April 3, 2026
See below questions asked by the Chamber, and the following "responses" from the listed candidate.
Candidate: Philip Lyons
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:
Workforce needs can shift quickly. We first need to ensure that the District’s assumptions about workforce development and career preparation are still in alignment with what our employers, universities and technical colleges are seeking in workforce needs. The starting point of building collaborative programs across our public institutions with business is to engage with them and our economic development specialists.
Education is an economic driver. We have outstanding providers of education in the form of the Eau Claire School District, Chippewa Valley Technical College and the Universities of Wisconsin, specifically UWEC and UW-Stout. The School Board should make it a priority to partner with those institutions while avoiding duplication of efforts. Dual enrollment programs, course options, co-ops, internships and youth apprenticeships should be priorities for our senior students in the District. Those experiences might result in career choice or they might help to define a collegiate path of study. Both are valuable for our young adults.
The District should also have a goal to engage with the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corporation. Education and workforce development are complimentary partners. Education could be a centerpiece in attracting and retaining business partnerships and the District should be a stakeholder and active participant in the Eau Claire Area EDC.
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: Eau Claire enjoys two advantages in teacher recruitment. First, we are a vibrant and desirable community in which to live. Second, we have several University of Wisconsin institutions in close proximity that produce outstanding teachers.
It is the District’s responsibility to put forward competitive pay and benefits packages that attract the best qualified professionals. We also need to create and nurture a work environment that allows our teachers to thrive. We have done an outstanding job in addressing teacher compensation. We should strive to create a work environment that allows teachers to thrive. That could be accentuated by providing teaching faculty a stronger voice in District governance. I think it would benefit the School Board and the Administration to hear from teachers more often in Board Governance and our decision making processes. Having a voice leads to personal investment.
I also believe that the District should develop a succinct biennial survey of faculty and staff to comparatively measure the work climate. Keeping a positive work environment involves continuous improvement and adjustment.
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:
From 2012 to 2021, I served as the Vice Chancellor of Administration at UW-Stout. In that role, I was the institution’s Chief Finance Officer for almost ten years. Those years included regular state imposed biennial reductions and a ten year freeze on tuition. Despite the revenue losses, UW-Stout grew institutional enrollments, increased staff pay and expanded academic programs.
Educational institutions cannot be all things to all people. We (Board and Administration) must make choices and prioritize the most important, and then fund those priorities. We also must invest to grow and understand that there are occasions where spending money can result in a positive return on investment. The exercise also involves reviewing things that we should stop doing and consider redeploying those resources to areas of higher impact. The best source of identifying those areas? It starts with asking faculty and staff and seeking their best advice on doing things more productively.
One area that I am specifically interested in prioritizing is enrollment. On average, over 700 Eau Claire students choose to attend school outside of the EC District versus the 200 that transfer into the District. The Board and Administration should focus on understanding underlying reasons that parents and students chose to go elsewhere for an education. Some of those reasons are not addressable. But there are actions that the District can take to attract more students into our programs. If the District hired a recruitment and retention specialist to assist in that effort, it would pay for itself many times over by moving the enrollment numbers.
When I previously served on the School Board, I was pressed for a five-year resource allocation management plan (included in OE9). And yet, the district has been slow to move beyond a current year and next fiscal year planning model. A five-year planning model, combined with the business intelligence analytics that Baird will be bringing to the District, will assist us in having a greater understanding and transparency on revenue and cash flows. Having the right information and tools to understand future trajections is paramount. Our annual district audit is a rear view mirror and tells us nothing about our fiscal future.
Recent efforts to correct the decades old issue of a broken school funding formula is moving in an excellent direction. The Legislature has not shown that it is willing or capable to address the problem. Moving it forward to the courts is a good and logical next step.
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: I spent the vast majority of my career as the chief administrator for finance and administration. Finance, facilities, asset management is my strong suit. While I have spent my entire life working in education, I am not an educator. That said, the current Board is composed almost entirely with individuals with teaching backgrounds. My differentiation, I believe, is my strength.
In my previous experience as a School Board member, I generally trusted those that were tasked with creating strong K-12 academic offerings. It is the Board’s role to examine our outcomes and ask the probing questions of how we can continuously improve. Sometimes, the recommendations that are being put forward by the administration need to be questioned. Sometimes those recommendations are not in the best interest of the community. An example of where I did just that was in my objection to the administration’s desire to eliminate two language programs (Japanese and Hmong) several years ago. The administration cited enrollment and sustainability problems that were the impetus for the decision. In my opinion, language programs are critical. The Board voted against that measure and those programs still exist. The District needs to work on building the enrollments in the programs and not eliminate them.
The board should establish educational goals, standards and desired outcomes for academic programs and then serve as the measuring stick on progress toward those goals.
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: I am a strong supporter of the Student Resource Officer program. The partnership between the school district and the Eau Claire Police Department should be applauded for its’ efforts and the relationships that those officers are building within our student communities.
Mental health, substance abuse and bullying are national problems in education that have no silver bullet. They have also been exacerbated by Covid years that isolated students. Like many other institutions of education, we need professionals within the schools to triage students and direct them to community and medical centers and organizations where they can seek help, regain their footing and heal. The student climate survey that is administered within the District to our students is a great barometer of the student psyche.
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:
I served as the Chair of the Demographic and Trends committee from 2017 to 2019. It is important to understand that enrollment and facility usage is an extremely complex issue with many moving parts.
As I understand, a population study is currently being commissioned in order to ensure that we do not close a school (like Cleghorn) only to realize that we actually needed it at a later date. Eau Claire is a growing community. Before we pivot our facility footprint to match our enrollment assumptions, we need to ensure that the assumptions are correct. We also need to understand the total cost savings of a school closure. I do not believe any numbers have been generated apart from deferred maintenance.
I believe the best approach to managing declining enrollments is to partner with the community in providing education that draws students to us. I have not heard positive reviews of the recent decision to transition to standards based grading and I would like to know what impact that decision might have on future enrollments. I was also concerned about Board deliberations at the 11/18/2024 meeting that suggested an ending of our Student Resource Officer program. Board decisions can impact enrollments and we need to examine those decisions through an enrollment lens.
In general, I believe the proposal to close schools was a proposal by the Demographic and Trends Committee to the School Board. We need to be concerned about enrollments but I believe that closing a school would be premature until we have full information on finances and population.
That said, our District is built for an enrollment that hovers around 10,000 students. Significant declines in enrollment would necessitate change. It is too early to say that change is upon us.
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