Bigler focuses on fourth School Board term

Tom Bigler, the senior member of the Sheboygan Falls School Board, will be seeking his fourth consecutive three-year term in the upcoming April 6 spring election.

Over his past nine years on the board, Bigler has witnessed many major changes, including new personnel, facility upgrades and increasing financial challenges.

With a new set of decisions on the horizon, Bigler is driven to help pave a new direction for the district over the next three years.

“I thought about whether to run quite a bit,” he said. “I decided that I really wanted to be involved in some of the decisions we have coming up, especially involving facilities.

“I have been on the Facilities Committee for several years, and I know that something will need to be done at the elementary school and the middle school in the next three to four years. Right now we have consultants coming in to assess the shape our facilities are in.”

Bigler, who served as an alderman in the city of Sheboygan Falls for six years in the early 1980s, before earning a seat on the school board in 2001, says each school building has its own set of problems that must be addressed.

“The elementary school is basically full right now,” he said. “We need to decide if it would be best to just make class sizes larger or move a class to the middle school.

“I would like to see an Early Learning Center built close to the elementary school. The buildings would be close enough together so that people could go back and forth. I definitely don’t want to see class sizes go up or put our SAGE program in jeopardy.”

By 2013, Bigler expects a plan to be in place for the future of the aging middle school building

“The middle school will need to be renovated or built new relatively soon,” he said. “We need to get the community involved and gather feedback from all sides to make the best decision for students, teachers, staff, administrators, parents and the community as a whole.”

The 1966 SFHS graduate, who has served on the city of Sheboygan Falls Fire Department for 41 years and on the Sheboygan Falls Library Board for the past 23 years, believes the condition of the high school will also be addressed soon.

“The high school is getting old,” he said. “We probably are not thinking quite as much about the high school than the other two schools, but there are some major needs at the high school as well.”

Reduced state funding has forced all school districts to make budget cuts, and Bigler said Sheboygan Falls faces its own unique set of budget difficulties.

“The budget is always a problem, especially when you get into the reality of cutting jobs,” he said. “State funding is going down every year and we are still working under a tax-levy limit.

“Now binding arbitration has been put into the mix, which makes things even more difficult for school districts. With those combination of factors mixed together, it could mean some drastic cuts could be headed our way in the near future.”

At this point, Bigler says next year’s budget is not looking quite as bad as originally anticipated.

“I think right now we are about $400,000 short for next year’s budget,” he said. “That isn’t quite as bad as this past year. However, things can change in a hurry.

“The one thing I don’t want to see us do is go to a referendum to exceed tax-levy caps. Other districts have done that, but I don’t believe in it. We should not raise our levy caps just to maintain status quo.”

Bigler, who has owned TDN Utility Services for the past 15 years, has been a strong proponent of the Read 180 program and several other reading initiatives in the district.

“Last year we started Read 180 at the high school and next year we will have it at the middle school,” he said. “At the elementary school, we have a very good guided reading program.

“Each of these programs has been a real benefit to our students. They have produced proven results in getting kids to learn how to read.”

Looking to the upcoming term, Bigler said the district must continue to build on its strong foundation, while adapting to change.

“We have a strong school district,” he said. “Financially we are actually okay right now, compared to some other districts.

“We do need to look at changes in the population of our community. We are getting many more students who get free and reduced lunch and who don’t speak English. Adapting to the changes in our student population is something we need to stay on top of over the next several years.”

Bigler will be joined on the school board ballot by fellow incumbent John Mauer, newcomers Dieter Juedes and Chris Lacey, as well as former District Facilities Manager John Raml.

The five candidates will be vying for three open seats, each of which carries three-year terms.