School Board Clarifies E-mail Expectations

After long discussions and many months, the Waukesha School Board approved in a 5-3 vote an addition to the district’s policy regarding board members’ use of e-mail related to school board matters.

The addition?

“It is the board member’s discretion as to the frequency with which they check their district e-mail account,” according to the newly revised policy in the

According to the policy, which was originally approved in 2006, school board members have the option of using a district email for school board communications. The addition was suggested to clarify expectations of the use of those accounts to contact board members. Board members may also use personal e-mail accounts for school board matters.

Currently, four out of nine board members do not have an e-mail address listed. For board members who do have a district account, a disclaimer will be added to the school district website that there are no time limits for e-mails and replies are at board members’ discretion.

In reviewing the policy, the school board committee didn’t want to mandate district e-mails for all board members, according to Policy Committee Chair Ellen Langill.

“We are all reachable and that’s what we feel is our responsibility,” she said. In addition to phone calls or written letters to the district, the board is reachable by constituents or for access for public record by emailing the district, according to Langill. Lastly, there was a concern about public officials who do have mandatory email accounts.

“But it’s not mandated how often they check them,” Langill said. “It’s not mandated whether they check them. And so, it’s kind of misleading to constituents.”

Superintendent Todd Gray said some public officials aren’t comfortable using email and they can’t be forced to have an e-mail account to be a public official.

Waukesha resident Bryan Andringa was hoping the board would change its mind about using email, a convenient and easy way for him to contact the board. He urged the board to be accessible via e-mail, especially in light of the budget concerns facing the district in the coming year.

“There’s going to be changes,” he said. “Questions people are going to want to know and they’re going to want to get a hold of you. But for people like me … when I press that button at 2:30, 3 a.m. in the morning, that’s when I have time.”

For a lot of parents in this city, they don’t have the schedule you do.”

School Board Member Joseph Como said that he chose to have a district email for the convenience of constituents but also for his convenience, too.

“If there’s an open record request that is made, our district can take care of it quickly and easily and I don’t have to spend a lot of time plowing through my personal emails to meet the requirements of that open records request,” he said.

For School Board President Dan Warren said that he would like people to have the convenience of easily contacting him but that it’s a matter of expectations. And for him, he said, the expectation is the same whether the communication is by phone or e-mail.

“Don’t expect it to be a two-way conversation. If the board member chooses to use that email account and have a two-way conversation, that’s fine,” he said. “But don’t expect that to be the case.”

Instead, people should expect the district e-mail account to be a place to receive information from a “board standpoint and if the board member chooses to take the next step, fine,” he said.

Karin Rajnicek, Barbara Brzenk and Warren voted against adopting the change to the policy.