Kewaskum School Board Turmoil

Kewaskum School Elections Matter

Ramthun must go.

As a new resident of the Village of Kewaskum, I set about learning how my new community works. As a long-time supporter of quality public education, I started looking at the Kewaskum School District and learned of its exceptional reputation for providing excellent educational opportunities for its students. As I dug a little deeper, I learned that the Kewaskum School Board has become overly distracted by the unfortunate actions of two of its members. To say that the Board is in turmoil is an understatement. School District records reveal the following information.

In recent months, a majority of the Board voted to censure both members, one repeatedly, for their actions. First, Jim Leister was censured for conduct at a high school athletic event that was clearly unbecoming a member of the Board. Rather than examine his behavior, recognize that it was unacceptable and apologize, Leister complained that the other members of the Board were out to get him. His remarks at the January meeting tried to shift the blame and claim the mantle of “victim.” It did not matter that several witnesses at the game filed the initial complaints against Leister. It was and is appropriately up to the Board to respond. He also claimed that his many contributions to the community and service to the District ought to count for something and somehow entitled him to a pass for his conduct.

The censure votes for the second member are even more troubling. Tim Ramthun serves on the School Board and has a history of promoting himself as the guardian of the taxpayer’s dollar. He recently was elected to serve as the Assembly Representative for the 59^th District that includes Kewaskum and other surrounding communities, some of which also contain their own school districts. 

Ramthun’s conduct was found by the Board to violate several Board policies. First, Ramthun had an email exchange with a parent about the hiring of a district employee. In the exchange, Ramthun represented that his opinions were that of the Board and that the District’s hiring and dismissal policies are “crap.” He also wrote that the issue would take time to resolve because of the opposition of other “Kool-Aid drinking” Board members. While Board members are free to express personal opinions about the district, none are allowed to represent those opinions as those of the rest of the Board. 

After first professing an apology and a desire to work with the Board, Ramthun soon started painting himself as the “victim” of some conspiracy by the rest of the Board to oust him. To make his point, Ramthun embarked upon a crusade to nitpick and waste District resources seeking details about policies, budgets and personnel. He refuses to put his requests in writing to ensure an accurate response. He has refused to meet with the Board President to work out his concerns. His concerns seem tailored to paint himself as the taxpayer’s guardian and over inflate his own importance. 

Ramthun was next censured for making false statements at a Village Board meeting about the District and exceeding his authority by claiming to speak on behalf of the Board. Rather than agree that his violation of District policy was wrong, he went after one of the other Board members who voted for the censure. 

Board member Mark Sette is a long-term employee of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, currently serving as a Detective. In my previous career as a criminal defense lawyer in Washington County, I had many occasions to work cases involving Det. Sette’s investigations. I never had any reason to doubt his credibility or the quality of his work. He was one of those cops I learned to trust. 

After the last Ramthun censure, our newly elected state Representative took it upon himself to contact Washington County Sheriff, Martin Schulteis, to complain about Det. Sette’s conduct as a school board member that Ramthun claimed was giving the Department a “black-eye.” Ramthun tried to use his new position as an Assembly Representative to convince the Sheriff that he should force Sette to resign from the Board due to an unspecified “conflict of interest.” Wisely, the Sheriff declined and told Ramthun he would not take any action against the Detective. 

Going outside established Board policy, while flexing imaginary muscle as a State Representative, and trying to get another Board member ousted crosses so many lines, they are difficult to count. Ramthun continually shows a complete disregard for the rules governing his position with the District.

Even without consideration of Ramthun’s conduct, he has his own conflict of interest issues to consider. Serving as a member of the Assembly responsible for providing public school funding for the multiple school districts in his Assembly District, he may well have to vote on legislation that favors one of the school districts he represents over ours. Either way he votes, he could do harm to our district on whose governing Board he sits. 

Ramthun needs to resign from the Kewaskum School Board and certainly does not deserve to be re-elected to that post in the upcoming election on April 2^nd.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled for a Sheboygan County non-profit agency.