A District Unrepentant

My Saturday DNT contained a glossy and glowing twenty-page insert “We are ISD 709.” It fits in perfectly with Superintendent Gronseth’s faith that 74% of Duluthians are prepared to forget the past and support their schools in the upcoming levy. He hasn’t been out knocking on doors like I have to know better. I can’t help but wonder if the prospectus’s excessive twenty pages isn’t more proof of the District’s insecurity.

The danger of such back patting by the very people who told us what a success the Red Plan would be is that it may backfire by reminding Red Plan critics of the hubris of the Red Planners. If so, this pricey piece of advertising will be more likely to entrench the Red Plan’s bitter foes making it less likely that they will vote for the District’s levies. Defeated people don’t enjoy watching the triumphalism of their conquerors.

I’ve got grandkids this weekend, Grandkids likely never to be enrolled in Duluth’s public schools, (like the Superintendent’s own children) so I’ll read the happy talk later.

Oh, here’s one more observation. This handout makes the District look so prosperous you would never know we have 44 kids in our high school English classes. Red Plan opponents will get the feeling from this that the District is swimming in money. It sure doesn’t look like the District is desperate enough to need any levies passed. Where is the blood on the floor that I’ve been warning against? it must be my vivid imagination.

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