Steve Edlund wasn't happy when the Waukesha School Board decided to build a huge new swimming complex, so he started doing some digging on his own. He discovered that the architect for the project had filed bankruptcy, a fact the school board wasn't letting anyone discover before the approval for the pool was given.
Today it's being reported the State Attorney General's office has determined the Waukesha School Board violated the law when they met in closed session to discuss the architect's bankruptcy and the continuation of the pool project. The Attorney General's office, citing that crime is rampant and that Peg Lautenschlager is pursuing her dream of becoming a cop, has declined to pursue the matter any further.
And so the taxpayers of Waukesha are left wondering, just who did design the pool, and was it a good idea for them to do so? What other issues that directly affect the safety of the children in the school district, not to mention the long-term financial well-being of the district, are being decided behind closed doors?
School Superintendent David Schmidt is quoted as saying, "I don't think our administration has been known in any way as people that are trying to hide stuff."
If that was the reputation of the district before, the opinion of the attorney general's office certainly changed that. Let's add to that Schmidt's avoiding compliance with the open records request of the Waukesha Taxpayers League regarding administrative salaries, an open records request still not fulfilled. For people not trying to hide stuff, they certainly hide an awful lot.
Schmidt and the school board owe an apology and a full explanation to the community. I doubt if the residents of Waukesha will get it.
