When homeroom is home: Janesville families try home-schooling during pandemic
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As summer 2020 rolled along, many local families knew tough decisions about school lay just around the corner.
Faced with educating thousands of students during a pandemic, the Janesville School District came up with three options: a fully virtual experience at ARISE Virtual Academy, a traditional in-person learning environment in classrooms or a hybrid combination of the two.
ARISE enrollment boomed, and face-to-face instruction continues today. But Elizabeth Paull’s family is among the families who chose a fourth option: home-schooling.
“We really, really struggled all summer long with what this school year was going to look like and what would make sense for our family,” said Paull, who is home-schooling two of her three children.
Liz Paull helps her youngest daughter, Elaina, with her schoolwork as her son, Oliver, completes his social studies lesson at their Janesville home Monday. The Paull family, who operate Paull Chiropractic, switched to home-schooling this year to minimize COVID-19 exposure as much as possible.
Paull decided to home-school her two youngest children, third-grader Oliver and kindergartner Elaina, this school year because of the risks posed by COVID-19. The Paulls’ oldest daughter Evelyn, 13, learns at ARISE.
“We went back and forth so much, and I wish that I knew then what I know now because I could have removed so much anxiety from those summer months. It’s been great, it really has been,” Paull said.
The number of students in home-school education programs across Wisconsin increased by 55% this year.
From July 1 to Oct. 11, some 23,027 students had enrolled in home-school programs, according to data shared by Chris Bucher, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. That number was 14,862 last year.
Janesville home-schooling numbers were not available Monday.
The process Wisconsin families need to follow to home-school their children is simple compared to other states. Those looking to do it must:
a) Fill out the state Department of Public Instruction’s Homeschool Enrollment Report (Form PI-1206) before Oct. 15.
b) Provide 875 hours of instruction to each child ages 6-18 from July 1 to June 30.
c) Provide a course of education for each child that allows the child to progress in reading, language arts, math, science, social studies and health.
Families can switch back to their respective school districts by returning to the DPI website, editing the home-school form and then contacting their districts.
Liz and Andrew Paull own and operate Paull Chiropractic in Janesville. The family chose home-schooling to keep employees and patients safe and reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 exposure.
“Our primary decision in keeping them from face-to-face instruction this year was in support of supporting our family business and keeping that healthy and intact as much as possible,” Paull said.
Lindsey Bussie also decided to home-school her two children this year to ensure the family business stays open. Bussie and her husband, Jake, own Alkali Tattoos in Janesville.
“With that objective in mind, it just seemed like sending them in person anywhere would be the quickest way for us to have to stay home again,” Bussie said.
“They (the kids) did some virtual in the spring, and we had tested part-time virtual, and it just wasn’t really a fit for how both of the kids like to learn. So we decided that home-schooling with my husband’s schedule and my work schedule would probably work out best for us.”
Paull is a former high school Spanish teacher with a master’s degree in education, so she was confident she could teach her children at home. She said she never really envisioned home-schooling for her kids because she believes in public education, but she thinks the pivot is going well.
The Paulls didn’t know much about how home-schooling worked before they decided to do it. Paull said she sought advice from friends who home-school before settling on learning platforms.
Paull can access the platforms and assign premade homework and tests for her son. She acts as the facilitator and teacher, but the lessons are already set up. She also helps her kindergarten daughter with her coursework.
The Paulls try to keep their kids on a consistent schedule. The children work on core classes from 9 a.m. to noon each day. For Oliver, that means English, math and social studies. Elaina works on kindergarten skills such as reading, writing and counting.
“I miss seeing my friends and not going to a classroom. It just feels different,” Oliver said. “I do like being able to learn with my cats here.”
Afternoons are designed for creative activities in other subjects, such as science, art and physical activity. Because the kids don’t have to worry about logistics such as walking to class or recess, they save time, Paull said.
The Bussies also focus on core classes each morning. Their kids—Quinn, who is 9, and Rory, 7—begin school around 8 a.m. at their own work spaces. They focus on math and English until about 10:30 a.m., when Mom and Dad have to go to work.
The Bussie kids spend their afternoons at their grandparents’ house, where they finish schoolwork in other classes, such as social studies and science. Sometimes, they bring books from the library to help further the lessons. Mondays are for science, and Tuesdays are for social studies and art.
The Paulls experienced a learning curve as the kids adjusted to Mom as their teacher, but the flexibility of home-schooling was a nice change, Liz Paull said.
Lindsey Bussie shared that sentiment. But because she and her husband have to report to work, it sometimes feels like they are rushing the kids instead of allowing them to learn at their own speed, she said.
Bussie said the family has enjoyed the home-school benefits.
“I always wanted to home-school as a romantic type of notion,” she said. “Like it seems really neat to see how your kids learn because as a parent it’s always neat to see them learn and grow.”
Still, both families look forward to the day that their kids can return to classrooms.
“I know they both want to be in person, and I would support them in whatever they want to do,” Bussie said. “It is fun, and it’s really cool to kind of be a part of your kids’ learning and see how they learn. But as far as juggling everything, it would be a bit of a relief to have them be in person and not have to juggle so many schedules and so many other things.”
Paull agreed.
“I’m not the traditional home-schooling mom. I am home-schooling kind of in a temporary place, but we’re embracing it with open arms while we are in this,” Paull said.
“We would love to be back in our schools with our friends and our teachers as soon as things look like they will be safe and our business will not be interrupted for having to close down. We definitely plan to return to traditional schooling, but we are absolutely enjoying our time together. This is not a miserable experience at all.”
STUDENTS: INAUGURAL SUMMER COUNSELING PROGRAM AT G-E-T HIGH "REALLY HELPED"
---Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School counselor Maddie Vinzant has long grappled with the fact that some of her students spend the summer months without support due to no fault of their own.
Vinzant took action last summer, launching the school’s first summer counseling program to stay connected and give students an outlet.
Eleven kids participated in the program, which zeroed in on two key focuses —social/emotional support and combatting ‘summer melt’ for 2023 graduates.
This year’s program was offered as a summer school class.
“I want to make sure that every single kid in our school has access to free support year-round, not just during the academic year,” she said. “Mental health issues, family concerns or whatever it is, those things don’t go away in June, July and August, so it’s making sure that students have support regardless of the time of year.”
Fighting summer melt
Vinzant also hoped to fight the concept of ‘summer melt’ — which is more common in students of lower socioeconomic status, first generation students and students of color — where students are accepted to college in May but never make it onto campus in the fall.
“They need support along the way. Helping those kiddos who may not have access to information on how to navigate the system of higher education, so knowing that we can help and aid in that was the other piece I was trying to offer,” Vinzant said.
Some students met with Vinzant weekly, and others checked in periodically. Conversations were had in person, virtually and occasionally as a group in a public setting.
When Aidrian Miralles graduated from G-E-T last spring, she was upset that she would no longer be able to sit down with Vinzant.
“As a person that grew up in a family that wasn’t the greatest, having someone that I could actually talk to that wasn’t sitting there judging me, giving a lecture you get from a therapist, Mrs. Vinzant was more like a best friend you could confide in.”
When Vinzant reached out to tell Miralles that she could participate in summer counseling, the current University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student didn’t hesitate to sign up.
“Counseling isn’t just a school year thing. It is something that is needed year-round, and some kids just can’t afford an outside therapist. So having someone like Mrs. Vinzant—someone you know you would be talking to not just for that day but continue when you enter school—was a really amazing thing.”
Miralles and Vinzant talked through social/emotional support, mental health and planning for post-graduation.
Miralles is attending UW-La Crosse full-time and plans to major in sociology. She aspires to be a behavioral therapist.
“I always wanted to work with people, and originally it was going to be the younger audience … I fell for sociology and realized I could be working with so many more people … Mrs. Vinzant played a pivotal role in that. Just the way she has helped me so much and how that help can be reciprocated one person at a time.”
Students: Mental health support should grow
Current students at G-E-T also participated in summer counseling.
Katie, a student who asked that her real name not be used, told the Times that she and Vinzant talked through mental health, body positivity and planning for the future.
Summer can be difficult with family issues at home, Katie said.
“Being away from school was really tough for me, and having that support available during the summer really helped my mental health. It was just nice being in contact with somebody throughout the summer.”
Katie typically has an “extreme” amount of anxiety at the start of each school year, but summer counseling helped peel that back.
“It was completely different,” from past summers, Katie said of her mental health after counseling. “I could just make an appointment if I was feeling down and schedule it for the next day. I wasn’t feeling lonely, so I would definitely do it again,” Katie said, adding that the program could help others.
Miralles also recommended summer counseling and hopes to see G-E-T fund more mental health support.
“They need to fund it more because the kids that I went to school with, a lot of them wanted help but were too scared to speak out. Although there was a big portion of kids that did see Mrs. Vinzant quite often there was also a bigger portion of kids that were not able to. With more funding and counselors in the G-E-T office, it could go a long way,” she said.
“It’s a great program that’s just getting rolling, but if it continues every summer it could help a lot of kids. Especially with the way G-E-T was going, I just feel like a lot more kids are going to need people to talk to and they need to be able to access it (help) whenever it’s available.”
Program likely to return in 2024, expansion possible
After one summer, Vinzant thinks summer counseling provided a necessary resource to help curb anxiety and depression while preparing other students for post-graduation.
She hopes that resource will continue to grow, mentioning possibly expanding to the middle school to help younger students.
Most teachers would say that the COVID pandemic affected students due to isolation and regulating or processing their emotions, Vinzant said. Summer can bring the same feelings.
“It’s always been odd to me that you would provide support for kids nine months, but not the rest (of the year),” Vinzant said, adding later, “I feel like education has come a long way in the sense where we recognize mental health plays a part in students’ academic lives. If your basic needs aren’t met, it’s going to be really hard to sit there and listen to math and science.”
Summer programs are rare in Wisconsin and education overall, Vinzant said, especially because counselors often are busy in the summer months helping kids build schedules.
“A common theme for this summer was knowing someone was there if they needed it was a huge weight off their shoulders,” Vinzant said.
School counselors and other mental health professionals are burnt out with more students needing help, and schools can help support them, too, Vinzant said.
“I think it’s just advocating that kids need more help and recognizing that we could allow that free, easy access to our school counselors throughout the summer and also recognizing that mental health professionals in school settings—as well as all educators—are burned out, so I think it’s a really easy ‘yes’ for admin to say, ‘Yes, let’s do this.’ And pay through the summer school funds like we did here but then how are we also supporting our counselors?”
She hopes to see more mental health support for students and staff in schools.
“I would love it to grow and I would love other schools to consider doing something similar. It’s a no-brainer. Our kids need more help, and if we can think outside of the box of how we do that, that’s a win.”
G-E-T school ends months-long questions on "Queer Ducks" book with block vote
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The book “Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality” will remain in the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Middle School library for the 2023-24 school year after months of committee meetings, school board movement and citizen complaints.
A resource review committee on Aug. 3 voted to block the book, which means that students will be able to check out the book unless their parent has filled out a form indicating that they do not want their child to read the book.
“It is in the library, it has not been removed, and it is available to all to check out unless the parent—and we have a form now at registration for parents to easily fill out to accommodate the need now that we know we have parents that want that,” G-E-T Superintendent Michele Butler said.
The book faced three options—block, remove and retain—from the resource review committee, which looked different than the first time the committee met.
The original committee decision in June to “ban” the book from the library faced community backlash and was reached by an illegal anonymous ballot vote, which required the more recent committee reassembly and revote.
The committee had a new chair in district curriculum director Terri Fanta in place of middle school principal Pete Peterson, who stepped down from the position after the original meeting in June.
Other committee members included middle school teacher Melanie Bawek, special education teacher and reading specialist Laura Knutson, community member and middle school parent Melanie Pederson and a new member in Jaci Pankurst, Holmen Middle School’s library media specialist.
District pupil services director Scott Moline directed the meeting.
The latest meeting came one week after G-E-T School Board President Larry Moore resigned from the head spot on the board, citing Butler’s handling of the possible book removal.
Fellow board member Paul Kinzer resigned from the board in the aftermath of the original vote.
The committee heard from complainants Sara Olson, Kylee Rostvold, Kayla Repaal and Cathy Hansen on Aug. 3 before G-E-T library media specialist Megan Shaw presented to the committee on book selection process for school libraries.
The meeting also held time for public comments. The Times was not notified of the meeting by the district.
A final vote was based on district Policy Rule 361 on material removal, which includes guidelines on content appropriateness, age level of students, readability, avoiding gender and ethnic bias and stereotyping and other goals, including “a respect for differing viewpoints and controversial subjects with the goal of providing a balanced collection”, according to the meeting script provided to the Times by Butler.
Reaching the block decision took two votes, which were recorded by written ballot accompanied by name.
The first round of votes saw Pankurst and Fanta vote to retain the book, while Bawek and Knutson voted for the block option. Pederson was the lone committee member to vote to remove the book entirely, which eliminated that option from the committee.
In a revote between block and retain, Pederson voted for the block option and all other members kept their previous choice for a 3-2 block decision.
"It was a very calm, a very professional meeting and when people left at the end people were communicating with one another. There was not the intensity or emotion that we saw in the previous meeting at all, which was wonderful,” Butler told the Times.
In an emailed statement last Friday, Butler thanked the committee members, community and parents who participated in the meeting.
“The Committee's final decision to ‘block' the book, "Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality", means that the book will still be available for check out in the G-E-T Middle School library unless a parent has designated that their student may not check out this book,” Butler wrote.
“Parents who wish to limit their child's access to library resources may do so in one of two ways: parents may complete a form that limits their child from accessing books that are labeled 'Young Adult' or parents may submit a list of books that are flagged as not available for their child to access.”
janesville ice arena project could revamp local hockey, economy
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Dozens of children bustled around Janesville Ice Arena excitedly on Wednesday, smiling and laughing at each other. The smell of coffee grounds and used hockey equipment lingered in the lobby.
Championship banners were displayed like statues hanging from the rafters, and spotlights shone onto the freshly groomed ice below. The bleachers featured clusters of parents talking and watching the practice that had just begun.
The hockey community in town is trying to spread excitement around Janesville as conversations surrounding a new ice arena have heated up.
In late April, the Janesville City Council authorized the spending of $25,000, which covered half of the cost for the design and business phase of the ice arena project.
The Janesville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau paid $25,000 towards the plan as well. The two groups also split the cost of a survey and feasibility study last year.
The council has reduced location options to the Janesville Mall, a vacant lot by Wright Road and Milwaukee Street and a separate vacant lot near the Janesville Youth Sports Complex.
The youngsters on the ice Wednesday were warming up for the final session of the annual Janesville Youth Hockey Club introduction to hockey program, an annual three-week course that teaches kids ages 6-8 the basics in the sport of ice hockey.
Some of the players on the ice are already J-Hawks, the mascot for the Janesville Youth Hockey Club, but the hope is that the kids trying the sport for the first time at the event will join as well.
A game of pluses and minuses
According to Neighborhood and Community Services Director Jennifer Petruzzello, each site has pros and cons.
"I do think that there are a lot of different aspects that may make the sites more preferable over one another,” she said.
Petruzzello said the Janesville Mall location is still in the works. The big question going forward is whether the rink would be attached to the current building or if it would be a separate structure on the lot.
Among the positives of the site are proximity to restaurants and retail options. The interstate exchange allows for easy access to this location as well, and city infrastructure such as water and sewer mains are already in place at the location.
But the site does have some problems.
If chosen, the space where Boston Store Inc. closed last year would likely need to be removed and repurposed. Part of that lot would likely be sold to the city for the rink, but the price point is unknown. Another problem is design restrictions.
“The design would be a little bit more restricted by the design of what’s already there compared to a clean slate in a green field,” Petruzzello said.
Another option for the rink is on Wright Road in the Eastern part of the city.
Petruzzello said the location is accessible with neighborhood restaurants nearby, and other open lots nearby could also be developed commercially as separate economic projects from the ice arena.
Negatives of the site include a farther distance from hotels, as well as from primary retail and restaurant locations on Milton Avenue.
The final spot the city is considering is a city owned lot near the Janesville Youth Sports Complex.
Petruzzello said this spot is easily accessible, and people are already used to traveling to this spot for youth sports. With it already being owned for the city, the price could be lower as well.
But the site could be taken off the table in short order.
An industrial project in the same spot is in the works, but it’s unclear whether the project will move forward. The developer of this project has until May 22 to choose whether they will build on the lot. If they decide against it, the city will have the option to reconsider.
Users say new arena is legitimate need
A decade ago, Janesville looked at bringing a new ice arena to town once it was announced that the North American Hockey League, a junior hockey program focused on advancing hockey players to the NCAA, came to town with the Janesville Jets.
Instead, the community chose to rehabilitate the current facility, but the rink is showing signs of its age.
“The economy when we got here ten years ago was literally on the heels of GM closing,” said Janesville Jets President Bill McCoshen.
“Today it’s much more dynamic, and there’s more investment and more jobs. The economic difference is spectacular, and I think this arena is going to benefit the next few generations of Janesville.”
Petruzzello also said the growth of the community has impacted the need.
“I think [the Jets] are a very valued part of our community. Youth hockey continues to grow,” she said.
A new facility would be “phenomenal” for Janesville according to McCoshen.
“Ten years ago when I first got here, there was real conversation about closing the rink for good. I think we’ve leveled that off, and people have rallied behind the Jets and hockey in Janesville,” he said.
“But in a new, two-rink facility we could do even more,” McCoshen said. “The potential is unlimited to bring events that would fill restaurants, fill hotels and have people filling up gas tanks at local gas stations in Janesville. It’s a win-win-win.”
McCoshen pointed out that the current rink has the coach offices on the opposite end of the rink from the locker room, so the coaches must walk through fans and the concourse to get to the room.
“You lose a game, and it’s kind of a walk of shame,” McCoshen said. “The players walk through the fans to get to the ice, and there is a cool aspect to that, but it’s unusual.”
McCoshen said it’d be nice for the team, but that he thinks the fan experience is where the most benefit would be seen, citing the current rink’s lacks a video scoreboard for replays and fan interaction as an example.
The need can also be seen at the area high school and youth levels.
The Janesville Bluebirds, the city co-op hockey team for Janesville Parker and Janesville Craig high schools, have a hard time getting practice time. The team shares the rink with the Jets, the Janesville Youth Hockey Club, figure skating clubs, adult leagues and more groups.
“During the season, we’re the only team that doesn’t have a practice on our off days,” said Bluebirds coach John Mauermann.
Mauermann said the team could go entire weeks without practicing. When they do practice, they often split the ice with the area girls’ team, the Rock County Fury. If the team wants to practice on a Thursday, practice is at 5:45 a.m. because the figure skating club gets the ice after school.
“We’ve lost about 20 percent of our ice due to scheduling issues,” Mauermann said. “More ice is going to help us, and at the same time it’s going to help the girls too because then they’ll have a place for consistent practice.”
Mauermann said the adult leagues are growing in Janesville and that a new facility could help bring in money by looking to see if the Milton High School team would want to practice there too, something the city had looked at.
“What brings people to Janesville in the Winter? It’s hockey,” Mauermann said.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to do this right and bring people in from all over. A new hockey rink is not a burden, it’s an asset.”
At the youth level, the J-Hawks need more ice time.
More than 230 kids currently participate in youth hockey in Janesville, but that number could be even higher according to Janesville Youth Hockey Club President Ed Chady.
Chady said the problem is that so many people are competing for ice time. He said the 12-and-under age group sometimes practices until 10 p.m. on a school night and added that multiple teams share the ice at a time.
Last year the organization had three concussions in the 7-8-year old age group. All four came during practice because there were four teams sharing the ice and there wasn’t much room.
“We just don’t have the availability right now,” Chady said.
If the new arena was built, Chady said the organization would benefit in multiple ways. Two of those ways were girl’s hockey and economic impact.
“One of my goals is to have a girl’s team at every age level. Right now, maybe ten percent of our players at the team level are girls,” he said.
With more ice time and a focus on girls’ hockey, Chady believes the sport would grow even more.
“We had the 12U girls team this year, and it was awesome. We get a lot of girls joining at a young level, but it diminishes because they have to play with the boys. This rink could create a much more inclusive environment for the girls by having their own teams,” he said.
At the economic level, Chady said the organization could be bringing a lot more revenue into the community with more sheets of ice and more tournaments.
“Having multiple high school teams, the Jets and the Fury all here, we’re only allowed to take the ice for an entire weekend twice a year,” he said.
With that provision, the organization hosts just two tournaments across all the age levels–one state tournament and one individual tournament each year.
“Tournaments bring in some serious revenue to the community, and we could be hosting a lot more of them. Sun Prairie has two rinks, and they’ve got a tournament almost every weekend. They’re close to 20 [tournaments] a season, and we have two,” Chady said.
A puzzle with endless possibilities
The blueprint for the ice arena would include a number of uses.
The feasibility study suggested two ice arenas, a flexible athletic space and recreational space as well.
One sheet of ice would be permanent, while the other temporary sheet of ice could be taken down to create more recreational space. The permanent ice rink would include 1,600 seats, and the removable ice sheet would have removable bleacher-type seating.
The city is still trying to determine what the non-ice areas will include, but Petruzzello said the possibilities are out there.
“When we did the study, we looked at non-ice usage, and we really wanted to look at what the needs were for the community. The extra space could be dry courts like basketball, tennis and volleyball. It could be a turf for soccer and things like that, or it could be a combination of those.”
Petruzzello said a playground and/or walking track is in discussion as well. Space that could host a skate sharpening room, pro shop or party rooms has also been discussed.
Like Chady and McCoshen alluded, Petruzzello said the economy would get a big boost from the facility. She said the city has had to decline the Milton High School hockey team from renting the rink for practice because there isn’t enough ice time.
“We see a need for indoor recreation space. We’re trying to meet those needs and also help the economy with the building,” Petruzzello said.
She said the temporary rink would be taken down sometimes so that the facility could host basketball or volleyball tournaments for extra use and revenue.
“The focus of the facility is two-fold,” she said. “We’re trying to meet a local need where we’re hearing programs aren’t utilized to their full capacity, and users are using the rink at times that are not really conducive.”
The building is estimated to cost between $24-29 million. Petruzzello said financing the building would likely be a result of a public-private partnership.
The public aspect of the money would likely involve borrowing money, she said. Construction costs would likely be covered partly through taxes. The city continues to look at grant opportunities and the private sector, which could include donations and fundraising.
She said the project could have a net new impact of $13 million and would create multiple new jobs. The feasibility study estimated that the project would bring an additional $15-17 million in annual spending to Janesville.
“It’s a project that would have a long-term impact and have a long life expectancy,” Petruzzello said.
The city will now look at site-specific designs for the facility and narrow a price before hoping to settle on a primary site.
What might an end result look like?
Blueprints can be drawn and people can speculate, but often these massive community projects can be hard to imagine. There are so many moving parts and people/groups involved that the end project can be a bit of a blur.
One-hundred sixty-five miles away in another Wisconsin community, the Village of West Salem sits near Lake Neshonoc. The community can be overshadowed by nearby La Crosse and Onalaska, but the recent addition of a community athletic complex in town has people excited.
The complex has an area for the gymnastics team as well as a single ice sheet and multiple locker rooms and storage areas. The referendum also built baseball diamonds and tennis courts.
The building was constructed through a school district referendum as opposed to the city route Janesville is considering, but the impact of a new facility has community members excited.
West Salem High School Principal Mike Malott said West Salem has been excited since the construction project, which is still ongoing, started.
“They are really excited,” he said. “It’s such an upgrade from what we had. People are proud of it and know that it’s a unique opportunity.”
Eric Borre, high school social studies teacher and head high school hockey coach in West Salem, said the ice arena was an incredible addition in its first year of use this year.
“We had more people attending games than we did in the old rink. There was a lot of excitement and people wanting to come see what hockey is about here,” he said.
And while the fan experience is important, he said seeing the community utilize the building has been quite the show.
“Whether it’s a first grader learning to skate, a middle school broomball tournament or a high school game, people can come and be comfortable and have fun,” he said. “It makes a huge difference.”
He mentioned that physical education classes at both the middle and high school levels have used the complex and that the baseball, softball and tennis teams have used it for practice when the weather was bad.
“It has already proven worth it,” he said. “For the kids to have a space that is definitely their own is something I know they appreciate.”
Borre said the economic possibilities are endless.
“We are in a better spot with the new facility than the old one. We have a hockey rink next to tennis courts next to baseball fields. Every sport could have a tournament every weekend,” he said.
In Janesville, such an experience could be coming soon. For McCoshen and everyone else involved, there is hope.
“We are night and day from ten years ago,” McCoshen said. “There is a general assumption in town that this is going to happen. No one knows exactly how or when, but people know it’s happening, and we’re excited for that.”
Petruzzello said if it happens, the city will do it right.
“This is a long process and a big project. It’s something we take seriously, so we want to make sure we have a good quality project at the end if we do build the facility.”
Galesville mayor calls for hearing in attempt to remove councilor Schulz
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The mayor of Galesville has filed to remove a city council member from his position less than a month after an ongoing public feud between the elected officials appeared to have been resolved in the Trempealeau County courtroom.
A vote on Schulz’s removal from the council will take place after a public hearing next month, according to a letter obtained by the Times.
Schulz has been suspended from the council until the hearing, set for June 15 at 6 p.m., the letter from city attorney Dan Arndt to Schulz reads.
The hearing follows state statute 17.16, which says an elected official can be removed by a vote of the council “only upon written verified charges brought by a resident taxpayer.”
The complaint was filed by Howe May 11—as a resident and not in his duty as mayor—through attorney Matt Klos.
Howe says in the complaint that Schulz deserves to be removed from his position as councilor for multiple reasons, including skyrocketing attorney fees and refusal to work with others.
The June 15 hearing is also required under the statute and allows Schulz to present a defense.
Howe did not respond to a request for comment.
Schulz, meanwhile, took issue with multiple points presented. One example was Schulz pointing to the allegation of attorney fees around $10,000, saying Howe did not provide billing documents to prove that number and calling the claim “absurdly false, slanderous and downright irresponsible for a person to make."
Last month Howe and Schulz appeared to work out their ongoing public clash, one that has included a police response from the county sheriff’s office, Schulz’s removal from committees and a restraining order request that was later rescinded by Schulz after an injunction hearing on April 25.
County Judge Rian Radtke told both Howe and Schulz during the hearing that the community deserves a “higher standard” than repeated public fighting.
“I think our society is hungry for people in our leadership who are going to be bound to reason and fairness and treating each other fair and not raising things to the level of vitriol and such,” Radtke said during the hearing.
The restraining order was dropped by Schulz after both sides reached an agreement that said the officials would refrain from negative comments about each other and engage in civil communication.
Schulz told the Times last Thursday that he was disappointed when he learned of his possible removal, adding that he feels he has been a target. The council member will have a chance to defend himself from the allegations at the hearing, which he plans to do.
“It’s an absolute gut punch. It’s sad that this witch-hunt, that this continues to happen,” Schulz said.
Schulz said he tried to solve his disagreement with Howe months ago, asking the council to talk in closed session and also asking Thatcher, chair of the personnel committee, to talk about the issue there.
The councilor said he then took the issue to the legal system because “this behavior goes above and beyond differences of opinion.”
The injunction hearing and agreement through their attorneys was the end to the fighting, Schulz thought.
“When we were able to stipulate that in court and have him agree and me agree, we were able to put it all behind us,” Schulz said. “And now to see that he is doing this is nothing but a personal attack. He just simply doesn’t like me and he cannot deal with me having an opinion that differs from him.”
As for his possible removal, Schulz said the public should be the ones to make that decision.
“He’s not going to kick me off the council. The people who can kick me off the council can do so in April of 2024 if they do not feel I am representing their opinions and their voice. But I believe I’m doing a damn good job at that because I was elected on the things that I am doing.”