What is your connection to the Wauwatosa community?

I have a deep connection with Tosa because I’ve been a lifelong resident. I grew up here and I lived around 73rd Lloyd Street, and so I attended Lincoln, Longfellow, and East. So I had the experience of growing up in Tosa. I’ve seen it, both as a child and as a parent, raising children in the district, which has been really interesting. Tosa is just a community that we love. We’ve been here a long time. My wife and I are really delighted to be raising our two daughters in this community.

Why are you running for the school board? 

This is something new for me, and I will tell you that there’s been a few things over the past, I would say, nine months, especially, that have gotten my attention as a parent and a concerned community member. It really started back last summer when the district announced they had a $4.2 million budget error, and some concerned parents and I got together and talked about it, and we knew at that point in time that the district was having some budget shortfalls and was going to have to go to a referendum. It just so happens they asked for $8.2 million that they overspent and then,  they wanted to do a little bit more for teachers, which I was supportive of. Our teachers need to be paid. But the other part was just what that told me is that they’re now having trouble managing their finances. And their auditor in December, when that audit report came out, they also found problems with how the district is managing its money. So that’s why I’m running. My background is one reason I’m running. My background is in finance. I help organizations, including in higher ed schools, middle schools, high schools, manage their money and plan their investments. So I have a background in this, and I felt at the time that more than just providing public comment to the board, which I did last August, is actually getting on the board to provide some assistance, because the current makeup of the board does not have that skill set. It’s important when boards are formed, that they have diverse backgrounds, so that people have knowledge of education and people have knowledge of advocacy, especially at the state level, and that people have a background in investments, in finance and accounting. All these different skill sets can come together to provide the leadership the district needs to provide the best education services, and at the same time operate the district responsibly.

Reason two is we’ve seen some problems with the educational performance of the district, and that’s been going on for some time, and so you’re seeing the effectiveness of our education in terms of student outcomes. For high school students who are preparing for college, that’s meaningful, because that can impact placement rates in colleges, future job opportunities, etc. My focus and the other piece of my background is I’m also an educator. I’m a part time professor at Marquette University, where I teach in the business school. I’ve been teaching now for over 16 years. So I have a lot of classroom experience. I’ve done PhD level work in academics, and so I have a good background there too to really bring some strengths to work with the board.

In your opinion, what has the school board or district done well recently?

My daughter is in middle school and one of the things she really likes are her math classes and she’s in the accelerated math program. That’s been a program that’s done well preparing our students for future opportunities and careers that require a math background. I have a lot of math in my job, so I think that’s something that is good and should continue, because math is really important in our society across so many different fields, and makes us competitive globally. I think it’s worked well, I think there’s certainly more that we could do because everybody has different skill levels and at different points of time, I’ve had points in my life where I did really well with math, other times where I needed some extra help. So there are some proposals right now to change that and get rid of the different levels of math that help kids depending on where they are in their development, and that’s where I’m a little cautious, because when things are working, you don’t necessarily want to change them. That’s where I think we also need to be a little bit careful, because sometimes change is not good, and sometimes change is disruptive, and some of the proposals that are coming could actually make what’s already been a problem for some families and students worse.

What would be your number one priority on the school board?

The district is going through two kinds of crises at the same time. We’re having a financial crisis and we’re having a classroom crisis right now. And as part of that classroom crisis, if you look at teacher satisfaction numbers, there are record lows, morale, retention, satisfaction, and so all of these things are kind of working together right where you could maybe fix this problem over here, but you still have these problems over there. And so when you’re in a crisis, you have to do something, and this is part of leadership strategies. You have to do something called triage, where you have to really focus on the most urgent problems first. On our Facebook page, I’ve outlined a number of actions that I think are really important, that we need, steps that we need to take to address some of the most urgent aspects of the two crises that are happening right now, in education and in our finances. We spent a lot of time in weeks and months, really looking into these issues, and we feel pretty confident that we need to come forward and address some of these issues and address them quickly.

What unique professional or personal perspective would you bring to the board? 

 I work for Baird, which is an investment firm. And I’ve been working at Baird for over two decades. I work with a lot of organizations and help them manage their investments, a number in the higher ed and education space, and that’s been wonderful. I really am very much a fan of supporting educational missions, so a lot of experience there and then, as I mentioned, I’m a part time professor at Marquette University in the College of Business. I did my PhD research several years ago, and I continue to teach. I run a lab called the sustainability lab, where I really focus on the things that have to come together to make organizations successful, sustainable and really have longevity so that they can go on and do great works, not for today’s generation, but for multiple generations. I feel really good about what we’re doing here, and I’m really excited about it too. I have worked with organizations that have gone through periods of stress and crisis, and they’ve come back from it, and when you come back in these moments, you can really stand up proud and say, we did some great work. I’m excited about what we can do and all the support we’ve gotten from the community.

Is there something in the last year you’ve accomplished that you’re proud of? 

I was just nominated for a teacher Excellence Award at the College of Business at Marquette, which is an incredible honor. I’ve been teaching for a long time, 16 years,  and it’s the first time my work’s been recognized in this way. Back in February too, which is another proud moment for me at Marquette, we just published a research paper and a top end journal. If you’re an academic, you don’t measure your success in dollars and cents. It’s based on if you get published and if people read your work. That was based on my initial research at Marquette that we started back in 2012 and we finally got the paper published in 2025. 

How will you ensure that students perspectives are represented on the board?

I do a lot of work with students and I’m very connected through my children’s schools and their activities. I’ve benefited really well from my wife, Kayla, who has done inspiring things herself. She was our PTO President at McKinley for three years. Between her activities and volunteerism, and my activities and volunteerism and constantly being out there in the community and being with family and friends, I feel very connected to the students. That’s my intention and I’ve been doing a lot of talking with people, especially over the last few months, on these issues, things that they’re concerned about, and so I’m just going to continue to do that. That’s part of being a good community member. It’s part of being a good board member. It’s called being engaged and that’s what I’ll continue to do. 

What do you want to bring to the Tosa schools, and what change do you want to make happen?

We have pockets of strength in our community and we have a long tradition of a great community and a great place for education. My goal is to restore that and also restore the trust that the community needs to have in its school district leadership. I want to make Tosa stronger than it’s ever been. That’s a high bar because Tosa has been a strong place for a long time and it’s been running into some issues recently, but we can get there.

Are there any fun facts about yourself? 

My family and I would spend a lot of time together in these long Wisconsin winters and we’d go to the art museum or the public museum, and it was a great place to go. Then during COVID these places were not open anymore. And so our family started skiing and we had our kids learn how to ski. My wife and I were both skiers growing up, but we hadn’t skied in years. It was fun because we rediscovered the sport too. And so since that time, every year, our family’s been skiing, and my kids love it, and I do too. That has been a great family pastime and a really great family activity. 

For more information on Chris Merker and his campaign, use these links below:

Web site: https://www.chrismerker.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571509747262