Candidate for Kenosha Unified School District Board of Education, Andreas Mamalakis, joined RPKC member Frederick Butzen to discuss his reasons for running & vision for KUSD
Andreas Mamalakis was born in Milwaukee in 1965. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his law degree from Chicago Kent College of Law. He currently practices real-estate law in northern Illinois; in the past, he has worked in the building trades, as a teacher at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, and as a corrections officer at Milwaukee-area facilities.
Andreas has six children, three of whom are enrolled in KUSD schools: one at Tremper, one at the Lakeview Technology Academy, and one at Lakeside K-8 (formerly, KTEC).
Question: Why are you running for the KUSD board?
I have six children. Three are in KUSD. I have “skin in the game.”
The board needs new blood. Ironically, it lacks diversity. It disregards alternate opinions, distances itself from parents and teachers–the attitude of entitlement that comes with the growth of bureaucracy.
What skills and experience do you bring to the board?
My father was a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I come from a family of educators. I am a parent; I’ve had my kids in private school, in public school, I even home-schooled one child for part of her education. I see the advantages and disadvantages of each style of education.
I worked through school doing a lot of the trades. When I finished college, I attended the Milwaukee Area Technical College. I took the carpentry program and the welding program; and was able to teach part time, using my undergraduate degree. So I’ve seen both perspectives, student and teacher. While studying for the bar, I was a correctional officer, at Milwaukee County Corrections, starting out with juvenile detention, and then in adult detention. I’ve seen what happens when education fails.
When I lived in Mount Prospect, Illinois, my parish–St John the Baptist Orthodox Church–started a school, and build it up from K through 8. I served on the school board, and on the parish council.
I’m an attorney specializing in commercial and residential property tax assessments. The school board is weak with management skills. You have people who never left the bubble of academia. I can bring experience and expertise to the current management.
Why do you see a need for transparency?
The board closed six schools, and consolidated two others. What are they doing with the properties? Are they acting in the best interest of the taxpayers? There are a lot of unanswered questions. Regardless of how sensitive the issue is, the board must disclose all their plans and goals. I am concerned about the Board abusing the open meetings law. Executive sessions are not for discussing controversial issues in secrecy. The board recently went into executive session in part under the Real Estate exception, which I believe was not a valid basis for using executive session. What was discussed that they did not want the public to know? I believe that the referendum lost in part because the public lost trust in the board. Transparency is absolutely necessary to regain that trust. But when you have a super-majority, who’s going to call you out on following the rules?
Why do you see a need to return to foundational academics?
Reading is the first skill, the core skill of education that affects the speed and quality of learning all other subjects. Yet standardized testing scores on reading continue to decline.
I’ve been accused of being “radical-right”. Since when did pushing for reading become ultra-Right? This is crazy. This is why we need to break up the current mindset on the board.
The KUSD product is education. If a company is losing customers, it invests in its product and cuts overhead–it doesn’t cut its product.
We want our kids to compete when they graduate, yet they’re all going to have handicaps, be less than they could have been, because they came out of KUSD.
Why are the fine arts important in schools?
Fine arts, which includes music, choir, chorus–we make the mistake in not including that in the term “education.” Education isn’t just the subject area that we think of–math, science, English–but the secondary skills. Those should be included in the category of academics. They are necessary to develop the individual. We should be slow to cut any of those, and quick to cut the administrative bureaucracy.
Is school choice important?
Yes. I view it as American, free market. If you have vouchers, there is no favoritism by economic class: the inner-city child has the same value of a voucher as a Pleasant Prairie doctor.
Final words: Why should we elect you to the board?
It’s time for change.
There’s absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by adding my different perspective, life experience, and skills. I bring diversity that the board is lacking.
I offer skills and a vision that will benefit all the children, regardless of political views, race, culture, religion, or economic status.
—RPKC Member, Frederick Butzen
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