Vinney Pheng
Vinney Pheng was an at-large incumbent on the West Bend School Board in Wisconsin. Elected to the board on April 3, 2012, he lost his re-election bid in the general election on April 7, 2015.
Biography
Pheng earned a bachelor's degree in political science from San Francisco State University. After serving more than 10 years in the military, he is a member of the VFW West Bend Post #1393.[1] He is also a deacon at First Baptist Church.[2]
Elections
2015
Two at-large board seats were up for election on April 7, 2015. Incumbents Vinney Pheng and Therese Sizer sought re-election against challenger Monte Schmiege. Sizer and Schmiege won the election defeating Pheng.
Results
| West Bend School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Monty Schmiege |
35.9% | 3,702 | |
| Nonpartisan | Therese Sizer Incumbent |
32.5% | 3,355 | |
| Nonpartisan | Vinney Pheng Incumbent | 31.6% | 3,264 | |
| Total Votes | 10,321 | |||
| Source: West Bend Community Television, "School Board April 13 2015: Clerk's Report: Canvass Report from April 7 Spring election," April 14, 2015 | ||||
Funding
Pheng reported no contributions or expenditures to the West Bend School District in this election. He filed as exempt from campaign finance reporting.[3]
Endorsements
Pheng received no official endorsements in this election.
2012
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Vinney Pheng |
29.4% | 5,307 | |
| Nonpartisan | Therese Sizer |
26.5% | 4,777 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kris Beaver Incumbent | 26.1% | 4,708 | |
| Nonpartisan | Carl W. Knepel | 17.7% | 3,189 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.4% | 78 | |
| Total Votes | 18,059 | |||
| Source: Washington County Clerk, "April 3, 2012, Spring Election," April 3, 2012 | ||||
Campaign themes
2015
The West Bend Current interview
The West Bend Current interviewed all three candidates in the 2015 election. The questions and Pheng's responses are below:
| “ | What is your view of Common Core and what would you do about it?
That always comes up. The reality is Common Core is a state law and as a sworn public official, I swore to uphold the law. So whether I like it or dislike it or whatever, I took that oath to uphold the law. Until something changes, that’s the law. Common Core in itself, if you look at standards, if you look at the way the standards are written out, it’s descriptive. What does that mean? That means a student will be able to read at such and such level. It doesn’t prescribe exactly what a student will read, it doesn’t prescribe exactly what subject that student will read. On the basis of it, Common Core it is a standard and you gotta have a standard. You may disagree with the standard, you may want to increase the standard, whatever the case may be, but it’s a standard. And having reviewed the actual standards, the way it’s written, it’s as I mentioned, descriptive in nature. What causes a lot of people to be, I guess for want of a better word, concerned is two things. One, where did these standards come from? And if you start asking questions about where these standards come from, it starts giving you a sense of unease. In Wisconsin, the legislation, the law firmly believes that local school boards should have control over curriculum, standards, and so forth. With that in mind, I perfectly understand why the taxpayers of our community want to ask, “Well where did this standard come from? We didn’t come up with this standard, we didn’t make it up.” So that’s a valid concern. And the other concern is, because the standards are descriptive and not prescriptive, you can get yourself in, for want of a better word again, trouble easily. For instance, U.S. history. The classic example is you’ll never find an Abraham Lincoln high school in Georgia. Why? Because in the South, what we call the Civil War is called the War of Secession. And there’s still a lot of hard feelings there about those “dashed” Yankees, and those “dashed” carpetbaggers. So what they will teach in terms of U.S. history will be different from what we’ll teach. Because here, Wisconsin was part of the Union, Wisconsin has a proud heritage of being part of the Union, yadda yadda yadda. So that’s where the trouble lies. It says the student will be able to read such and such, then there’s room for somebody, whoever it may be to say, “Okay, you gotta read this.” And some books, depending on where you are, might stir up controversy. And that’s the second part of Common Core that causes people concern. I totally understand where people are coming from. Again, when you look into where Common Core came from, is it really, I’m not saying it is, but is it really something mandated by the federal government? And if it is, then why is the federal government dictating what us, West Bend community, is teaching in our schools? So those concerns are, I believe to be totally valid. And then the same thing with the descriptive part. That’s why Wisconsin, as a general policy, tends to allow the local school board to identify its curriculum and so forth. Having said all that, I circle back to point one, which is, it’s the law. And as a sworn public official, I put my hand on the Bible, and I swore that I would uphold the law. I have to uphold the law.[4] |
” |
| —Vinney Pheng (2015)[5] | ||
| “ | What is your stance on the amount of standardized testing and is there any action you would take on that?
That’s something that always comes up and I’m pleased to say that the administration here from the superintendent on down, recognizes that there may be too much testing. And maybe we should consolidate the testing. I’m in full support of that initiative. Having said that, again, even though we do have some local control, there’s a lot of state requirements. And that kind of… it doesn’t help, let’s put it that way. But as a general policy, as a general philosophy, I believe some of these tests can and should be consolidated. And one of the things we hear as board members, and again it’s a totally valid concern, I totally understand it and in a lot of ways agree with it, is if you have too many tests, teachers end up teaching the test versus focusing on learning. Tests are a metric to measure learning, but it’s not learning. And so that’s a long way to say the board as a body has encouraged and directed administration to try to reduce that amount of testing.[4] |
” |
| —Vinney Pheng (2015)[6] | ||
| “ | What do you see as a possible solution for the recent tension between high school students and administration?
Again, that’s a great question. First of all, the reality is, as it should be, there should be a certain amount of tension. All tension is not bad. There should be a certain amount of tension. Just like between the school board and the superintendent. There should be a certain amount of, maybe tension is the wrong word, but there should be a certain amount of friction. Because that’s good, it keeps everybody on their toes. If you go to a meeting, and everybody’s in agreement, somebody’s not thinking. I mean that’s the reality. So, a certain level of tension is good because it keeps everybody honest, it keeps everybody on their toes. Having said that, if I was to identify a root cause, or an area that we can really, really address, and we’ve heard this over and over again, it’s communication. And this is what I mean: What I say and what you hear, even if we use the same words, are not necessarily the same. For instance, I can say, I get this at work all the time, “I want this as soon as possible.” Okay, well, what does that mean? What does as soon as possible mean? What if you have a hundred things before it? Does this person who told you to have it as soon as possible, are they intending that you bump all these other people and then put them ahead? So, to me that’s a classic example and having heard what the administration was trying to accomplish, and then having heard what actually got to the students, there seemed to be a gap. And the key element in communication is trust. And this is what I mean. If I tell you I’m going to do something, even if I communicate it by a nod or wink or whatever the case may be, if you trust me, you’re going to believe that that’s going to happen. And I’m not justifying or trying to give any excuses, but it seems to me, again from where we’re sitting, you have a new principal, you have some new administrators, and there hadn’t been that level of trust yet developed between the students and the administration. And so when the administration put out these changes, it probably wasn’t the clearest way to put it out. Without the high level of trust, and for want of a better phrase, garbled communication, you’re going to have potential for what happened. And ideally, and I have spoken very briefly to Principal Greymont about this, just judging by his actions and the words he speaks, teachers and administrators show the flag. What does that mean? They’re walking around the school, in the hallways, it shouldn’t be a huge shock if the principal sticks his head in a classroom and says “hi,” or another administrator or whatever the case may be. And when you show the flag and students see you, after a while, they feel comfortable with you, and then maybe after awhile they’re coming out and start asking you questions or having conversations with you. And then that will reduce tensions greatly. Not to beat the horse to death, the overused analogy, it’s kind of like with your parents. If you never see your dad or you never see your mom, and all of the sudden they start saying, “Okay, I want you to go to UC Berkley,” or, “Guess what? You’re not driving the car anymore.” But if they’re always touching base with you, “Hey, how was your school day? I saw you had your history book in your bag, did you have a history test?,” or something along those lines, it develops not just communication but trust. And once you’ve established a certain level of trust, no matter how garbled that communication is, you fall back on trust and say, “Well wait a minute. Is that what was really meant?” I don’t want to get too personal, but when I first got married, this is a great example, I’d go shopping with Carmen, my wife. And I’d show her a shirt, and she’d go, “Oh that’s nice.” So I bought it. Next time we go out, “You gonna wear that shirt?” What do you mean? You just said it was nice when we were shopping! “Well, I said it was nice, but that’s not what I meant.” Over the years I’ve learned to trust her judgment, I’ve learned we’ve established communication. So if she says something that doesn’t sound right to me, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. And then when there’s a more opportune time to kind of go into more detail about it, you can. But in the meantime, I trust her, I give her the benefit of the doubt, and we just move on.[4] |
” |
| —Vinney Pheng (2015)[7] | ||
2012
Eagle Forum of Wisconsin survey
Pheng participated in the Eagle Forum of Wisconsin Washington County Chapter's 2012 candidate survey, in which he described his reason for running as:
| “ | I am running for school board to give a voice to the “regular joe” tax-paying citizens of the district. My primary goal if elected to the school board is to continue the good conservative progress we have made. I will keep shifting Board Actions towards a conservative direction that is more in line with the majority of voters.[4] | ” |
| —Vinny Pheng (2015)[2] | ||
Pheng also stated in the survey that he would be willing to overrule decisions made by district management, saying, "It is the function of the Board to act as a 'watchdog' for the tax-payers. The Board should be the oversight over the School Administration." He was against having a residency requirement for district administration and teachers and also opposed the idea of a 4-year-old kindergarten.[2]
Budget issues
He described his philosophy for balancing the budget, saying,
| “ | A balanced budget, i.e., spending matches or is less than revenue, is best achieved during “hard times” by spreading the responsibility. In other words, everyone needs to contribute – teachers/educators by pay freezes/cuts if needed, reduction/elimination of appropriate school programs, and as a VERY LAST resort increased taxes.[4] | ” |
| —Vinny Pheng (2015)[2] | ||
Pheng also stated his strong support for Wisconsin Act 10. He also stated his support for the district's 2011 tax levy question, saying, "Given the provisions of Act 10- the 2011 Tax levy was the probably the best course of action for addressing the needs of the School District."[2]
Decision making process
Pheng laid out his decision making process as follows:
| “ | Identify the issue/problem
Collect information |
” |
| —Vinny Pheng (2015)[2] | ||
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Vinney + Pheng + West + Bend + School + District"
See also
- West Bend School District, Wisconsin
- West Bend School District elections (2015)
- Hot tub Gatorade, turnout in Peoria and the Wisconsin state...
- Wisconsin school districts 2014 review
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The West Bend Current, "Seeking Re-election, Pheng Says Testing Should Be Minimized," March 22, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Eagle Forum of Wisconsin/Washington County Chapter, "WEST BEND SCHOOL DISTRICT 2012 CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE," March 14, 2012
- ↑ Margaret Koenig, "Email correspondence with Deb Roensch, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, West Bend School District," August 25, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ The West Bend Current, "Full Transcripts: Board Candidates on Common Core," March 22, 2015
- ↑ The West Bend Current, "Full Transcripts: Board Candidates on Testing," March 22, 2015
- ↑ The West Bend Current, "Full Transcripts: Board Candidates on Tension at WBHS," March 22, 2015
| 2015 West Bend School District Elections | |
| Washington County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 7, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Vinney Pheng • Incumbent, Therese Sizer • Monte Schmiege |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
