March 26, 2026
See below questions asked by the Chamber, and the following "responses" from the listed candidate.
Candidate: John Moskal
Running for: Candidate for Eau Claire School Board
Workforce Development & Career Preparation: How will you as a School Board member
ensure that ECASD students graduate with the skills needed in our local workforce? In
your answer, please address career and technical education, partnerships with
businesses/higher education (for example, youth apprenticeships or dual-credit
programs), and how the district can better prepare students for the jobs available in the
Eau Claire area.
Response: "I believe with increasing competition from Private Schools, and other
Educational options, the Eau Claire School District (ECSD) needs to find ways to set itself apart in what it offers it’s students. To prepare students for the workforce, ECSD needs to focus on providing an excellent fundamental education in Science, Math, Languages, American and World History, English and Writing, Personal Finance, Public Speaking and the Arts inclusive of Music opportunities and Reading. This Spring, the NYT ran a piece on “Hope for Schooling From Three Red States”. True reading skills were proven to be critical to future learning success, and no student is allowed to pass 3rd grade, or any grade, unless they achieve the standards for where they should be at that level. I believe we’ve gotten a bit soft on grading and ensuring mastery of expected grade level achievement. Literacy is SO important and I want that to be an ingrained success story in our District.
Also, in going door to door for my Board run, I met a Trade Union Steward who said he approached both high schools to help develop a solid VO Tech Trade College program. He said he was completely blown off by Admin. College used to be the automatic goal to seek, but that is simply no more. Going to college is great, but it’s gotten so expensive, that you need a clear direction on what and why you’re going to college for. If I had a kid graduating now, I would seriously steer them to the many career options that Vo Tech trains one for. We need a very strong Tech program and program association with CVTC and that would be money invested wisely by our District. We also need more effort of outreach to our parents to ensure they understand the education of their children is a true partnership with ECSD. What do we need from parents? They need to instill in their children how much they value their education. That they will not tolerate their children chronically misbehaving in
class. They need to read to their children from an early age and teach them basic
things as colors and numbers when they are very young. We need to communicate to parents they cannot expect to simply drop their kids off to school and expect the District to do all the heavy lifting to educate their children. Continue to support Montessori which has growing demand and appears to do a great job educating and preparing students for success."
Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Like many districts, Eau Claire faces challenges in
hiring and retaining teachers and support staff. What ideas do you have to make ECASD
an attractive place for educators to work? Consider aspects such as teacher pay (within
budget constraints), supportive working conditions, professional development, and
other incentives to address the educator shortage and keep class sizes manageable.
Response: "Everyone wants to make as much money in their career as possible. One honestly doesn’t pursue the noble profession of Education for wealth, but for the love of teaching and seeing their students grow and develop. That is priceless. With that being said, it is current fact that the ECSD is the highest compensated Teacher package in the Big Rivers Conf and amongst other associated peers. That is good, but likely in the near future we cannot offer 8-10% annual raises, with our budget constraints. Teachers well know they are not working for a for-profit, Fortune 500 company. Compensation is controlled and limited by what local taxpayers are willing to spend and can afford. All common sense. Even as we all want to make the most money we can, I have personally found in my career that it’s vitally important to work for a company or organization that
provides the support to clearly demonstrate they truly value their employees as their most prized asset. We need to listen to, we need to respect, and we need to value our teachers and staff. We need to create and maintain that culture. We need to listen to our teachers on how we can improve education. I want to ensure teachers work in a safe environment that also prioritizes classroom respect and discipline. NO child should be allowed to chronically disrupt a class and rob the teacher of their ability to teach and rob the other students from learning. Teachers must know we have their back to allow them to teach. I am 100% for continuation of School Resource Officers. Finally, I have heard many stories of more and more bureaucratic red-tape type work being piled onto teachers load. I don’t yet know first hand if this is true, but I will find out. I want what we ask of our Teachers to be focused on education in their classrooms. I also want to spend money to ensure that class sizes are optimal to ensure success. That would be money well spent."
Fiscal Responsibility and Sustainability: The district successfully passed an
operational referendum to sustain programs in the short term. How do you plan to ensure the district remains fiscally sustainable over the long term – even after the four- year referendum period ends? Please discuss what budget areas you would prioritize or adjust, and how you would work with state legislators to advocate for fair funding (given ECASD’s aid has actually decreased under the state formula).
Response: "There is NO question the State is NOT living up to their constitutional mandate to adequately fund our public schools, and I am 100% opposed to our State funding private school vouchers. If you want to send you kid to a private school, by all means do so, but not at the expense of taxpayers and public schools. I believe 80% of the budget is for compensation, so we must work to manage the other 20% the best we can. Everything must be looked at. Some examples: is it true that a bus at Montessori only has 7 riders and costs upwards of $100,000 annually to run? Why do we still have 500 West Main in use? Really—why? No more money should be poured into this building that is 1/3 in use. Why are we changing the grading system when it puts more work on teachers, angers many parents and costs precious money when we are budget tight? We need to always
consider re-districting. Also, closing any school is the most traumatic thing the Board can do. If a school needs to close, ALL due diligence MUST be done to objectively document why that school must be closed, and a time ramp must be applied to transition into that closure. When the next referendum is needed, we must do two things. 1) clearly show
taxpayers what we’ve done to save money and what that amount is. 2) what will be lost if the referendum does not pass. Only 23% off District residents have kids in school, so the efforts must be put forth to reach all taxpayer stakeholders in the District. I believe we must think outside the box for money saving alternatives that have not been considered. The current “self funded” health plan was about 3.7 million over budget in 2025. That is NOT sustainable. Why can we not look at a health plan with ECSD, County, and City employees? Why can’t we do a self funded health plan for all State Teachers? Folks, this is going to rile people, but if we are really headed for the 4th referendum, then we need to tighten the belts. Teacher/staff raises will have to be limited to inflation. I constantly hear from the public (in door to door) that people believe we are top heavy in high paid 500 West Main employees. Is this true? I don’t know. We are in steady stream of declining enrollment, but the last referendum primarily funded Teacher Instructor/Coaches positions. Folks, adding more staff in a chronic declining enrollment is NOT sustainable. I would guess veteran teachers don’t need this resource, and it would be most valuable to newer
teachers. But perhaps, we team up a veteran teacher with a new teacher as their mentor/coach, and give that veteran teacher a $5,000 bonus for each year they mentor/coach a new teacher. Look, if things get really bad financially, then we need to look at things like if you want full pension, you retire at a later age instead of 55---perhaps 58 or 60. This would still be significantly better than anything in the private sector. Finally, I as a Board member, I would give time to be professionally persistent with State legislators on funding our public schools appropriately. I would offer to attend legislative sessions in Madison for that purpose. I also hear regularly that many teachers spend their own money to provide needed classroom resources. I would take my after tax Board payment and put it in a fund so that teachers could submit receipts showing these expenses and I would personally reimburse them from this money."
Improving Outcomes & Equity: What would be your priorities for improving student
outcomes and maintaining a high-quality education in Eau Claire? In your answer, you
might consider academic achievement (such as early literacy and math proficiency),
closing achievement gaps, or expanding programs for college and career readiness.
How will you ensure that budget and policy decisions align with the goal of equipping
all students to succeed in the economy and community?
Response: "Some things I’ve already mentioned would apply to this question
which are:
- Laser focus on ensuring literacy at each grade level in elementary school.
- Holding students and parents accountable for for mastering standards expected at each grade level, or be held back.
- Bring back honors classes. Ensure we keep AP courses available for those students on track for college. Include partnership with UWEC to achieve this.
- Develop stronger partnership with CVTC for Tech College courses. When I
was in high school (even at a smaller school) we had ample offerings in Ag, Metals, Woodworking, Car Mechanics and we need to offer these classes as optional coursework assuming CORE coursework is being taken/completed such as English, Math Science, History/Civics etc. - Ensure District is known for a fundamental and sound education in all the
basics I’ve already mentioned. - Develop a mandatory course on Current Affairs and have this course center
on Journalism and current affairs around the country and world. This is so needed because Journalism is being killed off, and the majority of people now receive or get their news from Social Media sites. Why this course? Because we must ensure the ability for Critical Thinking. - Ensure the high schools continue to offer and support a variety of Clubs, beyond sports, for extracurricular involvement. Maybe try to make it mandatory that every student must participate in one such club, band, sport etc each semester. Not sure if we can do that, but would like to investigate.
- Develop a buddy program for high school level to team up with an elementary buddy for reading."
Student Well-Being (Health and Safety): Supporting student well-being is essential for
their success. How would you address issues of student health, mental health, and
safety in our schools? Examples could include expanding school-based mental health
resources, enhancing school security measures, addressing bullying and substance
abuse, or working with community partners (like the county health department or
nonprofits) to support students’ physical and emotional health.
Response: "My understanding is the last referendum also put heavy funding on Student
physical health and mental wellness. I would look into this to see what programs/support are truly being offered and work to investigate/understand if doing adequate job or need more improvement.
- Every student must take a Phy Ed or physical health/wellness course at
least two times in their high school career. - Maintain School Resource Officers with no cuts.
- I believe this has been addressed, but ensure every school has limited and secure entrances.
- Mandate that school intruder/shooter program is held once per semester.
- I’ve heard our School Nurse program is a shambles so I want to strengthen that and use them to teach some of the physical health/mental health, substance abuse course work.
- Zero tolerance for bullying."
Managing Declining Enrollment: ECASD has already examined school consolidation in
response to declining enrollment but has not pursued closures at this time. How should
the district address ongoing financial pressures and under-utilized facilities moving
forward?
Response: "Again, a school closure is the most traumatic event a Board can do to the District. However, if chronic school under-utilization is present, it must be addressed with
a time ramp to change or closure before it’s implemented.
- I’ve heard Locust Lane has shown a chronic trend to be underutilized. If true, then look into combining Locust Lane with Northstar Middle School which also has rumors of under-utilization. Then we have all these students together in one building K through 8.
- If made sense to implement, then move expanding Montessori to Locust Lane and move 500 West Main into either shared space with Locust Lane, or move Admin into Montessori school, and sell off valuable property at 500 West Main. NOW don’t take this as literal, but this is meant as an example of how one might go about handling this issue.
- We all know Roosevelt was one of the schools targeted recently with possible closure. Of the 3 the Demographic/Trending Committee and the Board looked at, Roosevelt was by far the oldest at over 100 years and on top of that age, my understanding is Roosevelt is WAY behind on maintenance because the District has felt for years Roosevelt would close. If ALL the detailed date and objective information points to this, then the Board needs to have the courage to move to close Roosevelt and not keep kicking the “can” down the road.
- This question has also already been answered by provided comments under Question 3.
- Bottom line: Anything that does not provide benefit to direct, front-line education of students----must be systematically reviewed and objectively looked at for determination of continuation.
- Continue to invest in school infrastructure to be zero net carbon and energy self sufficient. Consider the upfront cost of geothermal and it’s payback period. Mandate the construction of any future new school must have geo termal.
- Do a study to determine the top four most costly school programs and what are the cost of each. Then do a school vote/referendum to determine if the public supports keeping or eliminating.
- These are BROAD issues I am tossing out---but the TAKE AWAY POINT is maybe some of these absolutely don’t make sense, but the point is everything that doesn’t impact front line learning must be evaluated.
- Eliminate future district spending on expensive “Consultants” and either have School Board take up that work, or assign Community Leadership Boards to conduct that work.
- Radical idea on this one, but do we need to look at one high school and have that consolidation? I don’t know. If so, could that be accomplished by having 9 th and 10 th grades go to one of the current high schools and 11 th and 12 th grades go to the other current high school? A lot of redundancy could be cut out and true cost savings would occur. We need Board members who have the courage to carefully and objectively look at all options.
- Radical idea, consider year round education with more shorter breaks of 1-2 weeks sprinkled in, but not the whole Summer off."
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