Fritsch leads way, Paulin survives PW-S school primary race

Incumbent Brenda Fritsch led the way in Tuesday’s five-person primary race for the Port Washington-Saukville School Board, and while Aaron Paulin, the other incumbent on the ballot, survived, he was out-polled by two challengers.

That sets up what promises to be a tight four-person race for two seats on the board in the April 6 general election.

Advancing to that election are Fritsch, who received 565 votes Tuesday (25.1%); Danielle Mayer, 538 (23.9%); Robert Brooks, 478 (21.2%); and Paulin, 446 (19.8%).

Rob Clearwater, who received 223 votes (9.9%), was eliminated from the race.

The results from the Ozaukee County Clerk’s Office, which show that only 10.4% of eligible voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary election, are preliminary. 

The unusually crowded race was born out of frustration with the district’s hybrid approach to instruction, which boiled over at a Jan. 4 School Board meeting in the Port Washington High School Performing Arts Center attended by more than 100 parents who described how their children were struggling because they were in classrooms only two days a week and learning online the rest of the time.

The board voted a week later to resume full-time classroom instruction at the beginning of the second semester on Jan. 25, and although that controversy is resolved, all three challengers said their decision to run was motivated by the board’s handling of the issue.

But how that issue played with voters is unclear. Fritsch, who is president of the School Board, and Mayer, who was measured in her criticism of school officials, fared best in Tuesday’s election.

“Really the biggest problem was communication,” Mayer, 23, who is a teacher in the Cedarburg School District, said during an interview prior to the election. “When the community wanted to transition (to full-time in-person instruction), the School Board and the administration were unaware of that.”

Fritsch, 52, an architect running for her fourth term on the board, defended the board’s decision to begin the school year with a mix of in-person and online instruction, saying it was the best way to protect students and staff members at a time when it was unclear how the coronavirus would impact schools. 

Fritsch said by late November, when it had become clear that Covid-19 was not spreading unchecked through schools, she was planning to bring the issue of a return to full-time classes to the board. But before the board had that discussion, parents demanded a change.

“In hindsight, I think the communication from the administration to the board and from the board to the community could have been better,” Fritsch said. 

Brooks, 31, a project engineer and construction manager, was the most pointed in his criticism of the board, saying its handling of instruction during the pandemic is symptomatic of a lack of leadership among the district’s elected officials.

“I don’t think there are a lot of independent thinkers on the board,” he said. “They just kind of go with the flow and back the administration.”

Paulin, a 42-year-old teacher at West Bend West High School who is running for his second term, voted in July against the district’s plan to start the school year with hybrid instruction and questioned the approach during the school year. He blamed the administration for being out of touch with parents and cast himself as an independent thinker on the board.

“In November, I had administrators tell me the plan was working and that it was successful,” he said. “Had they been more open to other ideas, I think we could have avoided all this division and frustration.

“I don’t think this whole issue was indicative of a problem with the board as much as it was of the district’s leadership being out of touch with the community and what it wanted.”

A more pressing issue for the board is hiring the successor to Supt. Michael Weber, who is retiring on June 30 after 21 years at the helm of the district. With Fritsch leading the board in the search for a top administrator, the results of the April 6 general election could impact that process. 

The board is expected on Monday to interview three firms vying to conduct the superintendent search, which is in its infancy and highly unlikely to be concluded before the election.