Author Archives: seanolsen

You may have seen some things going around from groups that opposed the referendum regarding the district’s $10.6 million unassigned general fund balance – and how this should mean that no painful budget cuts are required. Like most of the information from these groups, there’s a kernel of truth here surrounded by bushels of misinformation.Continue reading “The truth about the $10.6M unassigned general fund balance”

The district spent two years largely ignoring the sirens and warning lights on Empower before finally announcing that it was pulling the plug on it last spring. (It’s a slooooow plug-pulling, though, as elementary school students and their families are still stuck with software we know doesn’t work this year.) The return to Parent PortalContinue reading “2020 Focus Area #2: TECHNOLOGY”

Happy New Year! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about six focus areas for the district in 2020 and what we should be trying to accomplish in those areas. Focus Area #1 is EQUITY There’s been a lot of talk about equity over the last year or so, and a lot of misconceptionsContinue reading “2020 Focus Area #1: EQUITY”

(This post originally appeared on the Even Better Eastern Carver County Schools Facebook page on November 25, 2019) You’ve probably seen some references lately to the school district owning $8 million in land that isn’t used for K-12 education. Sounds pretty scandalous, huh? Well, as has sadly been true of many things we’ve heard fromContinue reading “$8 million in land?”

(This post originally appeared on the Even Better Eastern Carver County Schools Facebook page on November 6, 2019) What lessons do we take from the failure of questions 1 & 2 of the referendum last night? As tempting as it is to treat the misinformation and appeals to racial and religious identity as the soleContinue reading “Lessons from the referendum’s failure”

(This post was originally published on Brick City Blog, with the most recent update on November 5, 2019) Six days away from the 2019 referendum in Eastern Carver County Schools, I thought it would be a good idea to centralize some of the real facts and data about points of contention as it relates toContinue reading “2019 Eastern Carver County School Referendum Master Thread of Misleading Claims”

(This post was originally posted on Brick City Blog on October 28, 2019) The vote on the Eastern Carver County School District referendum is in 8 days — on November 5. There are three questions on the referendum: Question 1 increases the district’s operating levy — the funds used for the everyday operations of theContinue reading “8 days, 3 questions and 13+ months: talking about the state of ECCS”

(This post originally appeared on Brick City Blog, last updated on September 18, 2019) Question 2 of the 2019 Eastern Carver County Schools Referendum is a request to spend $111.7 million on capital projects – the largest of which is $35 million on a new elementary school to built on district-owned land in southwest Chaska.Continue reading “Looking at the capacity question of the 2019 Referendum”

(This post originally appeared on the Even Better Eastern Carver County Schools Facebook page on June 27, 2019) At Monday’s school board meeting, the board decided to give Superintendent Clint Christopher a positive performance review and a 2% bonus. In announcing the decision, Board Chair Tim Klein cited Christopher’s positive performance in the four areasContinue reading “Superintendent’s performance review and bonus sends wrong message”

(This post originally appeared on Brick City Blog, last edited on June 12, 2019) To say it was a challenging year in our Eastern Carver County School District would be a major understatement. A spate of racial incidents – most at Chaska High School — has alienated many minority students and their parents and leftContinue reading “Breaking points: Jim Bach and ROAR”