Citizens for Progress

05/13/2026

Citizens for Progress Committee

The Citizens for Progress Committee is pleased that Plainview voters rejected the $32.5 million school bond(s) yesterday!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 13, 2026 CONTACT: Jim Aschcoff 402-649-7822

Plainview, NE - The Plainview Citizens for Progress Committee (CPC) Chairman, Jim Aschoff, commended the voters of Plainview Public School and their active participation in the recent vote to defeat the proposed $26.6 million and $5.95 million school bonds yesterday. The unofficial results for ballot Q. 1 ($26.6 million) were 488 Against and 192 For, a 72% ‘Against’ defeat for the majority of the school board. Q. #2 had a 74% defeat.

Aschcoff commended the proponents for their active participation, but was pleased the majority of voters could see through their exaggerations and half-truths presented by the school board and other proponents. With more common sense, CPC is confident that low-cost solutions are available to address the school's genuine maintenance and upgrade needs!

“We thank CPC’s financial supporters, volunteers, and workers of all kinds, who made last night’s result a reality,” Aschoff added!

We really want to support our school, but Board leaders Rasmussen, Frahm, and Alexander need to understand how far afield they let themselves be pulled by Darron Arlt. 72% of the active voters last night disagreed with you on ballot question #1. Board members M. Doerr and C. Anderson have made it clear they serve on the board to represent ‘we the people’ who elected them, and not Super. Arlt.

Meanwhile, we’ll continue paying close attention to see if they turn to C. Anderson and M. Doerr and any leadership they offer going forward. The board needs to resolve these issues wisely. We're happy to support solutions that involve more local input and expertise.

In the end, to the extent resources are available, the CPC committee will remain organized, reaching out to apathetic voters who didn’t turn out yesterday and to the mild ‘For’ supporters, educating them on why such a proposal would have been so harmful. Our goal – if the school board doesn’t listen and tries to come back with another extravagant proposal - we want to be ready to actively engage in the next campaign and hope to beat them by an even greater margin the next time.

So we challenge the Plainview Public School board to give us some common-sense solutions that really put the children first! Thank you. Citizens for Progress Committee
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05/13/2026

Unofficial final vote results.

05/13/2026

Early voting results.

05/12/2026

The internal struggles among the Plainview School Board appear to go beyond the dollar amount of the bond(s) we are all voting on today. The real issue is whether our school is governed by the majority vote of our elected board members or by Darron. Click on the link below to see these emails between board members Melissa Doerr and Tim Rasmussen.

05/12/2026

04/30/2026

Per our mailing of today, here is the full email from Hausmann.

04/30/2026

With the exception of the New York City Public Schools, the USDOJ, which enforces ADA compliance, has not brought suit against or issued a letter ruling against a public school in America for accessibility issues. They do enforce discrimination, service animals, sign language instruction, playground equipment issues, etc., in public schools. But not accessibility issues. Well-governed schools are expected to widen a few doors, add ramps and handrails as needed, and also schedule class space usage to facilitate children with impairments, as funds are available. Schools must meet current ADA standards when building new facilities, though. See the USDOJ enforcement actions through 2022 below.

The Department of Justice enforces the ADA through lawsuits and settlement agreements to achieve greater access, inclusion, and equal opportunity for people with disabilities.

04/28/2026

Supt. Arlt’s Third Violation of Nebraska Public Records Law

On April 16, our committee asked for a copy of the “most recent” state Fire Marshal’s Inspection Report and the most recent ADA compliance inspection report, both as of that date. (In other words, they could be a year or two old, but that didn’t matter to us.) Nebraska state law (Rev. Stat. §84-712(4)) requires custodians of public records to provide them within 4 business days. This would be April 22, this past Wednesday. After several appeals, we still don’t have either of them.

(The other two violations involved: One, redacting email addresses on emails that are public records.

Two, per the advice given to him by Super. Kendell, of the Pierce school district, Arlt, instructed Plainview board members not to answer any records requests submitted to them personally as elected officials. He told them to forward any request to him, and he will answer them. Nebraska law requires board members to personally respond to any records request from the public. Both were violations of Nebraska law.)

But Arlt suddenly notified us late last week that a fire marshal would be coming in this week to conduct an inspection. The Fire Marshal conducted an inspection yesterday. As of this post, Arlt has not provided the one we requested on April 16 and told us he would send us the new one when it's completed.

Voters would be wise to see both of these reports, but how can you, if Arlt won’t obey the law and provide the older one?

Meanwhile, in 2009, when a citizens’ committee asked the top Nebraska State Fire Marshal, Robert Hardesty, when was the last time the Fire Marshal’s office issued an order to close any public school building in the state of Nebraska, due to fire code violations, he took a few days to respond.

And then he reported that no one in the state office ever remembers such an order being executed by his office.

Meanwhile, they did receive the table below later. Be very careful how the school board decides to employ this upcoming new fire marshal’s inspection report. Of the 105 school fires statewide, the average damage cost was $314. Remember, fear sells.