High tensions, lack of trust and dissatisfaction with Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD) reached a boiling point Monday as community members approved an advisory motion of no confidence in its superintendent.
On Oct. 6, residents of SPASD congregated at Sun Prairie East High School, 888 Grove St., for the school district’s annual meeting. At the annual meeting, district administration normally presents the annual budget. However, residents of Sun Prairie also wanted to take that time to voice their grievances over how the school district has operated in recent years.
“We don’t trust you,” one resident said during public comment. “We don’t like how things are going.”
Many residents expressed a complete distrust in SPASD’s direction. The cumulative tipping point came as Sun Prairie West High School Dean of Students Rober Gilkey-Meisegeir was charged with producing, attempting to produce and possession of child pornography.
Residents ultimately voted 68-45 in favor of an advisory resolution for the school board expressing no confidence in Superintendent Brad Saron.
The advisory states: “This advisory action reflects the electors’ concerns regarding the Superintendent’s leadership, repeated administrative failures — including incidents of staff misconduct and fiscal mismanagement — and erosion of trust.”
Residents ask that the board of education take action through a comprehensive performance review, discipline or termination.
“[Sun Prairie] has been worse under his leadership,” said Lisa Goldsberry, a Sun Prairie resident and former school board member. “It has hurt our community, and when you take all of that and then add to the fact that our kids are being abused in schools, that’s just the final straw for most people.”
Residents also took issue with a lack of disclosure on how funds are being used by the School Board and SPASD’s legal fund. Multiple records requests have been filed by residents to get some answers with few being promptly fulfilled, residents said.
Among the issues with the school board is reimbursements for attending school board member conferences. Currently the acceptable figure is under dispute. Goldsberry pointed to how as a former school board member, repeated attendance is a waste of time. The subject matter and the people met are largely the same, she said. It would be a waste of funds to attend multiple times, she said.
Multiple advisory motions were made to limit how many times a board member could attend a conference and funds allocated to reimbursements.
One motion that would advise the board allow new board members to attend any conference a single time in their tenure. That motion failed. Another to advise capping the amount for the entire school board’s conference attendance to $20,000 was approved.
“In a year, we have been given no information about the district. Our former school board President can’t answer directly how much is spent on these conferences,” said a resident. “I think that shows us that there hasn’t been a limit put on this before.”
The last advisory motion was to cap how much 2025-26’s tax levy would be. This year’s proposed amount by the district is over $93 million.
The advisory motion passed advises the school board to tie the levy to the previous year’s, just over $86.5 million, unless the school board adopts formal performance improvement plans for senior administrators, including the superintendent, and publicly reports on implementation progress. It would require a similar meeting to the annual meeting to take place before the deadline to set the tax levy — Oct. 31 — to discuss progress.
All motions made are advisory from the community and are ultimately up to the school board to hold votes to adopt any.
