• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

CALEDONIA - Dozens of parents turned out here Tuesday night in hopes of giving members of the Racine Unified School Board an earful. The parents want out of the school district to start their own. With her 9-year-old daughter, Jacklyn, by her side, Jodi Payne said she has her children in private schools because the Racine Unified School District is a mess. “I would guess, and I think it’s a good guess, about half of us are going to private schools right now.” Payne said. Payne puts 28 miles a day on her car and spends $2,300 on tuition to send her daughter to Oak Creek’s Saint Matthew’s school. Overcrowded classrooms and an overwhelming number of students with learning and emotional problems have frustrated this young mother. There were other frustrations for parent’s here Tuesday night. The so-called “link and listen” meeting was tightly controlled by the school superintendant and board members. There was no opportunity for parents to discuss secession. “They don’t care about what we have to say,” parent Amy Dey said as she left the meeting in frustration. “They won’t even take comments. They won’t even answer any questions that we have. I had to get a sitter to go watch my daughter and this is just a joke.” The Caledonia Village Board spent $30,000 to study the feasibility of a new, separate school district. The conclusion: the idea could work. But board president, Tony Baumgardt, said the Tuesday night meeting was not the proper venue for a discussion of secession. He maintains that the board won’t consider the notion until parents come up with the 9,700 signatures required by law to engage the board on the matter. “I don’t really want to see the board or administration spend a lot of time going after something that we don’t know if there’s support for yet,” Baumgardt said after stepping out of the meeting. Parents left the gathering undaunted. They vow to get the required petition signatures by July 1 in order to force the issue.