Convention attendance by board president questioned

CLINTONVILLE – During a portion of the Feb. 24 Clintonville Board of Education meeting that was designated for board member Christopher Hoffmann to share information about his attendance at the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) State Education Convention in January as the district’s delegate, Board President Glen Drew Lundt also shared information as he also attended the convention.
Lundt said it is worth it for board members to attend the WASB State Education Convention because it is good for networking with board members, superintendents, and employers from around the state.
“You never know what you’re going to learn from who,” Lundt said. “I would recommend every board member go down there every year.”
Board Vice President Kris Strauman said she was confused as to why Lundt attended the convention, as the board had approved sending only Hoffmann there as the district’s delegate.
“If somebody else wanted to go, they had to reimburse the district,” Strauman said. “I didn’t see any reimbursement.”

“We can talk about that some other time,” Lundt responded.
Strauman said it is important to discuss it because the board had voted to send only Hoffmann to the convention.
“I don’t think there was a vote,” Lundt said.
Board member Mark Zachow said there was a vote to send Hoffmann to the convention.
“Because we were concerned about budget and balancing,” Strauman said.
“We’ll put it on the next agenda,” Lundt said.

Reorganizational meeting
The Clintonville Tribune-Gazette researched previous meetings to see if there was a vote that approved Hoffmann as the district’s representative at the convention. It found that at the board’s reorganizational meeting, April 28, the board approved sending Hoffmann to the WASB State Education Convention to represent the district. The board also approved Board Treasurer Jason Moder as the alternate delegate.
During the discussion for choosing a district delegate, board member Ben Huber asked if any board members planned to attend the convention. After the question, no board member indicated they were going to attend.
Reimbursement was not mentioned at the meeting if another board member attended the convention.