Vote disagreement clarified

CLINTONVILLE – When the Clintonville Board of Education met March 9, a disagreement from the Feb. 23 board meeting was discussed again, with more information provided regarding the disagreement.
The disagreement amongst board members at the Feb. 23 board meeting revolved around whether board members other than the approved delegate needed to reimburse the district for expenses incurred while attending the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) State Education Convention Jan. 21-23. Board member Christopher Hoffmann was approved by the board at its April 28 reorganizational meeting as its official delegate for the convention.
Glen Drew Lundt, president of the Clintonville Board of Education, also attended the convention in January. At the Feb. 23 board meeting, Board Vice President Kris Strauman questioned Lundt’s attendance at the convention, stating that the board had voted to pay for only one board member to attend.
Lundt told the board at its March 9 meeting, that based on his research, the board never voted on requiring board members to reimburse the district for expenses if they also attended the convention in January.
“Now, I agreed to pay my own way, I’m fine with that,” Lundt said. “But if we’re going to sit here and lie and then have people backup, that’s unacceptable. So, it never was voted on. I have already paid almost all of it. I never had the intention of not paying. What I really don’t get is the lack of support for education. How we can sit here and say we’re a school board, but we’re not going to send people to go get educated. That does not sit well with me.”

Board member Ben Huber said he thinks the district should pay the expenses for board members to attend the convention.
“I think it is a place for continued education for our board members,” Huber said. “It has lots of good information. It has been very valuable to me over the decades going to that, not every year. But I do think that it is worth investing in our board members to have them educated. We can talk about hotels, but I think the convention itself should be paid for by the district. That’s my personal opinion.”
Later during the discussion, Hoffmann said most other districts he communicated with at the convention were “shocked or surprised” that the Clintonville School District does not send more board members to the convention.
“More districts send the entire board, than a select few,” Hoffmann said.
Strauman said the topic was discussed at the board’s Sept. 22 meeting. After her recap of the discussion at that meeting, Strauman said, “You are correct, it was not a vote. However, there was a big discussion about it when I brought it up. …So, was it a formal vote? No. But it was a discussion that we all agreed on.”

Sept. 22 meeting
At the Sept. 22 board meeting, the board discussed the district’s attendance at the 2025-26 WASB State Education Convention.
The Clintonville Tribune-Gazette listened to the discussion from the Sept. 22 meeting, and that discussion did not result in an official vote as to whether any board member who would attend the convention, other than the district’s delegate, would need to reimburse the district for expenses.
Leading off that discussion, Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn told the board he has not attended to that convention in an effort to save the district money.
“Because board members have gone and then reported back to me, but it’s always in my budget, but I never go,” Kuhn said.

He added that he would prefer to go to the legal conference because of its importance to the district.
Kuhn also acknowledged that in the past the district has sent more than one board member to the WASB convention.
Strauman said the district should “be setting an example” when it comes to the district’s budget.
“We’re talking about spending taxpayer money, frugal, not having enough money,” Strauman said.
She added that the expense for one board member to attend the convention would be about $800.
“My feeling is we send one representative this year, that’s just my feeling,” Strauman said. “If we’re talking about setting examples for spending, it’s supposed to start at the top.”
Strauman added that any other board member who wanted to attend the convention could pay their own expenses.
Board Treasurer Jason Moder and board member Mark Zachow each said they agreed with Strauman.
“As long as everybody’s OK with that, we’ll move on,” said Lundt, concluding the discussion at the Sept. 22 meeting.