WDIO’s reporter Katie Nordeen called last night for my take on the District’s plans to gut Ordean as a means of reducing their budget deficit. I told her it was a scam that they were only doing it to make it impossible to stop the Red Plan. I told her Dr. Dixon also used budget shortfalls to clean out any staff members who weren’t toadies.
I added that I figured that this move could cost a million additional losses as the District will have to spend like crazy to move kids around and then lose more students to open enrollment. As a Board member I used to hear parents make that threat but those were isolated instances. We’ve already lost hundreds of students due to fears about the Red Plan. Many were pulled out of our schools in anticipation of a looming disaster. In a sense they were the Joe Kennedy’s of the stock market who pulled their kids out while there was still room in adjacent districts. Kennedy famously pulled his money out of Wall Street before the crash of 1929.
Up to now our doltish school board members have been assuring themselves that there isn’t room in the stable for many more kids in our neighboring districts but I wouldn’t be so complacent. Proctor and Wrenshall are sending busses into Duluth and Hermantown has the resources to add new space if our kids keep jumping ship like rats on a burning vessel.
Like Two Harbors with its new High School we’ll have brand new pools but we won’t be able to heat them up. Maybe we could use ours for indoor skating rinks. Hey, our district is always looking for more “ice time” for the hockey program.
