Something new – for a thousand of you

Two days in a row Lincolndemocrat has had over 1,100 visitors. This is better than three times the average of the summer which itself was up from the period before the school board filings opened.

As I wrote two posts ago I am more inclined to put up lawnsigns at the moment than blog but I realize my original eight loyal readers like fresh content and I have a lot of that. I just don’t have the time to spill it out here without some serious proof reading. Knocking on doors gives me lots of new insights. For instance I ran across two families along Park (Minnesota) Point whose children attend East High and not Denfeld which includes the Park Point attendance area. This is good evidence of the squeeze being put on western schools.

It also reminded me that there were no meetings of the attendance appeals committee which I sit on. This committee hears appeals from families who want to send their children to schools outside their attendance area. Two years ago I only heard appeals from a dozen or so families. This year there were none to hear. I can only presume that our administration decided what the heck. Let everyone send their kids to whatever schools they want western schools be damned. That is a presumption only but if it should be true its an abandonment of western schools. Families that want to escape ought to have to fight to justify their flight.

I’ve met only a few folks who narrowed their eyes when I introduced myself. These are folks who have every right to be disgusted with the last year and a half of the School Board. Others raised their eyebrows a bit but otherwise didn’t chastise me. In the harshest cases I always plead guilty. Everyone on the Board, including Art and me, have been part of the dysfunction. I tell people I want to get past it with new colleagues who will be committed to addressing issues like the student attendance at western schools rather than personal feuds or attempts to stifle debate.

This week I’ve attended three fairly brief school board meetings. They were fairly sparsely attended by board members. Because of the Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day interruption in the mail none of us had been able to read the agenda items in advance. Still, we soldiered through.

Yesterday there was a small item about a $46,000 grant from the Northland Foundation. By coincidence this morning’s Mens Group at our church had the Foundation’s new head, Tony Sertich, as its speaker. Tony was born two years after I first ran for office in 1976. When his turn came to run for office his ascent was little short of meteoric compared to my long stall. I followed his career with interest as I have his fellow Xgener Don Ness. He’s a sharp fellow. Perhaps the thing I thought stood out about him was his saying that, like Don, he had taken a look at national office (read Congress) and decided ten years ago that this was not the life for him. Smart.

That reminds me. Stewart Mills is selling off his Fleet Farm business to take up an even more serious run for Congress next year.

I don’t expect Congress to reform next year so I can guess what Mr. Mills will find should he succeed in his quest. I, on the other hand, fully expect our School Board to stop imitating Congress after January when a new board is seated. Wish me, wish us, wish Duluth luck on that score.

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