This is the second of two parts examining the six-year tenure of Dr. Sally Sarnstrom as Superintendant of the Merrill Area Public Schools, which ended Tuesday.
As this issue of the Foto News went to press Tuesday afternoon, Sarnstrom was finishing vacating the office she has occupied for the last six years and saying her goodbyes. On Wednesday, Dr. Lisa Snyder will take over the day-to-day leadership of the district, carrying out the direction given to the administration by the Board of Education.
Over the six years that Sarnstrom has been superintendent, the various school boards have been faced with making tough decisions about the future of the district. Declining enrollment and the resulting decline in state revenue has forced sharp cuts in the annual budgets. The recommendations she and the rest of the administration have made have not been easy to pass on, nor easy for the boards to pass. Along the way, she has had her share of critics in the community.
This was particularly true during the last two years when the district has had two referendums to exceed the revenue cap limits fail at the polls.
“I can honestly tell you that the information that has come from the school district – to the very best of our ability – is the best information we had at any given point in time,” she said. “There were never any misrepresentations or falsehoods that came from the district. Now the interpretations of some of those, we have done our best to clarify.”
 She said that Merrill has some financial challenges ahead of itself, as do most school districts in Wisconsin. The community has to make a decision what do they want for the area schools.
“That question remains and will continue to remain,” she said.
The two biggest frustrations of her tenure were the two failed referendums to exceed the revenue caps to keep the budget cuts from impacting the quality of the students’ education. While the economic downturn could be pointed to as a contributing factor in the defeat of the second measure, Sarnstrom says there were other factors in play.
“That would be easy to say, that that’s the reason. I’m sure that was part of the issue. But if you look at referendums across the state, pretty much the same amount of referendums passed as failed, even with the economy being down,” Sarnstrom said. “The referendums were a challenge, but I can’t tell you how many times I heard issues related to items that happened long before I came here, that weren’t even part of the referendum now. That goes back to the question of the community deciding what it wants for its students.
“Any superintendent that is here, who has run the district or will run the district, the best that we can do is to be here and do the best for kids. In Wisconsin we believe in local control and it all comes down to what the community wants for its students,” she added.
Some of the budget cuts and fee increases that the board was forced to pass for the 2009-10 school year were particularly tough for the administration to recommend to the board. The $75 hike in the student activity fee was the hardest, and probably most misunderstood, she said.
“Even though co-curriculars, athletics and other activities, are not what you would consider traditional academics, it’s easy for community members to process things about athletics then if you get technical about reading and some of the programs we use for instruction today. They are quality programs, but they weren’t in place when we went to school,” Sarnstrom said. “If you got everyone in this community in a room and talked about athletics, it would be real interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 50 percent that believe extremely, whole-heartedly that you have to have athletics in school, pretty much all of the ones we currently have and then the other 50 percent would think we should drop them.”
She said finding the middle ground between the two positions is difficult, one that is not a function of the superintendent, the school board or administration.
“That’s a belief structure, and some of the challenges of that belief structure as the economy struggles, especially over the next two years, are going to be difficult,” she said.
When current president Jeff Verdoorn was elected with two other challengers a little over a year ago, The MAPS School Board has made a concerted effort to heal some of the past divisions in the community toward the schools, some reaching back decades. Sarnstrom said that the effort to communicate more with the community is starting to pay off.
“One marker, from a data standpoint, would be that the percentage of people who voted no in the second referendum was seven percent lower. If it’s just a function of communication and healing, that could be interpreted many different ways,” she said. “It’s still a work in progress and it will always be a work in progress. Time will tell how that moves forward. The sincere attempt to communicate has been there all along, the community will have to rate its success or not.”
She said there are individuals that are still frustrated over the closing of the schools that happened in the early 60s and that happened all over the State of Wisconsin. Locally those people will probably always be upset over the closure of the smaller rural schools. Still she holds no rancor for the critics she has had the last six years, content that she, her staff and the school boards have done the best job they could under difficult conditions.
Sarnstrom said she didn’t formally meet with Snyder until last Wednesday. At the time of this interview, Sarnstrom hadn’t had a chance to pass on any words of advice yet.
“She has to be herself,” Sarnstrom said. “She has to run the district her way. Every superintendent has his or her own style. She needs to give it her all and give it her best, which I’m sure she will. But she has to do it her way.”
Now that Sarnstrom is retiring, the course of her journey has many possibilities, one she is looking forward to exploring.
“My plans are to literally do what I want when I want,” she said with a smile. “I have no formal plans at this time. I’m really looking forward to spending time to myself. I’ve been in this well over 30 years, I’ve been full-time for 20, meaning all year long. This is with me 24/7; I take the responsibility of being superintendent very seriously. If I’m somewhere on the weekend or home or with family, I’m still responsible. A call could come in at any time and I take that to heart.”
Despite the long hours and the never ending responsibility, she found the job, the people and the students in Merrill worthwhile.
“What I have truly enjoyed here and throughout my career, has been the journey. The journey of the challenges we’ve had, the journey of the successes we’ve had as we’ve seen students move forward. The journey of taking on the dangers of prescription drugs in our community, that’s still part of the journey because you’re going to have the good with the bad. I have truly, truly enjoyed being a superintendent and I enjoyed the journey and appreciate the opportunity to be called the superintendent in Merrill for the last six years,” she said.
She was really appreciative of all the school board members she worked with during the last six years, even though the ride was often bumpy.
“Especially Pat Burg, who was Board President for five years and Jeff Verdoorn for a year,” she said. “Both of them have been and are strong board presidents and have given their all for the community. I have worked with a lot of school board members over the six years and they have been individuals who have really given of their time and energy. I appreciate all that they have given and I hope the community does as well.”