PdC School Board approves QEO for teachers
The Prairie du Chien Board of Education voted 3-2 Thursday afternoon to
approve the implementation of a Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) for
districts' teachers.
Board members Mary Ann Garrity and Joseph Atkins voted against the
measure. Board member Merle Frommelt abstained and board member Brian
Edwards was absent.
A QEO can be implemented when the district and the teacher's union are
"deadlocked" in negotiations and cannot reach an agreement for a
new contract.
Teachers for the Prairie du Chien School District have been working
without a contract since July 1, 2001.
The QEO means that the teachers will receive a total package (salary and
benefits) raise of 3.8 percent, as mandated by the state.
Prairie du Chien District Administrator Jim O'Meara said that the QEO will
mean that this school year, teachers who have earned "step pay
raises" will get those raises. Also, single teachers will receive 100
percent health insurance coverage paid for by the district, while teachers
under the family plan will receive 95 percent coverage.
Next school year, there will be no additional "step pay" raises,
O'Meara said. Also, the base pay of each teacher will drop $220 because of
an expected 35 percent increase in the cost of health insurance.
O'Meara said that the QEO was submitted to the Wisconsin Employment
Relations Commission and that the Prairie du Chien Education Association,
which represents the teachers, will have 15 days to check the figures and
to file any notices concerning possible discrepancies. Once any and all
discrepancies are corrected, there will be a 15-day waiting period before
the QEO will go into effect, O'Meara said.
O'Meara said that the QEO does not mean that the teachers have a contract.
Negotiations will continue in the future, he said.
In other business, the board voted unanimously to approve a waiver request
for the school calendar for the 2002-2003 school year. If approved by the
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the waiver would allow the
district to start school on Aug. 22 rather than Sept. 1.
The Prairie du Chien district is obligated by law to provide busing for
Prairie Catholic School students. Prairie Catholic Schools have announced
a school calendar in which school would start on Aug. 22. If the Prairie
du Chien Public School District were not to start classes until Sept. 1,
the extra bussing from Aug. 22 to Sept. 1 would cost approximately
$10,000.
Sleepy-eyed flag waver
Two-year-old Ashley Guif may have grown a little weary during
part of the Memorial Day Ceremony Monday, but with the flag in hand, her
patriotic spirit never wavered as she observed the ceremony in the arms of
her father Todd Foley.
This picture of the Dousman family was from the 1890s. The Villa is
celebrating their 50th anniversary as a State Historical Site with an open
house this weekend.
Villa Louis celebrates 50th anniversary as a state historical site The
Villa Louis Historical Site will be having an open house on June 3 to
celebrate the 50th Anniversary of becoming a Wisconsin historical site.
The Villa will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free tours will be given of
the Villa Louis and the 25-acre site will be open for tourists to visit.
There will also be refreshments furnished by the Women's Civic Club from 1
p.m. to 3 p.m. For more information call the Villa Louis' main office at
(608) 326-2721.
The Villa Louis will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of being a Wisconsin
historical site this summer. The Villa is a major part of Prairie du
Chien's history and culture. It was the home of one of the richest men in
Wisconsin and it is now a great source of tourism for Prairie du Chien and
Wisconsin.
Hercules L. Dousman purchased a 25-acre piece of land on what is today St.
Feriole Island, in 1843. He built a small home that he referred to as the
House on the Mound.
Hercules had moved to Prairie du Chien in 1826 as an aspiring businessman,
taking on a position as clerk for the fur trade guru, Joseph Rolette.
After Rolette died, Dousman married his widow, Jane Fisher Rolette
Dousman. They had one child named H. Louis Dousman.
Louis later married Nina Linn Sturgis in St. Paul in 1872. After marriage,
they moved to St. Louis and lived there until Jane Dousman's death in
1882. The family then moved back to Prairie du Chien in 1893. They had
four daughters and one son throughout their marriage.
With the help of The McGrath Company from Chicago, the Dousman family took
on the major project of renovating the House on the Mound in 1885.
The renovation project was designed by Joseph Twyman. He got his
inspiration for the designs from famed English designer William Morris.
Morris was adamant on using hand-crafted decorative arts instead of items
produced by machines that were a product of the Industrial Revolution.
Louis was known for his love of horses. He established a farm called the
Artesian Stock Farm where he bred and trained Standardbred racehorses. The
amount of land owned by the Dousmans expanded to 40 acres in order to
account for this new racehorse farm.
Louis was not able to enjoy his dream for long. He died due to a ruptured
appendix in 1886 at the age of 37. In honor of him, his wife renamed the
estate the Villa Louis.
Sturgis moved East with her children, briefly residing in New York City,
before moving back to Prairie du Chien in 1893.
From 1893 to 1913 the Dousmans lived in what Villa Louis Site Director
Michael Douglass called the "golden years." The Dousmans had
much leisure time to play golf, billiards and throw parties. This period
was also documented well. That is why the Villa Louis researchers in the
1990s chose this time period when they were renovating the site.
The Dousman family lived in the Villa Louis until 1913, when they decided
to move to Billings, Mont. They tried to sell the estate, Douglass said,
but they were unable to do so. They lent out their home to people who
wanted to use the house instead.
The Kewatin Boys School was the first group to use the home. Douglass said
that these children of rich descent would have classes in the Villa Louis
in the fall, then they would go to St. Augustine, Fl. in the winter and
then return to Prairie du Chien in the spring. During the summer, they
went to separate schools.
In the 1920s, the O'Leary family rented the estate briefly before two men
named Donald and Charles Minney rented the house.
Douglass said that the Minney boys had a background in carnival
entertainment.
They also decided to use the estate as a tourist attraction. They leased a
portion of the land to a country club for golf, and they gave guided tours
of the Villa Louis. According to Douglass, the Minneys used some old
photographs that gave them an idea of how the estate was used. The rest,
they made up.
Douglass said it would have been amusing to take one of the Minney boys'
tours. He said that they would be talking to the tourists and then they
would have someone rattling chains in the basement to give them a scare.
The guidelines of the Dousman family was that the house could be used in
any way a renter wanted to use it, but nothing could be removed from the
house. After the Dousmans found out that items had been sold out of their
home, they became intent on making their home a historic site.
Douglass said that the Dousmans "wanted to fix their own place in
history... They wanted to build a monument to their family."
A historian from Madison, Louise Phelps Kellogg, had visited the Villa
Louis during a Minney tour. She saw through the false information,
Douglass said, and became an advocate for making the site a historical
landmark.
The site became a historical landmark in 1936 and was to be operated by
the township Prairie du Chien. The city started the Dousman Municipal Park
Board and the Dousman family were members. They even made special
appearances at the site, arriving in carriages.
Looking to the past was also important to the citizens of Prairie du Chien,
Douglass said because the Great Depression had rocked the nation and
people were looking for a new beginning. They wanted to look to the past
for inspiration, he said.
Douglass said the thinking was, "If we built this nation once, we can
do it again," he said.
Tourism for the Villa Louis was high from 1936 to the start of World War
II, but it dropped dramatically during the war, Douglass said, because of
the gas and tire rationing and the decrease in traveling.
The remaining Dousman family members began to discuss with Wisconsin over
the possibility of the Villa Louis becoming a historical site so that
there would be more funds available to remodel the site and bring back
tourism. In 1952, the site became a Wisconsin historical monument.
Douglass, who has been the site director since 1983, said that Prairie du
Chien fought hard to keep the Villa Louis under their control. One mayor
candidate, who eventually won, focused his campaign towards saving the
Villa Louis from state control.
The city was not able to keep the historical site under their direction
though and in the spring of 1952, it was deemed a Wisconsin historical
site.
