Portzen responds to Metro Wire readers’ questions

Barb Portzen is seeking one of four seats on the Stevens Point Area Public Board of Education.

Questions submitted by Metro Wire readers.

Q: There has been a lot of communication between candidates and members of the public on social media, particularly on Facebook, that is not available to the general public. Do you believe Facebook is the appropriate place for such communication, and if so, why?

Portzen: Well, yeah, I’m very active on Facebook. That’s the way I initially started to talk to teachers. It was my way to connect. I think it’s a good and a bad thing. People can say the meanest things on Facebook because they’re hiding behind a keyboard. But yeah, I think it’s okay, everybody has the opportunity if they want to, to join Facebook. It’s a way to connect.

Q: There are a lot of group pages on Facebook that contain labels like ‘Progressive’ or ‘conservative’ or some variation thereof. Do you think that could be furthering the division in our community—especially considering that none of these positions are partisan?

Portzen: No. That happened a long time ago, the divisiveness. I know Denise (Raabe, fellow candidate for school board) started the ‘Progressives’ page and his intent, I think, was just to get people together of like mind who could talk about the issues and campaign together. It turned out not necessarily what we thought it was going to be. Because there’s always moles that go into the groups and things get blown out of proportion. On the ‘Progressives’ page, I’ve just been posting stuff about if I have a meet-and-greet or something, just to advertise…but that’s kind of like preaching to the choir because those people have already said they’re supporting me.

Q: But why should any of these labels be used at all, considering that these positions are nonpartisan?

Portzen: I guess I don’t know the answer to that. I definitely would not have wanted it to say ‘Democratic’ or ‘Republican.’ ‘Moderate’ would have been nice.

Q: But why any label at all?

Portzen: Because people are going to identify with that. They just are. And that was the intent, to get people, like-minded people, to work together to get a group of people elected.

Q: You’ve been in office a while now, and you were privy to the goings-on of the board in closed session because you previously were the board secretary. Based on your experience, and being out in the community, shaking hands, and knocking on doors, do you have any ideas on how we can close that division?

Portzen: Ya know, I’m an older person, and I just think that kindness has gone out of our community. And, somehow it has become okay to be mean, critical of others, and I don’t know how to fix it. I guess, serve as a role model. But I’ve been in some of the elementary schools, and it’s there with the kids. The kids are just…I don’t know the word, but it’s just heartbreaking.

Q: Can you define Critical Race Theory, and what is your position on it?

Portzen: I’m not sure I can define it other than I know it teaches our history, our factual history, and how race played a role in our history. And it has. There’s nothing controversial about it, I think. I believe it should be taught. I believe people need to know about the Holocaust, and some of the things right now that we’re seeing. I think kids need to be taught the science behind sexuality, all of the things about racism. Racism has been there forever and I think people need to know how that all came about.

Q: Did you support the creation of EDI (Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity) positions in the school district, and do you support continuing to fund those positions?

Portzen: Aboslutey and absolutely. I think, especially, the personalities that we’d got in those roles can work to lessen that divide. I have learned an awful lot from Ann Vang, by having her on the board. We just don’t get it. I have a friend with a biracial daughter, and she gets treated differently, and I guess I was oblivious to that. I didn’t know it was going on. I know that kids get bullied, and that is the one thing that bothers me the most in the classroom right now.

Q: Okay, devil’s advocate. You know me, I’m a straight-shooter, I don’t like to pigeonhole people, and I’m not trying to paint you in a corner. But, devil’s advocate for a moment: My generation, and I know your’s too, we were taught that ‘Sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you.’ What happened to that? I’m not saying bullying is right, but what happened to teaching kids to stand up for themselves, and maybe ignore some of the verbal stuff and rise above it?

Portzen: Well, sure, but even back when we were ‘sticks and stoning it,’ it didn’t really work that well. I don’t think it did. If someone says something to you, words hurt. And I don’t forget those words, and I’m pretty sure little kids don’t, either. Some of the things said to these children are truly, truly hateful.

Q: Where do you think parental authority ends and school authority begins?

Portzen: Wow, that’s a big question. That’s one of those things where I always left it to the professionals. They know what is appropriate to be taught. I’m not pleased when I see parents criticizing the cricculum at Plover-Whiting right now, for example. I’m sure you’ve heard of that situation.

Q: Assume I haven’t.

Portzen: Some of the parents don’t want kids to be taught, to even mention, about homosexuality. They don’t want them to mention anything about gender identification. Because those are ‘lies.’ They’re ‘choices.’ It’s unintelligent, I think the teachers, the administrators, they know what the kids need to learn. This is public education. If these people are telling their children that sexuality is a choice, it’s setting those kiddos up for a rough time, especially if it turns out that they’re gay. You’re not going to change their opinions, that’s the way they were taught. We give them an option to opt out of that lesson, and I don’t know why but apparently that wasn’t enough, they wanted a different lesson. Instead, they choose to raise a commotion. So I think they just want it to be taught the way they view it.

Q: How should the school board balance the need for providing quality education with the need to respond to taxpayers’ concerns about the budget?

Portzen: Well, we’re one of the lowest-spending schools in the state. We’re really low. And we could definitely increase taxes by a lot and do great things with that money. I think we’re being fiscally responsible, we went to referendum for all those building projects and those are nearing an end right now. And I think that we have to, and we will be, spending more money on mental health resources, and a lot of that came from ESSER funds, the government fund. Because this pandemic has been awful for everybody. There’s nobody that really benefitted from this. But every single person has something that they’ve missed out on, that they’re sad about. And we have to try to pull them out of that, get them caught up on whatever they missed out on. And some of those kids have really rough home lives and school is their safe zone. So there’s a lot of mental health issues we need to address. The problem is, there aren’t social workers and school psychologists available…we’d hire some more if we could find some more.

Q: Because of social media, there’s a lot of fake news out there, rumors, etc., that different groups seem to believe, and some people seem to stick with those groups for news, so there’s some “group-think” out there. Some groups in the community have become quite vocal and local government meetings. Based on that, what would you say to people who believe that the district is “indoctrinating” children with certain controversial topics?

Portzen: I suggest they look at the curriculum. Teachers are not making stuff up as they go along. The curriculum is a proven, successful curriculum that they follow. If they’re willing to sit down with a teacher or an administrator and have a discussion…instead, on Facebook, it’s like a snowball. It just gets bigger and bigger because untrue statements are being made and then it goes crazy. They can have a discussion with anyone of us. A lot of people have found me on Facebook Messenger and sent me messages. And I appreciate that. That’s my way of connecting with the community.