Holy Cow!!!!!!!!!!
I just got a phone call from Loren Martell while I was in the parking lot outside Pier One Imports. The news he gave me was so unexpected that it had me whooping like a giddy madman at a most remarkable turn of events. Loren didn’t realize that since he’d last run against Judy there was a change in the District lines. He’s now in Bill Westholm’s Third District where he knocked on doors like crazy two year’s ago. He has a real shot at this race which until last night was automatically going to fall to Nora Sandstad who gave me ten minutes of her time to tap my experience. I told Loren I felt like I had just consumed magic mushrooms.
Nora’s in for a horse race because Western Duluth was effectively lied to. They were going to be getting equity with the Red Plan. Instead East high got a football stadium so some fussy east enders wouldn’t have to mix with west enders and West Duluth lost Denfeld’s Spanish 5 classes. Not that its all goldfish and rainbows at East High. Its almost as crowded at East (just a hundred fewer students less) as it was during the hight of the Baby Boom enrollment surge. Worse is to come if pablum minded candidates take over from our current board members to insist yet again that Denfeld kids are getting everything East High kids are getting.
Loren was at last night’s school board meeting as usual. Nora was no where to be seen. Then again until this morning she had no one running against her. Why go to a school board meeting on a hot July evening when you will be crowned Ms. Third District on January without breaking a sweat?
My verdict is out on Nora but I do have my first impressions. She was a middle school teacher and ought to know that when you leave the classroom all hell can break lose if you haven’t got your act together. This is an inauspicious start to her school board career.
I spent virtually all of Monday and Tuesday frantically calling everyone I knew to file for the 3rd District seat so that at least there would be a contest for the sake of Denfeld families who have been so betrayed by our School Board. I got nada, zip, squat! But there, under my nose, was a genuine candidate all along that I was blissfully ignorant of. Not anymore.
