Archive for the ‘Red Plan’ Category

Fairy tales #2

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

I couldn’t lambaste the Strib for inserting paid advertising as a news story because they published the story noted in the previous post in good faith. I can’t say the same about this blather from the Cook News-Herald which was sent to me a couple days ago. I didn’t see the paper but most of it appears to be glowing comments from Hermantown parents who toured JCI’s new schools in St. Louis County. According to my email corespondent it was on the Front page of the Cook News-Herald:

I’ll explain why this is so damnable immediately below.

New ISD 2142 South Ridge School draws ‘wows’ from Hermantown Delegation
By GDA

ISD 2142, with its two brand new schools, North Woods and South Ridge, and its remodeled schools of Cherry, Northeast Range and Tower-Soudan, is drawing the attention of surrounding schools

On Friday, March 22, the South Ridge School had a large delegation from the Hermantown School District come to the school for a tour. Hermantown is in the beginning stages of working on a strategic plan for the future, so they wanted to see what the schools of the future are like. Johnson Controls, the firm that handled the construction for the new and remodeled schools, is working with Hermantown on their future facilities plan and set up the tour. Principal Kristi Berlin gave the tour to 30 board members, teachers, staff and citizens of the Hermantown School District who rode a school bus to the South Ridge School. Reports are they were noticeably impressed with the new South Ridge School. There were many “wows.” Is ISD 2142 becoming the leader in education for northern Minnesota? (more…)

Fairy Tales #1

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

Two readers of the Minneapolis Star Tribune were quick to send me this story from last week. It is as one of them said a “fairy tale.”

I was sufficiently jaundiced that I called its author, Don Jacobson, just now to find out whether any of the people associated with the Red Plan’s building had given him any compensation for submitting it to the Strib. Mr. Jacobson wondered, what the implication of my question was. It was, of course, that the Red Plan’s movers and shakers were trying to buy good press. It turns out they weren’t. They were just very lucky to find a freelance journalist who wanted to write about green buildings and needed to do so quickly in journalism’s new economic model which has created unsalaried Freelancers who need to generate income quickly without the time to go out and interview both sides of a controversial story.

Dr. Dixon got some very good press indeed.

“…there are lessons to be learned from Duluth’s $300 million effort to build four new schools, rehabilitate seven others and close seven more. Two key players in one of the most ambitious facilities upgrades in Minnesota public schools’ history told members of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in Minneapolis on Tuesday that the public will support such renovations if they’re adequately explained.”

Had I been interviewed I would have pointed out some of the unfortunate costs of building the Red Plan’s green buildings, Among them:

1. Public furor that has made it impossible to pass subsequent operational levies.
2. A guarantee to rob the existing $5 million annual dollars from the school operations budget to pay banks for building bonds and the subsequent skyrocketing of class sizes from a little over 30 kids in high school classes to well over 40.
3. The reduction of class offerings.
4. The necessity to break past School Board promises not to increase local school levies most recently with a 12% increase last year.
5. The burgeoning cost of the Red Plan that rose by $60 million dollars from its first unveiling to the the present.
6. The exodus and continued absence of at least ten percent of the student population as the Red Plan Juggernaut proceeded.
7. The subsequent loss of hundreds of teachers and the undermining of the Teacher’s pension plan which must be financed by the labors of a shrinking pool of active teachers.
8. The absence of any audit to show whether the Red Plan schools have managed to save a cent’s worth of energy costs.

Among the story’s shortcomings

1. The false assertion (or assumption) that the Red Plan was only financed through laws for student safety and health.
2. That “polls showed most [residents of Duluth] supported the move.”
3. Dixon’s claim that Duluth ended up agreeing with the Red Plan because “…even the most conservative residents will agree that the costs are worth it if you can show them a return on investment over time.”

Considering that Dixon had to flea Duluth as the Red Plan went sour its ironic that the reporter should pass on an architect’s assertions that “its important to show skeptics that improved student performance and energy; cost savings are linked.” This never took place and no proof has yet been offered that the Red Plan will show such a result.

It remains to be seen whether student performance will be enhanced. The most recent test results show not positive connection to the the Red Plan. If anything they seem to hint at a regression.

The Duluth School Board is so desperate…

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

…that the made a rational spending decision!

To spend only a quarter of a million dollars clean up dollars on Congdon Elementary.

“Choosing everything on the list would have cost the district up to $850,000. The most expensive choices, a $200,000 retaining wall, $330,000 worth of exterior masonry repair and a $100,000 sand field, were nixed.”

I’d like to think its because its begun to dawn on them that at this point every cent they put into the Red Plan is a cent taken away from the classroom.

Not gloating

Monday, April 1st, 2013

A friend keeps writing every time the Trib writes a positive story about things happening in the Duluth Schools or every time calamity seems to strike. Every story seems to her to be a plea from the Tribune for voters to pass a levy referendum next fall. I have few illusions that a levy will pass although I will vote for anything the District will offer.

I read stories like the one today and I’m torn between outrage and despair. Outrage that the District killed our golden goose and despair at the difficulties of bringing it back to life.

I once wrote that we didn’t know just how good we had it in our schools. I was on the Board after the Chamber of Commerce failed to support a levy referendum in 2001 and the Board was forced to make the seventh hour an optional seventh period called the “zero hour” that kids had to find their own way too. Now the Red Plan is about to bring an end even to what little remains of the zero hour.

No Say

Monday, April 1st, 2013

I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t make the same connection that this reader did when she read the recent Headline “No say, Just pay”.

“I found the front-page headline, “No say, just pay,” for a story about how the Duluth school district pays special-education costs for students enrolled elsewhere, to be very humorous, ironic and hypocritical. Wasn’t that exactly what Independent School District 709 said to every taxpayer of the district with the Red Plan?

I am one of the many who voted with my feet; I now live in Hermantown. And I am not at all sad to be done with the Duluth school district.”

The litany grows longer

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

The Trib has run a series of stories on the costs of special education for the Duluth School District. This is an old story. The Federal Government mandates full funding of special education before I was on the Board and then reneged on promises to provide close to full federal funding for the mandates. Minnesota School Boards were complaining about this loudly a decade ago.

I just did a quick check on this subject and found this old post which mentions the following story about a time when it looked like the Federal Government might step up to the plate:

“One of the most intriguing things I heard before I departed the School Board was at a meeting Senator Paul Wellstone called us too [sic] in the Board Room. I asked him about Special Ed money and he told us he was sure it would be fully funded in the comming [sic] year because of some assurances he seemed to have gotten from the new President George W Bush. Well, whatever Wellstone knew it all went down in flames when he was killed in the crash of a small plane as he campaigned for reelection and in in 9-11 when the Bush Administration focused on terrorism rather than education after leaving the nation its NCLB legacy. (all whips and no carrots)”

Yesterday’s Special Ed Story went where I’m sure the current Administration wanted it to go blaming others for its own self inflicted financial wounds.

The fact is that ten years ago this was also in the news. The Feds made our district pay for the lion’s share of special ed costs. They did channel money into special ed at the expense of other classes. Despite this we still had one of the best student/teacher ratios in the State because we had made that a priority for better than a decade.

As my wife said upon reading the story its just the latest excuse for our District’s crowded classrooms. First it was the failure to sell old school buildings, then it was the failure of the referendums, then it was the state’s borrowing of Education money, and now its special education mandates. Never have our problems stemmed from the Red Plan’s guarantee to banks to use general fund levies to back its bonds or excessively generous teacher contracts to keep teachers quiet.

On the subject of our teacher’s union leaders, who kept mum on all the Red Plan projects, I sense the heavy hand of self interest. They also had a large say in the management and decisions of the DFTRA, the teacher’s pension, which kept boosting pension benefits even as their assets withered. The Pension payments are based on the final five earning years. The more teachers are paid at the end of their career the more they are guaranteed in pension payments. As the contract boosted the final salaries of these older teachers their pension benefits rose. They would get higher pensions and leave the younger teachers with 40 kids to a class. Now that’s what I call fraternity!

Add the devastating student out-migration caused by the Red Plan and you are left with a shrinking rump of younger teachers who must dig deeper into their pockets to pay for the boosted benefits of retirees.

Congdon Hockey vs. Education

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

That seems to pretty much be the issue at one of the last two Red Plan schools. A few days ago in a story I didn’t comment on or post a link to a Congdon Mother expressed wonder that the School District would consider abandoning an elevator which would take disabled children to the gym while pouring money into hockey rinks. I thought she made a good point.

The latest from the DNT.

Local Control

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Every third person in Mississippi is obese. Drinking super-sized sodas with 51 sugar cubes worth of sweetness in them is one reason why. But the GOP controlled legislature wants to protect their diabetes prone voters from having any local community deny them the right to chug those sodas down like the “nanny state” Mayor of New York attempted to do.

A Judge recently overturned New York’s right to impose its anti super size rule because it unfairly imposes the limit on only some soda vendors. Even so the Mayor and the city council were exercising another notion that has been popular with Republicans – “local control.” I had to agree with the Mississippi City Councilor who resents the state legislature clipping his municipality’s wings.

Local control has been a big deal in discussions of Education. Nationally Republicans moaned about how Federal Education rules kept tying the hands of local school boards. GOP Governor Tim Pawlenty used “local control” as his ultimate justificatioin for letting the Duluth School District push through its Red Plan without a routine referendum. I always thought that that was a shoddy excuse for letting the community decide the fate of the Red Plan. The School Board of 2006 that gave us the Red Plan never campaigned to institute the near half billion dollar monstrosity whose costs have continued to creep up over the last six years.

I don’t demand pure consistency from politicians. I’m not always consistent myself. Times change and flexibility has its virtues. Still, when its just an empty slogan its not much to hang one’s hat on.

What’s another half million for the Red Plan?

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

In addition to spending another $250,000 to $350,000 for a third hockey rink, oops “retaining wall,” at Congdon Elementary the Duluth School District is taking almost a quarter million dollar loss on two houses it originally bought for the Congdon plans:

“also approved the sale of two properties behind Congdon Park Elementary, both of which no longer are needed for the project because of changed plans. The board unanimously approved offers for 3132 and 3144 Greysolon Place.

The district purchased 3132 Greysolon for $337,500 in 2011, and the district had it on the market most recently for $175,000.

The district purchased 3144 Greysolon for $213,000 in 2008, and the house was listed for $159,900.

Sale prices aren’t disclosed until closing. One district-owned house on that block remains on the market.”

If the District chose to hire teachers with this money instead of bolstering the hockey program it could return at least half of this money to its operating budget.

More teachers, Duluth eastern hockey. More teachers, Duluth eastern hockey. Tough decision that one.

Panic is overdue

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

One of my regular old Red Plan allies emailed me a few days ago imploring me to attend the Chamber’s Red Plan program with the new Superintendent. I told my friend I had no intention of wasting my time.

Today she wrote back after reading the Editorial in the Duluth News Tribune and told me its just as well I didn’t go because it would obviously have been “a waste of time.”

This is what I wrote back to my friend:

******

I have much to say on this subject. In short I woke up yesterday and had changed my mind. I decided I ought to go to the Chamber’s meeting with the Superintendent. If I hadn’t spent so much time shoveling the new fallen snow I would have gone.

After reading the DNT editorial I’m very glad I didn’t go. I would have felt like a chump. Guess who else feels that way today? The Trib and the Chamber of Commerce.

Gronseth and company did learn from Dixon – all the wrong lessons. Primarily that if you call a meeting and do all the talking then leave ten minutes for questions you can escape without any accountability. The problem for Gronseth is that Dixon’s old sycophants are now on to the tactic. They ignored it when it was Red Plan critics getting the razzle dazzle. Now, however, the District has screwed up our public schools and Dixon’s old pals know it. They also know the City knows they were Dixon’s enablers and the fruits of his labor are the fruits of their support for Dixon. They don’t want to be left holding Dixon’s dirty bag. They are handing it back to Gronseth now with a big “no thank you.”

They want to know how Gronseth will fix the problem. He doesn’t have a clue so he pulled a Dixon special dog and pony show with lots of Post-it notes “for input” to avoid having to answer questions. Finally this tired tactic isn’t good enough for the DNT and the Chamber of Commerce who cut the District so much slack for so long.

I was thinking about how desperate the District’s situation is. Its worse than dire. Up to now the public had given them the base excess levy they’ve requested which they’ve had since before the Red Plan but nothing more. They need a helluva lot more money than this to keep their nose above water. If they don’t even get the base levy approved by voters they’ll be sucked down the drain with our children in the undertow. If they don’t get it……well you ain’t seen nothing yet. The accompanying letter to the editor under their editorial said it all. A kid with four classes with 40 kids in them. In years past the editors would have salted that page with a letter that offered counter arguments to their editorial. Instead they put a letter under their editorial which reinforced its message that “happy talk” isn’t good enough anymore. Sadly, all the superintendent has is hapless talk.

He still doesn’t seem to have a clue how much of what used to be operational money for the District has been siphoned off to pay for Judy Seliga’s swimming pools and the East Stadium that was never part of the Red Plan to begin with.

If I wasn’t so irritated at the Trib and the Chamber I’d say “better late than never.” But I’m so annoyed that even “I told you so,” doesn’t address my contempt for the Trib’s and the Chamber’s complicity in this educational abortion.

It is about time the Trib and the Chamber begin to realize just what they helped to deliver into Keith Dixon’s hands…..the fate of Duluth. Notwithstanding Mayor’ Ness’s unqualified optimism about the reemergence of his City of the First Class, Duluth will never make it with third class schools.

Panic won’t help anything and its a couple years overdue.

Harry

PS. I also told her that I would have to be a fool to run for the School Board this fall.

PPS. I cleaned up this email with a few edits so that its not exactly what I originally emailed out. I’d guess its still about 98% original.

“First God created idiots. That was for practice….

Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

…Then he created School Boards.” Mark Twain

First – From the Timberjay:

District risks much, saves little, by using Alango Road
Marshall Helmberger
The St. Louis County School Board is violating a commitment it made, and is risking a multi-million dollar lawsuit and potentially disastrous media coverage, all to save a paltry $12,000 a year on its transportation costs.

It’s one of the most troubling decisions this school district has made in years.

Here’s the rub. In deciding to run at least four buses daily up and down Alango Road, the school district is openly disregarding hazards that the district itself identified in the environmental assessment worksheet it prepared as part of the permitting for the North Woods School. Here’s how the school district described the dangers: “Alango Road has segments with insufficient sight distance and a narrow bridge, both circumstances that would require correction before Alango Road could support significantly more traffic.”

As local residents can attest, traffic on the road has increased significantly (most likely by a factor of several times). As they could also attest—and as we have verified— St. Louis County public works has not addressed any of the hazards identified in the EAW.

It’s no surprise that traffic on the road has jumped significantly since the opening of the school last fall. The road provides a four-mile shortcut for anyone coming to the school from the west, which was a point made by township officials and local residents at the time of the controversial school permitting process. A four-mile shortcut, each way, adds up at a time of high fuel prices, which is the reason that the district’s superintendent and transportation director decided to run district buses on the road as well.

But saving money is a poor justification for putting students in harm’s way. (more…)

About our local teacher pension fund

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

Kudos to the DNT’s Jana Hollingsworth. After one of my posts about pension funds and my experience with the DFTRA I got the impression that she thought it was time she did a little research. Her story in today’s DNT did a very good job explaining how stupidly the pension fund for our Duluth public school teachers has been run at a time when conservative prudence was called for.

Its hard for me to be very sympathetic to the man in charge of the fund. He once wrote a letter to the editor saying it was high time I left the school board because I swore during a Board meeting. (It was because I wanted a levy referendum for more classroom spending placed on the ballot when one prominent Board member was bad mouthing it)

All the time I was busy fighting to have the Red Plan placed on the ballot for fear it would decimate our schools Mr. Stoffel oversaw increased pension outlays to growing numbers of retirees. Now he wants the taxpayers to offset his pension funds losses which can’t be made up because the Red Plan has thinned out ISD 709′s teachers who are DFTRA’s contributors. He’ll be lobbying to have the taxpayers make up for his tardy actions to shore up the fund. Perhaps the state should go into the business of insuring all pension funds both public and private. I’m sure a lot of private pension fund managers would love that kind of insurance.

The poor working teachers in Duluth with 40 kids in their classrooms are carrying a heavy burden and one of their rewards will be a much reduced pension.

The CEO’s blinders

Sunday, February 17th, 2013

A friend emailed me a link to this bit of back patting from David Ross of Duluth’s Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Ross is in a defensive crouch because he has not condemned a tax increase from Governor Dayton and some of his members are not happy about this. Ross points to his opposition to a great many local tax increase proposals. My friend notes that despite all this swaggering the Chamber’s CEO doesn’t make a peep about the biggest local tax increase of them all – the nearly 12% tax increase by the Duluth School Board. She wonders why Mr. Ross is so silent about this.

Maybe its because commenting on it might remind people how shamelessly and vigorously he supported the Red Plan that has had such disastrous consequences for our local public schools.

In late 2012, Mayor Ness and his leadership team announced they planned to raise Duluth’s property taxes by 2.9 percent in 2013. The Chamber was the one organization that publicly opposed the tax increase. We publicly challenged the Mayor to reduce the tax increase. Many of our members appreciated the Chamber’s advocacy.

The Chamber was applauded.

Similarly, one month ago, the City of Duluth announced it intended to raise the City’s Comfort Systems rate for natural gas by 5 percent. Again, the Chamber was the one organization that publicly opposed the rate increase. We publicly challenged the Duluth Public Utilities Commission to delay any rate increase until more citizen feedback could be provided. Many of our members appreciated the Chamber’s advocacy.

The Chamber was congratulated.

Likewise, a few weeks ago, the Duluth City Council was poised to pass into law the City’s new and more restrictive sign ordinance. Once more, the Chamber was the one organization that publicly challenged the City to delay implementing the ordinance until more business community input could be provided. The City agreed to delay implementing the ordinance. Many of our members appreciated the Chamber’s advocacy. The Chamber was affirmed.

Meanwhile the Minnesota Newspaper Assn awarded the tiny Timberjay multiple…

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

… awards for reporting and editorials all for doing what the DNT failed to do.

BLOOMINGTON: —The Timberjay received awards for both reporting and editorials in the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s statewide newspaper contest held in conjunction with the association’s convention in Bloomington.

In competition against ALL Minnesota newspapers,

1. the Timberjay took the top award in the Freedom of Information category for its continuing reporting and legal fight regarding Johnson Controls Inc. and its work for the St. Louis County School District.

2. The Timberjay also took second place for Best Explanation of News Operations or Newspaper Ethics, for Marshall Helmberger’s opinion piece explaining why the paper was continuing its legal battle with JCI.

3. The Timberjay also took first place among weeklies over 2,500 circulation in Best Investigative Reporting, for the story “New school falls far short on promised energy savings” by Timberjay editors Marshall Helmberger and Tom Klein. The story compared the operational cost of ISD 2142’s new South Ridge School with the former schools, Cotton and AlBrook, that the new school replaced. While JCI, the company that designed and built the schools, claimed the new building would be cheaper to operate than the schools it replaced, an examination of utility bills found that the new building cost more to operate than both of the former schools combined.

“This is watchdog journalism at its best as the newspaper went back and checked how well the school system did in delivering the savings it promised in campaigning for a bond issue,” wrote the judges. “It turns out the schools didn’’t do all that well.
”
4. The Timberjay also took third place in the Editorial Page as a Whole category among weeklies with circulations of 2,501-5,000.

5. Timberjay editors Marshall Helmberger and Scott Stowell took third place in the Local Breaking News Coverage category among weeklies of circulations between 2,501 and 5,000 for their combined coverage of the Pagami Creek fire.

This blog has highlighted the Timberjay’s superlative journalistic exploits frequently since the Duluth Schools got suckered into spending half a billion dollars on a facilities plan which has forced the District to strip away much of its teacher corps.

Duluth News Trib unwittingly awards itself the “Consequences of gullibility award”

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

In the latest of a succession of editorials telling the School Board to keep everything on the table.

…the moving of Unity on an updated list of cost-cutting possibilities at a Duluth School Board meeting this week made clear the district and board members are willing to consider many options to ease financial difficulties. And that’s something taxpayers can urge them to do as they tackle a $3.5 million budget gap for the 2014 fiscal year.

ISD 709 continues to cannibalize itself

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

From today’s DNT:

What would happen if we sent the kids who couldn’t make it at Denfeld and East back from the alternative program at Unity?

“A lot of them really struggle with crowded situations,” member and former Denfeld principal Bill Westholm said of the students, who typically attend Unity because they didn’t do well at one of the larger high schools. “If we don’t do that one absolutely right it would cause more problems for some students than would be worth the gains.”

This will be done to save about $300,000. But for every student who decides to hell with it I’m dropping out the District will lose about $6,000 a year. Lose 10 students and instead of $300.000 savings it will be $240,000. Lose 50 kids and there are no savings at all plus the jobs of a couple more teachers.

Not on the list

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

A while back I noted that Dr. Dixon’s new District was scheduled to hold interviews for a full time Superitendent. I wondered then if Dixon was on the list since he was originally appointed to be an interim. Apparently he finally will retire after telling the Faribault Distrrict a decade ago he would soon retire. He’s not on the list of interview subjects this February: From the Centennial School Board’s agenda:

10.02 Superintendent Search Process (Wilson)
It is the recommendation of the Superintendent Search Candidate Selection Committee that
the following applicants for the position of Superintendent of Schools be invited to interview: Brian Dietz, Matt Grose, Jana Hennen-Burr, David Law, Kim Riesgraf and David Thompson.
First round interviews are scheduled for Tuesday, February 19 and Wednesday, February 20.

709 equity

Friday, February 8th, 2013

I’ll heap even more abuse on the Duluth School District, its Administrators and School Board in the next post as well as the Duluth News Tribune. But I’ll start here with this withering comment sent to me from an email friend related to the community meetings and their empty sounding call for input from the public.

“Dixon used to do the same, “What I heard at community meetings…”

Then my friend notes that the meetings under our previous Poobah Dixon mostly were a forum for him, not the community, to trumpet his rationalization for a huge school building plan. He did all the talking and apparently he was a good listener. His rationale? Equity. My friend goes on:

He kept putting out “equity”. So how did that play out? Denfeld got the Deli culinary program and East got the restaurant cuisine.”

I have no idea if it is true that they teach kids how to cook at Denfeld and feed them the good stuff at East. That would be immoral and I find it hard to believe such a situation exists. If I was to rejoin the school board next January I’d make inquiries. For now I’ll just post this here in hopes that one of my eight loyal readers get ambitious enough to make that inquiry for me and gets back to me so I can reaffirm or dismiss the allegation. Now on to the next post.

The Zenith writes about our Red Plan Nadir

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

When you publish a paper and are not beholden to all the powers that expect you to print happy news you can be pretty tough. That’s the case with the Zenith which appears to have kept some of the old Duluth News Clippings that quote Red Plan critics.

Its a brutal story and quite accurate. The only thing that could improve it is making it so long no one would read it.

Here’s a sample:

These problems now facing the District were predicted by Red Plan critics years ago—overcrowded classrooms, teacher layoffs, curriculum reductions, students leaving the district, cost overruns, tax increases, the dwindling reserve fund, and difficulties with the sale of unused property, such as Central High School.

“The plan will bankrupt the district and rob children of adequate programming for generations,” then–School Board candidate Deb Anderson wrote in a letter to the Duluth News Tribune on October 7, 2007.

“That shiny new classroom will be small comfort to the English teacher with 36 kids in her class,” Harry Welty wrote in November 2008 on his blog, LincolnDemocrat.com. Little did he know then that some class sizes are now approaching 50 students.

Well Yeah, The News Tribune can be tough but usually only on unmitigated racists and local doctors who have botched too many medical procedures. Screwing up the education for 10,000 Duluth students is a lower tier offense.

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

Just read the most recent Zenith. It has a devastating appraisal of the District which is based in part on the news stories from five years ago and this blog today. Its not yet online. I’ll link when I can.

I was goiing through old files on my computer and once again ran across the proof of the District’s hubris – the insupporatble boast to the state that the District would reap 5 million in annual operational savings if only the State approved the Red Plan.

It may have been a boast but today’s headlines sure make it look like an out and out lie and a very big one at that:

here’s the document page and a link to a full sized image: