Ed Heinzelman, a former contributor to this very blog, has decided to throw his hat into the ring and run for a seat on the Milwaukee Public School Board representing the 8th District. Here’s a snippet from Heinzelman’s press release announcing his candidacy:
“As an experienced businessman, father of an MPS graduate, and long time south side neighbor, I will build partnerships with all MPS stakeholders so the core education our children receive prepares them for the future and keeps Milwaukee strong,” Heinzelman said.
“A failing school system leads to a failing city, so we must improve the district, our studentsʼ skills, and graduation rates so we can move our city forward. Teachers, parents, unions, businesses, administrators, and our entire community must cooperate and examine the way MPS works so we can make the changes necessary to help our children succeed,” concluded Heinzelman.
Heinzelman is running for the seat currently held by MPS Board member Terry Falk, who is challenging fellow MPS Board member Bruce Thompson for the at-large seat on the MPS Board.
Good luck Ed Heinzelman!
Good luck to you Ed, both in getting elected and in improving MPS. Though I often disagree with you & trade barbs, you’ve always been respectful and come across as honest & sincere. If these traits are valued by MPS voters, you’ll do well.
Ed’s a heck of a good guy, and he’s got bunches of common sense, so folks in Milwaukee could do much worse.
Thanks…I missed Zach’s posting of this and didn’t find it until I was searching for other press about the campaign…believe me, this is one of the biggest individual challenges I have taken on.
And a daunting task at that. Good luck to you!
Ed, win or lose you deserve a lot of credit for stepping up and putting your hat in the ring.
I have a concern about our District 8 schools. There are quite a few schools that have declining enrollment trends coupled with below maximum capacity enrollment as well as vacant schools not being utilized. There are also schools in the district that are at over capacity with significant wait lists. Tippecanoe School for the Arts and Humanities is one such school. What is your idea or plan to bring to the board when discussions of budget concerns affect a successful school like Tippcanoe where we are consistently fighting rising costs of education each year and virtually no room to expand enrollment? I am a passionate parent and member of the Governance Council for Tippecanoe and want support for our exemplary school instead of a biased, non supportive district representative which is my opinion of our current representative of Mr. Falk.
Marcia,
Thank you for taking the time to respond via Blogging Blue. There are a number of reasons that MPS enrollment in District 8 is declining but I won’t go into them now.
Of more immediate concern is what to do with our empty and underutilized buildings. I expect the board and the superintendent to work out a strategic plan for MPS and determine what the needs for buildings will be in the foreseeable future and either sell or re-purpose mothballed facilities. It doesn’t make economic sense to continue to pay maintenance and insurance on facilities we will never use. Our budget dollars need to be focused on educating all of our students.
Tippecanoe is dear to me. It is one of the schools that my son attended. He graduated from Kilmer South High School in 2002 so it’s been a while since I’ve had contact with anyone from Tippecanoe. I don’t know the particulars on why Tippecanoe hasn’t been allowed to expand. My overall feeling is we need to encourage successful programs, expand them when it makes sense to do so, and duplicate them in other parts of MPS when it is feasible.
If you want to contact me directly, please do: 414-628-6312
Thanks…this is tougher than I thought and winter isn’t helping much although it was relatively nice today!
Coming off a big Packers victory, you have the advantage of (most) people generally being friendlier in the doldrums of winter.
BTW: Congrats to Tippecanoe for their showing at the MSOE engineering showcase!