MMSD Should Rebrand As Competent

Today’s blog is in the category of You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up.

The Madison Metropolitan School District has some of the worst test scores in the state. It has a horrible truancy problem. Its racial achievement gap is comparable to the Grand Canyon. For the most recent year when statistics were available there were around 800 police calls to Madison schools. Despite all that, voters still approved two referenda in November, which will increase taxes on the average home by over $1,600.

And what did the School Board just vote to spend $100,000 on? New logos for the high schools. Here’s the quote from the State Journal story:

On Monday, the School Board also approved a nearly $100,000 contract with a Kentucky-based firm for districtwide branding and design changes. The firm’s goal is to help position Madison schools as a “destination” school district, according to a memo from Senior Executive Director for Communications Edell Fiedler.

“The rebrand will have a districtwide impact as it will be used to build the district’s brand through various ways including signage, print, digital, clothing and textiles,” Fiedler wrote in a memo to the board.

Build the district’s brand? Destination school district?

Parents are voting with their kids and taking them out of this district. In the fastest growing county in the state this district is losing students most years and even in its best years it just treads water.

But the School Board has discovered the problem. It’s the logos! Never mind those pesky test scores, never mind the discipline problems. No, parents have been waiting for better logos. All problems are now solved. And for only $100k. Can we rescind the referendums now?

And on a related matter… For no apparent reason, the School Board extended the contract of Superintendent Joe Gothard for another year through 2027 at a salary of $300,000 plus benefits. Why? The Board offered no substantive reason related to performance of students. Not one Board member raised concerns about blowing $100,000 on logos after the voters had just voluntarily increased their taxes by a record amount and not one board member had the temerity to suggest that maybe Gothard should demonstrate some progress in student achievement before they gave him an extension and a raise.

And on an unrelated note… One of the theories of the Biden/Harris campaign was that voters just needed to be reminded of the chaos and sheer idiocy of the Trump years. It didn’t work in the campaign, but I’m going to bet that there’s a whole lot of buyer’s remorse now. Not on the part of MAGA World. They want chaos and idiocy. But for those independents who switched from Biden back to Trump last year, do you remember now? Without considering the implications, Trump halts all Federal payments. Then changes his mind the next day. A tragic plane crash kills 67 people only miles from the White House and, while the bodies are still in Potomac, Trump blames two previous Presidents and DEI programs. Four more years of stuff like this every damn day.

YSDA stands for:

Free speech.

The rule of law.

Reason.

Tolerance.

Pluralism.