Mar. 23, 2025 3:15p
(WGTD)---Closing a projected budget gap will be one of the more pressing issues when the new school board is seated following the April 1st election. Two seats are up for grabs.
On Saturday’s Education Matters program on WGTD, the four candidates discussed the budget and other matters.
Attorney Andreas Mamalakis said if elected he would bring a fresh set of eyes to the budget process. "I want to start from zero--zero-based budgeting and look at every expense and see what works and what doesn't and what we want to continue to fund," he said. "This I hope will free up some funds."
Another challenger, Valerie Kretchmer, joined Mamalakis in calling for a close look at administrative and support staff. "I am advocating for transparency in budget spending," she said., "I am a taxpayer in this area so that is important to me." Kretchmer has a background in marketing and procurement.
Rebecca Stevens is the only incumbent in the race. "I know there's a lot of suspicions about budgets that they're not being shown," she said. "(But) when you look at our website we have all of our budgets out there." Stevens focuses on pushing the state to increase its funding of public education and correcting inequalities in the funding formula.
The fourth candidate, former school board member Carl Bryan, has an insider’s look at education in Wisconsin as a policy and budget analyst for the state Department of Public Instruction. Bryan has ideas on how the budget gap in KUSD can be closed without increasing class sizes. "We need to find efficiencies in administration and facilities," he said. "We are well over board policy in (the school district's) reserve policy which is taxpayer dollars that deserve to go in the classroom and not sit there in the slush fund."
The non-partisan race has partisan overtones. Bryan and Stevens are both endorsed by local Democrats while Kretchmer and Mamalakis have the nod from Republicans.
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