Elizabeth you seem to be stuck in your own self Imposed mental box. Not sure you would know a good candidate...so your endorsement of the encumbents is probably a good thing.

Linda,
Your comments to Elizabeth are offensive. Your spelling isn't great either.

Ann, I agree with you. Just saying "NO" is not having a dialog. Being anti whatever the other guys say is just being contrary for the sake of it. Anyone who knows our school board members, has watched them in action, attended any CPC meetings or study sessions knows that they are NOT "group thinkers" but instead bring their concerns, questions, challenges to the board table where their colleagues discuss openly and often times passionately. Diplomacy and respect are present and also is the overriding guiding force...the students and what will propel them to their dreams.

Give me a board that works together, is focused on our students and community and exhibits respect. I believe these qualities are found in Ingrid Day, Howard Baron and Rob Herner. They will be my selections at the ballot box on November 6. I trust these three candidates to bring their unique sets of strengths to the table to help guide our district forward through the high school construction and transition phases
and well beyond.

Publius, Please see www.howardbaron.com

Publius,

Copied and pasted from Howard Baron.com

Retired from Chrysler Group, LLC, 28 years, working as an financial executive in a wide variety of organizations in the company, from the early phases of a new vehicle in the Advance Product Development through Warranty Administration.
This broad range of jobs provided Howard with excellent experience in all areas of financial management, including financial analysis, budgeting, project management, cost accounting and reporting, auditing, labor relations, employee training, and process redesign.

Ford Motor Company, 3 years developing computer systems
B.S., Management & Computer Science, MIT
MBA, University of Chicago

We have information on Mrs. Day's academic credentials and experiences.

We do not have any concrete information on Mr. Moigis. In an attempt to get any information I contacted the Troy School District to see if they could confirm his statement during the forum regarding his participation in Troy. The Troy superintendent, who has been with the district for 25+ years said, "During the time I have been with the district, to my knowledge, there has never been a parent chair a curriculum committee." The superintendent didn't recognize his name.

I did see a Blog from a Mark Kapel which details where Mr. Moigis grew up, but it does not talk about his schooling or work. Mr. Moigis has not confirmed what Mr. Kapel said by speaking for himself.

Publius,

Asking questions is always a good thing! In the course of questioning I did some reading that demonstrates what I would call Mrs. Greenwell's true motivations and her inability to be an advocate for all students.

At the Forum she voiced concern for both the Juniors and Seniors and for the Andover Football players, but...

On January 18, 2005, the board voted on Bid #619 which was for the installation of a new football field at Andover High School utilizing the sinking funds. I'm going to quote directly from the minutes. "She (Mrs. Greenwell) does not see this as a matter of safe, warm, or dry in the same way the Lahser field was." Mr. Stoner explained to her that the Andover field was "in terrible shape and had the same safety problems that Lahser had". He disagrees that it is not a safety issue as "football, lacrosse, soccer and bands all use the field".

For the sake of brevity I won't retype every comment of the minutes here. It is a matter of public record that people can read for themselves. The vote for the field ended up being 6 to 1. Mrs. Greenwell was the only board member after lengthy discussion to vote against the safety of all of the Andover students and others who would step onto the field. And, at the very beginning of the discussion her real concern appears to be how spending the money will look to the tax payers as she states "that spending this much money on a football field may not be seen as fiscally responsible".

Linda,

Historically (and before the time when cynicism ruled the land), it was an honor for candidates for the Board of Education to receive the endorsement of and a campaign contribution from the teachers’ union. Five years ago, Mrs. Day accepted a contribution from our district's teachers’ union that, until this election, no one would have raised an objection to. After all, it is hard to believe that any board trustee would be unduly influenced in favor of the teachers’ union in exchange for a campaign contribution of a few hundred dollars. Thus, it is easy to understand why she would have accepted the donation. Since that time – and sadly -- some public sentiment about this issue has turned, making it a negative to some people for the teachers’ union to inform the public about and financially support those candidates they believe best support the mission of our school district. As a result, Mrs. Day publicly vowed not to accept campaign contributions from the BHEA or any other group that might give the appearance of impropriety.

Since you decided to cast aspersions as to Mrs. Day's character, I took the time to look at her campaign finance records from that time and, other than the BHEA, there was no other organized group whose contracts come before the board that she accepted a contribution from. Stating that Mrs. Day accepted campaign funds from any entity other than the teachers’ union is nothing but a falsehood. It is sad that this is the standard operating procedure for some. Veracity is a virtue. Try it sometime!

http://bloomfield-mi.patch.com/articles/opinion-vote-yes-on-may-8-pass-on-the-academy

Here is my attempt to counter Mr. Roach's distortions about the bond issue last spring. Elizabeth answered, too, but, in this instance, she is being too polite. Mr. Roach not only wanted to block the consolidation of the schools on a single campus he sought to actively misrepresent the District's position. I fear he is resorting to the same sort of tactic here in trying to link Mr. Baron to other candidates. The primary hope, of course, is to somehow get Jenny Greenwell on the board so she can obstruct the process toward completion. To be fair, however, current some current board members still struggle with the concept of the "academy" -- which might give some indication of how persuasive Mr. Roach can be even when not painting an accurate picture. Mr. Glass had to give a gentle and coherent (re) explanation at the last board meeting.

"Mom: He kept saying a permanent 9th grade academy would be better than actually having one renovated school. Read his posts from this spring. Do any of these people have names?

I suspect it may end up being a permanent solution if our enrollment numbers keep climbing like they did last year and this year. It will be interesting when head count numbers are released. They will be released to the public won't they?

They always are published. Since birth rates in the country and Oakland County are dropping, the trend is downward. Gov. Snyder's upcoming changes to school financing could drastically affect BHSD enrollment in either direction; it is a complete unknown.

The BHSD is planning for the documented, likely numbers. They also have to maintain enough land in a land-locked area to expand later if necessary. In that case, as the funding model stands now, additional students would bring additional revenue, so there would be financial space for that growth.

None of us with two kids would build a house for 12, "just in case". At some point, you have to move forward with well-analyzed data, and leave room for contingencies.

Yes, Berndt was "uninamously appointed" by 6 people. Now THAT is democracy in action...

Linda would prefer that the Board air its laundry at the Board table, with one or more people always shouting "No! No! No!".

A consensus by the time the meeting takes place tells you nothing about the decision making process; only that the Board acted with a certain level of decorum and placed a low value on drama.

Count day was last week. Every district has 5 weeks to report the numbers. The numbers are reported "up the chain" on November 9.

The enrollment projections said we would be losing students and instead we are gaining. Normally that would be a good thing but I suspect this will end up with us having a very crowded new high school, unless the 9th graders are in another building. Just like what happened in Clarkston.

I would suggest watching the presentation of the Student Enrollment Projections by Plante Moran from the January 19, 2012 Board Meeting. Here is the link:http://bhstv.bloomfield.org/category/bd-of-ed/page/3
The introduction of the presentation begins at the 01:06:15 point in the board meeting.

If you watch the presentation, you will see that the projected number of students is going down. So an addition of 100 (+/-) students over the K-12 grades really doesn't affect the general trend. Watch the presentation, it is quite enlightening.

I am re-posting the link to the enrollment projections:
http://bhstv.bloomfield.org/category/bd-of-ed/page/3

Mom, the problem is the current funding model forces districts throughout Michigan to make their facilities extremely tight to the number of students. When funding is "per pupil", and a building maintenance costs is per sq ft, the size has to cut very close to the student population. It's the reason all these districts are cutting it as close as possible.

The new funding model may change that, but currently, it is an unintended consequence of Prop A.

I have watched the meetings with the projections, and that is my point- they have been WRONG two years in a row so far---project that out a few years= overcrowded high school. To Jon: This is no physical room to expand. As planned now there is not enough space for all sport facilities and there is not enough room to handle all necessary parking. Not good.

Elizabeth What are the enrollment numbers from the October count? Are they published somewhere yet? (I did not find them doing a google search.)

If you are asking for the most recent numbers from count day, I don't have them. I have heard through the CPC meetings that enrollment increased, but I don't remember if that is an absolute number over last year's enrollment or if that is over the projected number.

The website has changed recently and I am not sure where you would find last year's presentation other than going to the link for the January 19, 2012 board meeting I noted in my other comments above. I prefer posting links so others can see the information for themselves and draw their own conclusions. If you go to that link and to the point in the video I noted where the presentaion begins, you can watch it for yourself and pause at the points where the numbers are presented. I really don't want to transpose the information from that presentation because it would take a lot of time and I might copy a number wrong. Hopefully you can get to that presentation and draw your own conclusion. Clearly 'Mom' and I have viewed the presentation and have different opinions as to what it means. I would be curious to hear yours.

Linda, Do you understand that appointing a board member when another departs is, in fact, "democracy in action" -- that such procedures are what is required? If you don't, I understand (based on the tone and content of your other posts); if you do, then you are suggesting the board did something improper or undemocratic in appointing Joan Berndt and Rob Herner.

Thanks Charles, and welcome back!

Linda, What sort of camouflage are you talking about? On a school board during difficult times I prefer dispassionate, reasoned debate -- that you have a taste for something different doesn't tell us much about this board.

Linda: You're really not looking for passionate debate. You're just looking for the opportunity to express your anger towards the board. The Patch empowers you to do this. Almost all of your posts are expressions of anger towards the district or other posters--they're anger oriented, not issue oriented. Do as you will but other than this comment there's little reason to engage you. Freedom of speech is a cherished right in this country, regardless of whether we agree with the content or motivations of the speaker. Neal

Pat, I agree! Unfortunately, we weren't talking about Ms. Berndt, who, by the way, seemed to me to be laughing at the "have you stopped beating your wife yet" question designed to make incumbents look irresponsible. We were talking about Mr. Moigis. Do you know his credentials as well as everyone knows the refreshingly candid and open Ms. Berndt's?

Pat, Ms. Berndt is certainly not "clueless" -- that is just offensive. Apparently, you know nothing about Mr. Moigis other than he is running under the auspices of Chris Fellin and Jenny Greenwell so you support him. It is hard to take such an endorsement seriously.

Pat,

You are being unkind and inaccurate. Mrs. Berndt has been involved with this district for years first as a parent and as a community member. Her experience as an educator makes her qualified and definitely "clued in."