Cedarburg High School may be the most troubled school in the metro area. In the 2004-’05 school year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 18 teachers resigned or retired, almost three times the number of employees who left the prior year. Four principals in the district resigned in the last four years. Morale seems to be in the pits.
And no wonder. In 2004, the school board voted to end the contract of high school basketball coach Ben Siebert after just two families complained because their children were kicked off the team for violating Siebert’s zero tolerance alcohol policy. The board has been riven by other disputes and has also violated the state open records law by meeting in closed session.
But the latest incident is the corker. The school fired Robert Zellner, chairman of the science department, for looking at pornography — and not child pornography — on his school computer for one minute and seven seconds.
Zellner is an 11-year veteran who was nominated for a Kohl fellowship (which goes to outstanding teachers) in 1997. He’s also an assistant scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts and a youth sports coach. Many residents showed up to support him at the school board meeting.
There was no allegation that any student saw the pornography Zellner viewed. There was no evidence that Zellner’s job performance was in any way affected by a one-minute peek at pornography. What’s next: firing people for having bad thoughts?
Journal Sentinel columnist Mike Nichols came close to such a conclusion with a column supporting the firing. Nichols hastened to assure us that Zellner “has never been accused of indecently touching a student or even making a student feel uncomfortable,” as though this disclaimer is necessary about someone who once peeked at porn.
It is no secret that the pornography industry is a massive and growing one or that we are awash in sexual content generated by movies, TV, music and especially the Internet. An awful lot of people of all colors, creeds and ages find this material interesting. If we are to fire every employee in America who has viewed pornography for 67 seconds, we won’t be left with many workers.
The fact that Superintendent Daryl Herrick would pursue such an action raises questions about his judgment. Even before this incident, his performance had elicited complaints: In December 2004, a majority of Cedarburg teachers registered a no-confidence vote against Herrick.
Then there is the school board, which voted 6-0 in favor of the firing. Is Zellner’s one minute of Web browsing so heinous that no board member can defend a teacher with 11 years of experience? Good luck to Cedarburg in recruiting new teachers.
Dan Steininger Hits the Big Time
At times it seems as if there are only two people keeping watch over the salaries of chief executives nationally: New York Times writer Gretchen Morgenson and Milwaukee’s Dan Steininger, chief executive for Catholic Funds. Morgenson wrote a tough column on this issue in Sunday’s Times, and the article quoted Steininger, who was photographed in front of his bookshelf of well-thumbed tomes on the issue of executive pay.
Nationally, newspapers seem to walk on eggshells when reporting the ever-rising salaries of chief executives. By 2004, executive pay at the country’s top corporations averaged $11.8 million, or 431 times the average worker’s pay of $27,460. The gap has widened steadily since 1978, when executives made 44 times the average worker’s salary.
Steininger, the ever-earnest grandson of Milwaukee’s socialist mayor, Dan Hoan, argues with messianic fervor that employee morale and performance is hurt by such a gap. Investors are also hurt as salaries cut into profits. Morgenson’s latest column noted a study showing that salaries paid to the top five officers at public companies from 2001-’03 were equivalent to 10 percent of company earnings.
One reason the pay keeps rising is because corporate board members exercise little oversight, while gaining handsome fees. Morgenson referenced a recent study of 2,000 corporations from Corporate Library, which shows that pay for corporate directors averaged $801,000 per board last year.
Columnist and economist Paul Krugman wrote a feature story for The New York Times Magazine a few years ago that blamed the pay gap on the change in the popular media, which has gone from decrying greed to celebrating high-paid corporate executives. That seems pretty simplistic, but there is little doubt the media have been guarded, perhaps because typical outlets are run by executives who benefit from the unseemly rise in compensation. Increasingly, daily newspapers have no labor reporter and tend to tell business stories from a top-down perspective. (On the Journal Sentinel Web site list of staff, the business section is top dog, listed ahead of reader favorites like entertainments and sports, not to mention news.)
In Milwaukee Magazine’s January cover story on salaries, Steininger was the only company executive who agreed to be photographed. Of course, he earns only $248,000 a year, placing him not very far above his employees. He will no doubt continue to campaign for reforms, but how much coverage will media give the issue?
Can Democrats Take Over the State Senate?
That depends on who you ask. Last week, the Shepherd Express ran a story written by the paper’s owner, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Lou Fortis, arguing that the Democrats could grab control of the Senate in the November elections.
Fortis is a former Democratic legislator. But the news analysis doesn’t tell us of his Democratic background or quote any Republican in its rundown of these races. Republican State Executive Director Rick Wiley says Fortis never called him for a GOP analysis.
Thus, Fortis tells us that state Rep. John Lehman (D-Racine) has a good chance of succeeding Republican Cathy Stepp, who is stepping down as 21st District state senator. Fortis doesn’t even bother to mention the name of Lehman’s opponent, Bill McReynolds, who happens to be the Racine County executive. Wiley says McReynolds is raising more money than Lehman. Whether true or not, the race certainly doesn’t look like a shoo-in for Democrats.
But that’s how it looks in Fortis World. The story tells us that 9th District Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) and 17th District Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) are vulnerable. Given that the Democrats have yet to field a candidate in either race, that feeling is apparently far from universal.
Fortis says 31st District Sen. Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire) could be defeated since it’s a 52% Democratic district and some unnamed Republicans say Brown may lack the desire to run hard enough. Wiley naturally rejects that idea. And it’s worth asking: If the two Democratic opponents for Brown are so strong, why aren’t we even told their names?
The Republicans currently hold a 19-14 edge in the state Senate. The Democrats would have to overturn at least three Republicans to gain control. Perhaps they will succeed, but that’s far from a certainty. Why give readers such a one-sided assessment? Ironically, Fortis may accomplish just the opposite of what he likely intends: If his readers are so convinced the Senate is in the bag, why would they bother to work for change?
