April 27, 2010
HELENA (AP) — A Billings elementary student is
complaining that a teacher was campaigning in
favor of a mill levy during class time.
Sixth-grader Austin Aisenbrey plans to file a
complaint with the state commissioner of political
practices.
He says the teacher handed out stickers asking
parents to vote, while at the same time telling the
students to ask parents to vote in favor of the mill
levy in an upcoming election.
Aisenbrey’s grandfather is Republican Public Service
Commissioner Brad Molnar, who is helping the boy
file the complaint.
The student says he later tried wearing a T-shirt
advocating a “no” vote, but was told he couldn’t.
Superintendent Jack Copps says no campaigning by
teachers or students is allowed
A blog for those politicos looking for a place to vent!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Saying NO to Campaigning at School
Anyone see this interesting story about the Billings School mill levy campaign? It’s about time someone took the bull by the horns and actually tries to do something about this illegal campaign activity that routinely happens within our educational institutions. Way to go Mr. Austin Aisenbrey!
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WHAT is Rob Rogers of the Billings Gazette doing publishing a MINOR'S name in this article? Nowhere in this online article do you find the GUILTY teacher's name mentioned, merely a mention of which elementary school this took place.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is "Thank you for endangering the innocent and protecting the guilty Rob what a brilliant example of responsible journalism!!!"
"NOT!!!"
For those interested here is the link to the Billings Gazette article along with Mr. Rogers contact info at the bottom.
I hope the student's parents have a very good lawyer "get in touch with you".
\http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/education/article_b00afa2a-51b6-11df-b5b7-001cc4c03286.html
Endangering the innocent? How so? Minors are named in the paper all the time.
ReplyDeleteThe administration and teachers use the kids as an excuse to get a raise for themselves. They have done it for years. The rest of the employees have a wage freeze. What makes them think they should be any different? They need to budget within their means and stop using "it's for the kids" as a ploy to get people to sympathize with them. I have been in the system and I know exactly what they are doing. It really is pathetic!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOutrage over the minor's name being released and then giving the link to the article so in case you didn't know the name,you can now. Yep, you guys are a kick.
ReplyDeleteBill you are an idiot. You have way too much time on your hands worryingif you get a kick out of this and should go back to teaching college courses so you can talk politics during class with the young and immpressionable.
ReplyDeleteIt is not any different than what this teacher was doing in Billings
wrong, wrong, wrong
One may want to consider that these students are the future of Havre, and the future tax payers of Havre.
ReplyDeleteAnd they may decide not to take care of you when you get old.
Yes the board made an error. It is very obvious that they cannot talk about it, or we will have a HUGE lawsuit on the areas hands. I for one think they paid the former supt. to get this matter behind them. It is time to move on.
Yes they should be voted out of office, for poor fiduciary responsibility, however, are we really going to punish the future of Havre because we are temporarily angry at these individuals?
Is it cheaper to pay for jail cells down the road because we have chosen to sell our childrens futures because of unknown business actions of the board members?
What is next? Are the people that are attracted to this Republican talking point board going to vote to shut down the fire department because the employees choose to be politically active and may not share the views of the tea baggers here?
DeConstructor:
ReplyDeleteIt is about principle. The board members made a decision and they must deal with the consequences of that decision.
This is not about temporary anger for me, it is about right and wrong. This has nothing to do with jeopardizing the future of Havre or hurting the kids, believe me they will not close the Highschool over $43,000!
If the inept Board of Trustees cannot seem to locate a way to cut the $43,000 out of the high school budget, then that is their problem. The Superintendent issue goes to judgement. The board "decided" to pay Mr. Mahon, they didn't have to and they could have taken their chances in court. The guy apparently was a shakedown artist who took our board for a ride and won, the folks in Huntley almost fell for the same charade and Geraldine darn near did recently too!
We all out here in the real world must learn to live within our budget, we don't have the luxury of asking for an annual increase from the voters. If we are behind in money one month, too bad we must deal with the consequences.
As for this story in Billings, I am not surprised. Teachers always roll out the "poor, poor pitiful me" (sorry Warren Zevon!) "we're gonna have to make drastic cuts" unless the ole kiddies get their parents to vote for the levy crap around each school election. That is electioneering and it is unlawful.
I also think the reason we abandoned the school mail ballot here in Havre had nothing to with cost but was from the same bag of teachers union parlor tricks as the subtle brainwashing obviously taking place in Billings Public Schools.
What concerns me most about the posts on this blog about this issue is where did this train ever derail? Where is it written that any financial problem the school district encounters suddenly becames everyone elses problem and it became OK for someone else to pay for everything I want? When Mahon was fired, resigned, let go, quit, whatever, it wasn't any of our business, but when their short it most certainly is. That's BS.
Wake up people!!! Send a message to the board, you work for us and we're sick of it. Vote em all out and vote NO on the levy, they can pass the hat amongst themselves for all I care.
Exactly right on noam
ReplyDeleteWhy has no one answered the question about why didn't the elementry mill levy get reduced if they now get a larger budget by over a half a million dollars?
That disturbs me more than the 45,000 dollar increase from the highschool
I am voting no and I am also talking that up with everyone I know. I agree that it is time to take a stand
Why doesn't someone file a political practices suit here in Havre? This goes on all the time. Even the fact that they refuse to do a mail ballot is grounds for a suit
Jimbo said: " Even the fact that they refuse to do a mail ballot is grounds for a suit"
ReplyDeleteCertainly you can file suit over virtually anything but what would be the basis of the suit? Further, it would be the taxpayers footing the bill to respond to a lawsuit.
TO Noam you hit the nail right on the head.No to the levy and get rid of the inept boardmembers.I already voted.Im on the permanent absentee list and they mail it right to the house.I recommend it for everyone.
ReplyDeleteforcing you to go to the highschool to vote is just a blatant attempt to make it more difficult for everyone other than school employees to vote.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to vote ahead of time and were not on the absentee list you had to go to Robins, another pain to vote
This was done puposely which is a political practices violation
Schools and teachers don't need to follow no rules. They are there to tell the kids how to think who in turn can tell there parents. Look at akk the greenie stuff the kids bring home. Taxes good complaining bad
ReplyDeleteIf there were no tax increases where would Sandy Brown and Carrie Dickson get thier HO HO's to feed the treasurer's staff? Voting NO to both of these women and voting No to the people at the school that think I am to stupid to understand the mill levy