - you think?
Now he’s once again teaming up with the leader of the Yellow Petition drive group to put forth a new plan. When Steve Corona and John Pierce team up taxpayers had better grab their wallet:
FWCS Discipline - Nothing To See Here; Move Along
On Monday Governor Mitch Daniels gave a press conference in Fort Wayne about passing legislation to protect teachers trying to enact proper discipline in their classroom. FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta responded with the following quote:
FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta said that discipline is actually not a problem in Fort Wayne schools, and other schools should take notes on what the district is currently doing.
“If you give them hope that they have a hope in their education, then that should take care of any discipline issues,” GiaQuinta said.
When I say that voters have a chance to vote against the status quo in the upcoming school board election this is exactly what I’m talking about. Instead of confronting the problems and working to solve them the current board majority just buries their head in the sand.
FWCS suspends or expels 3 out of every 10 students! But, nah, there’s no discipline problem here. We are the 14th worst in the state and at nearly twice the state average:
Suspension or Expulsion, Incidents per 100 Students 2006-07
Highest 10
1 School City of East Chicago 78.7
2 School City of Hammond 48.7
3 Lake Ridge Schools 48.6
4 Gary Community School Corp 47.3
5 South Bend Community Sch Corp 46.7
6 Lake Station Community Schools 45.9
7 Kokomo-Center Twp Con Sch Corp 42.1
8 Anderson Community School Corp 41.9
9 Milan Community Schools 38.4
10 River Forest Community Sch Corp 37.9
14 Fort Wayne Community Schools 30.6
Lowest 10
285 Crawfordsville Com Schools 1.3
286 Southern Hancock Co Com Sch Corp 1.3
287 Southeast Dubois Co Sch Corp 1.3
288 North Harrison Com School Corp 1.1
289 Southeast Fountain School Corp 1.0
290 M S D Wabash County Schools 0.9
291 Barr-Reeve Com Schools Inc 0.6
292 South Central Com School Corp 0.5
293 Burris Laboratory School 0.4
294 Zionsville Community Schools 0.2
State Average 16.2
Montagano Hits The Airwaves
Mike Montagano, 3rd District Congressional nominee, has already taken to the airwaves with a new ad that starts today. The Montagano campaign is pushing significantly harder at this point than Tom Hayhurst was two years ago.
Of course it’s still an uphill battle against congressman Mark Souder - especially given the fact that Souder’s using taxpayer money to send out campaign material (more here and here).
Olinger, Mol To Speak At Conservative Breakfast Club
FWCS candidates Jon Olinger and Evert Mol will speak at tomorrow’s Conservative Breakfast Club meeting. Readers interested in what these two have to say should definitely attend even if you don’t consider yourself a staunch conservative. I’ve attended in the past and found the meeting informative and the conversation equally interesting - the food was good too. And if they welcome me in then I’m sure you will all be more than welcome to attend as well…
When: Monday August 11th - 7:30 a.m.
Where: L’Asiatique
(Formerly Park Place Grill)
Standard Federal Building, Main Street Downtown Fort Wayne
A breakfast buffet is available for around $9.00
How Much Does Experience Matter?
In their story about Evert Mol filing for the FWCS board, the News-Sentinel (JG story here) ran a quote from incumbent board member Steve Corona:
I feel confident about winning,” said Corona, a veteran of 27 years on the board who defeated Mol in the 2004 election. “I think there’s a great deal of experience, and I think experience does matter.”
When does experience become overstaying your welcome? I suppose voters will get a chance to answer that one. Having said that, I will stipulate that experience does matter - just not always for the better. This school district must right the ship soon or else we’ll continue to see more and more taxpayers choose to locate in other suburban districts.
When that happens the tax burden only becomes heavier on those that choose to stay or simply cannot afford to leave. I think all candidates would agree that voters need to take school board elections seriously. They have typically had poor turnout yet 50% of your property tax bill goes to fund schools. The best way to turn around a school district is to get parents and the rest of the community intimately involved. The first step towards that goal is to vote…
FWCS Board’s Unwillingness To Compromise Comes Back To Haunt Them
FWCS has already depleted their emergency building funds for the year. When these stories of legitimate school needs arise readers need to remember two things (only one was mentioned in the JG story).
- The board still hasn’t held any substantive discussions on a new facilities plan this year.
- Last year the board turned down a proposal that would’ve given them $300 million to fix the vast majority of their facility-related problems. Instead they chose to gamble with our school infrastructure and went for the full $500 million property tax increase which was ultimately rejected by taxpayers during the petition drive.
It is unfortunate that the board majority’s shortsightedness allowed them to turn down such an obvious compromise and put our teachers and students in a precarious situation…
At Least We’re Not Indianapolis
From today’s JG:
INDIANAPOLIS – A study shows Indianapolis Public Schools have the lowest graduation rate for black male students among 63 urban districts nationwide.
In the 2005-06 school year, just 19 percent of black males and 19 percent of white males graduated from IPS, according to the rankings compiled by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
Only 19% of white and and black males graduate?!? THAT is the definition of a failed school district. You can bet that anybody who COULD get out of the IPS district already has…
School Board Status Quo
Evert Mol had a thought-provoking post up at his Code Blue Schools blog today regarding Becky Hill’s announcement that she’s challenging Jon Olinger for the 3rd district school board seat. I will provide no commentary but merely link to the post:
The GiaQianta gang, trying to get incumbent Jon Olinger off the board because he had the nerve to vote against the bond issue, has come up with an opponent to run against him. Is this the woman who left her position as head of the Wells Street YWCA because she was in over her head? Who retired early because she had run the Y into the ground resulting in its closure? Apparently she does have one qualification, the ability to get in line behind Mark and follow the leader.
Ok, so just a touch of commentary. Remember when GiaQuinta said the school board didn’t need 7 Mark GiaQunitas?
“Seven Mark GiaQuintas on the Fort Wayne Community Schools board would be a recipe for disaster,” GiaQuinta said.
Well one is too many if you ask me, but exactly how many are the voters willing to tolerate?
FWCS Remonstrance - One Year Later
Kelly Sodurland has an article highlighting the one year anniversary of the successful remonstrance put forward by the Code Blue Schools organization against Fort Wayne Community Schools’ $500 million facility project. I think the important thing for voters to remember is that the board has decided to put politics ahead of progress:
After abiding by the state’s one-year waiting period, the board could introduce a new proposal, but administrators and board members say there are no concrete plans to do so soon.
For one thing, there have been no formal discussions on how to formulate a new plan.
Now why would that be? Many of the buildings do need serious repairs and yet the board, and the district, has done next to nothing to identify and address those looming needs. Of course it wouldn’t have anything to do with reminding the public, right before an election, about their previous grandiose facility plans would it? Nah, that’s just too cynical.
