EDITORIAL: Open government report card — Arena improves, Lone Rock sued, other local public bodies receive letters

Sunshine Week is a time to celebrate government transparency and public service, as well as a time to address lapses in the same. In October 2020, shortly after incorporating and shortly before our first edition, we sent out a Wis. Stat. 19.84(1)(b) written request by email from news media to our local governmental bodies asking that Valley Sentinel be sent meeting notices for the respective governmental bodies. Recently, we sent reminder letters by mail to the local governmental bodies in our immediate coverage area that have not been consistent in sending us meeting notices, with several having sent none at all in the past nearly 2.5 years.

EDITORIAL: UW-Richland will not be saved outside the courtroom, action is needed now

Richland County and the greater community were disheartened just over a month ago when a unilateral directive from University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman directed the administration of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Richland campus in Richland Center to start winding down operations and to plan to discontinue in-person instruction starting fall 2023, with the directive also promising a transition plan that floated the red herring ideas of online instruction and continuing education.

It’s become increasingly clear that the only way to save UW-Richland is inside a courtroom.

EDITORIAL: River Valley School Board needs to formally charter work group, equity is too important not to

As covered in the March 11 River Valley School Board story, board member Sara Young proposed an ‘Equity and Understanding Work Group’, composed of teachers, administrators, a community representative and a parent, who would be charged with admirable equity, diversity and inclusion tasks, including proposing district policy.

It’s never too early to start planning winter activities for next year

As winter gives way to spring (seriously, 40 degree weather? At least a few of you are guilty of breaking out the shorts this week), we’d like to revisit some of the ideas we’ve heard most over this past winter, while acknowledging that it’s never too early to start planning out next year’s winter activities and how we make them happen.

Let’s not mince words, that was insurrection, we should condemn it, here’s what we can learn from it

🎶 Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men? 🎶
Just kidding… but not really.
Having at least one History minor on our editorial board requires us to differentiate between the anti-monarchist insurrection of Parisian republicans (little ‘r’) in 1832 (as beautifully adapted in song by Les Misérables) and what happened last Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
And indeed, what happened?