Steve Eliasen
Steve Eliasen is an at-large incumbent on the Oshkosh Area School Board in Wisconsin. First elected in 2013, Eliasen sought and won another term in the general election on April 5, 2016.
Biography
Eliasen is an advertising photographer.[1]
Elections
2016
Two of the seven seats on the Oshkosh Area School District school board were up for at-large general election on April 5, 2016. The seats of board president Steve Dedow and Steve Eliasen were up for election. Dedow did not file for re-election, guaranteeing a newcomer to the board. Eliasen sought re-election and was joined by Oshkosh resident Stephanie Carlin in the race.[2] They ran unopposed and were both successful in their bids for the seats on the board.
Results
| Oshkosh Area School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2016 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Stephanie Carlin |
53.20% | 15,463 |
| Steve Eliasen Incumbent |
45.89% | 13,337 |
| Write-in votes | 0.91% | 265 |
| Total Votes (100) | 29,065 | |
| Source: Elisabeth Moore, "Email correspondence with Board Secretary Teresa Collins," June 20, 2016 | ||
2013
| Oshkosh Area School District, At-large General Election, 3-year term, April 2, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Steve Dedow |
41.7% | 3,229 | |
| Nonpartisan | Steve Eliasen |
41.1% | 3,179 | |
| Nonpartisan | John Daggett | 15.5% | 1,203 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 1.7% | 132 | |
| Total Votes | 7,743 | |||
| Source: Oshkosh City Clerk, "April 2, 2013 Spring Election Results," April 20, 2013 | ||||
Campaign themes
2016
Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce Candidate Questionnaire
The following questionnaire was published by the Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce:
| “ | 1. The public schools have a crucial role relating to the development of human resource talent in our community. With budget deficits, arguments have been made inferring that education quality will suffer if teachers' wages are not increased. Do you agree with this inference? Do you believe a correlation exists between teacher salary and the quality education? Please discuss your answer.
The wage/outcomes correlation requires both a broad and nuanced response. While it's generally true that high-performing educational systems generally compensate staff towards the high end of the scale--(internationally, Finland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and domestically, Massachusetts, Westchester County, NY, and top-tier suburbs of metropolitan areas), I'm skeptical that there exists a direct corollary effect--that staff performance or student outcomes go up as compensation goes up. Wishing to avoid filling several pages here with examples from other industries, other geographic regions, other governmental institutions serving a role roughly comparable to the role of schools in our communities, perhaps it's best so summarize this way: that I have been, will continue to be, an advocate of what leaders in education like Tony Wagner (Harvard's Educational Innovation Lab) and Sir Ken Robinson advocate--creative, adaptable, new ways of solving problems--in how we teach, in practices we use--like staff compensation. We would do well, as a district, to offer employees a more individualized suite of compensation elements, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all solution. 2. Act 10 gave the Board of Education a number of tools to manage its budget that previously was outside of the control of the Board. Do you believe the Board of Education has fully utilized these options? Please discuss. With regard to Act 10, I'd suggest that the decision before the Board is not simply whether to "fully exercise" or not (the "tools"---wage and benefit freezes or cut), but rather is to effectively thread the needle between disciplined, attentive oversight of financial resources and the need, perhaps in Oshkosh more than other NE WI cities, for high level outcomes for our students, the key component of which is attracting and retaining top teaching professionals. As referred to in the first question, there are endless examples of businesses and organizations that reach the highest levels of performance (by any numbers of measures---ROI, market share, sales growth, industry awards/press), yet are not at the top of the cost basis scale. There's no reason to accept that we can't be in that model--indeed, in many regards, our district already in that good place--it's simply that there's much more progress to be made in that regard. 3. When the OASD has funding shortfalls in upcoming budget year that force the District to cut education programs and/or classes, what aspects of current school district operations can be discontinued? In recent years, under the leadership of our Superintendent Mr. Mack, a community committee has worked to prioritize cuts which could be made, as necessary. I think that this process serves our community and district well. That said, and as referred to earlier, we can apply a more creative lens to district operations. I've long advocated for a development (fund-raising) effort, comparable to the public broadcasting, private university, and non-profit model. Minnesota Public Radio has shared data which indicated that top development agents can bring in 10X one's annual salary in charitable donations. We can look more creatively towards staffing costs and opportunities for multiple benefits in a single initiative (volunteer or apprenticeship staffing for 1st year employees--a stipend-style compensation in what might effectively serve as a probationary period, as is common practice in photo/video production house, architectural firms, medicine, etc.). A volunteer coordinator position might yield 2, 4, or 10X the annual compensation cost through staffing cost savings via a strong, well-coordinated volunteer contingent. I've always liked the idea of a health insurance buy-out for employees who can choose other healthcare options, saving the district insurance premium costs along the way. In this category of what we can do on the cost/revenue side (as opposed to program cuts), I'd include the critical need for a marketing/communications executive director--enhancing our image and telling the good, true, singular success stories from our district can return many times the expenditure, as is the case with Michigan tourism ad spending--a 7-to-1 return (tourism spending-to-ad expenditures). On the program side: There's little remaining to trim in terms of course elimination or consolidation after rounds of cuts over the last decade or so. As staffing is 80% of our cost, eliminating (for ex.)sports or music, or trimming $30,000 here or there misses where the real money is--staffing, so any serious discussion about cost saving (or non-escalation) would have to start with reduction (or freeze) in employee costs. Additionally, we're already in a deficit position in terms of program/course offerings as compared with some other neighboring districts, so further trimming STEM, language, other courses would be detrimental, to a great degree. 4. As a member of the Board of Education, what specific issues will be your area of primary focus? My primary areas of concern come down to this: using our public schools as a vehicle to bring our students, and resultingly, our community to a much higher "place" than we have historically. What I mean specifically is that we must center our efforts on setting the highest marks for our students, staff, supporters, so that Oshkosh schools can produce the next (Frank Gehry, Steve Jobs, Samuel Barber, Nelson Mandella, David Brooks, etc.). This is not some lofty, unattainable "happy talk"---rather, too few of our students seriously consider shooting for attending MIT or Art Center College of Design in the critical years. Too few of our residents believe that Oshkosh could be a singular, "great place" in the state, in the country--other cities in NE WI do--like Sheboygan, Green Bay, and Appleton. Whether believing that the next great start-up company could happen here, or the next great restaurant in WI, (could be here) or the most vibrant performing arts center, or the most creative, successful architectural firm, etc.--other cities set their sights to top-of-nation, top-in-the-world, and hit the mark on occasion. As great a place as our city is, in terms of lifestyle, cost of living, opportunities, we do suffer from "hyper-localism" and a general lack of vision regarding "what could be." My advice to students graduating from our district who are keen on pursuing my career fields, based on 30+ years of working in Oshkosh, NE Wisconsin, our state, and the nation (advertising/corporate photography, political organizing, sailing program management)?--leave Oshkosh, as the other cities mentioned yield more fertile soil. It is our collective obligation to remedy that scenario. While this may seem a "careening off course" from "What schools can do" to "What needs to happen in our community?", I'd suggest that our schools are a leading agent of forward, positive progress in Oshkosh. As my former parish director shared years ago--"I've never seen a place of such unrealized potential." To that end, I'll continue to advocate for more diverse staffing in our schools--deliberately recruiting talented staff from across the country, ideally (where possible) as second-career professionals with a previous career in business, healthcare, and high-achieving non-profits. I believe it's critical that we have staffing from top level universities and/or top-level companies, as what really drives the setting of a high, international standard for operations, is recruiting staff who've succeeded at the highest levels--writing for the New York Times, working for Google, getting a remarkably successful homeless shelter or opera company off the ground in Connecticut or New Mexico. This is in no way to slight our current, great staff--it's simply the case that more geographic, cultural, economic, and educational experience (college attended) diversity would serve us very well--as I say, it does in other cities near us. 5. Please list the top strategic issues that the Oshkosh Area School District faces. The top strategic issues that the district faces might be: remaining competitive/succeeding in a competitive educational marketplace, in terms of attracting students and attracting talented staff. Two ends of the scale come readily to mind: Racine public schools falling off a cliff with out-enrollment (last data I caught indicated a net-900 student out-migration, from memory), and, having just gone through the college selection/acceptance process with our son, experiencing the well-oiled machine of top-level university marketing and recruiting. St. Olaf College, Minnesota, stands out as a great case study for us (OASD)---telling a (nearly) perfect story, perfectly. We would do well to match the St. Olaf (among others) model for communications, outreach, branding, messaging. Perhaps the next strategic challenge down the list is financial stability for the district over the long haul---best stabilized through initiatives mentioned in earlier questions: vigorous fundraising, dramatically enhanced marketing, creative problem solving for savings in daily operations (space/staffing/capital expenditures). 6. Is there something that the Oshkosh schools are not presently doing that you believe will significantly improve educational quality? What is that and why do you believe it to be desirable? My life experience (along with the gift of W.B. Yeats command of English) has me fully in the--"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" camp. I see traditional academic core course proficiency as subservient to the cultivation/facilitation of "lighting a fire" for our students--as best we're able, to bring our students to remarkable places, to remarkable experiences, as well as bringing in to our schools remarkable, inspiring people. What do the top-of-mind architects, artists, entrepreneurs have in common, often enough--a bold, visionary, (esp. early on) adventurous life? As a photographic colleague of mine put it, when referring to the French author, aviator, adventurer, and national treasure, Antoine de St. Exupery---"He sucked the marrow out of life." I believe that almost any student can become almost anything, though I'm not sure that most believe that about themselves. We must do better with cultivating the idea (supported by real examples) that it really is an attainable goal--to become the next great pianist, medical researcher, or film maker. 7. What priorities will guide your actions as fiscal pressures impact facilities, staffing, programs and services? The guiding priority will be that if we're not great as a district (as defined by high/above average outcomes for the school population, broadly, and by pockets of singular achievement--like our historic precedent of being a/the top math score district in the region), we have no reason for being (not quite literally). In an age of competitive districts, private options, on-line instruction, and perhaps the emergence of an opt-out (of traditional schools towards self-guided, a la carte, design-your-own educational pathways--in Canada, referred to as "Un-schooling"), we really do have to remain singularly attractive among the educational options for area families. Can a district (or airline, or healthcare organization...) remain both high-achieving and fiscally restrained, even frugal--yes, with a long list of case studies. 8. Voters of the OASD are being asked to approve a $28 million operational referendum. Do you support this referendum? Please discuss your position. Yes--the case for support is well-vetted, and is the consensus position of district leaders, the BOE, analysts who've drilled down on the funding landscape for the OASD. The bottom line is that the current state funding paradigm squared against the reality of our district operations require the passage of this referendum, As I've shared throughout this questionnaire, the system we have is the system we have, the funding model we have is the funding model we have, etc....I don't believe that many would design the current matrix of funding sources/revenue cap/mandates if designing from the ground up. Within that context, I'd advocate the Southwest Airlines (or other comparably resourceful, creative, upstart-minded organizations winning within a system of constraints) playbook--smarter, leaner, faster, better than the other guys, through creativity.[3][4] |
” |
Recent news
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See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Oshkosh Northwestern, "Q&A with Oshkosh school board candidate Steve Eliasen," January 20, 2010
- ↑ Oshkosh Northwestern, "School board president won't seek re-election," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, "2016 School Board Candidate Questions," accessed March 31, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| 2016 Oshkosh Area School District Elections | |
| Election date: | April 5, 2016 |
| Candidates: | Incumbent, Steve Eliasen • Stephanie Carlin |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
