First things first, our list of 2700 people that Tom Hustad can hardly believe live in the same city with him is superlative. That’s why we will win the day.
I’ve had a couple emails today which I’d like to comment on and I’ve been asked what our next steps should be.
Karen ******* asked whether the deseg part of this funding is a little hinky since we will be dividing the city more racially than ever if we go with the 14th Ave east Border. That boundry is not engraved in stone (althlough it is in the plan that the state is looking at) but basing some of the funding on Deseg is something that should be pointed out to the State. Karen would you write to the Ed Commissioner about this pronto? I’d follow that up with a letter to the editor noting the irony of using deseg funds for a project that will further segregate the city.
As for what we do. We hamstring the board so it can’t do anything until the new board is seated in January.
We probably have at least two weeks, maybe three, before the State rules on the Red Plan. We need to pay a call on the Ed Commission in St. Paul (our bus trip) to ask for their feedback and present our objections to the plan. If they know we are coming I think they will hold off on making a decision. We should also try to sneak a visit with the Governor if we can catch him.
We need to prepare an alternative building program for the schools. Under “special elections” satutes, voters have the right to petition their school boards to put building plans on the ballot – plans they’ve proposed and not their school boards. The law won’t let us to force the Duluth Board to put its Red Plan on the ballot but we can come up with our own plan and, if we get 960 signatures (which after our first petition will be a snap), the School Board will have no choice but to present our plan for review and comment to the state. This will be happening even while the Board awaits the state’s decision on the Red plan. So, there will be two competing building plans which both might be authorized (even though that sounds ridiculous) The very same thing just happened in St. Francis, MN, and it has that district tied up in knots. Gary has proposed a figure for an alternate building plan for our petition with teeth. I think the figure he has in mind is too large to make it very popular. We’ll have to kick it around.
Our biggest worry is that after Gary and I are elected the Lame Duck Board will attempt to push the Red Plan through if it gets the state’s OK before we are seated in January. They plan on starting the process by letting bonds to finance the start of the project. We’re counting on the disturbing possiblity of having two authorized plans competing with each other and all sorts of legal tangles to scare off any bond buyers from the District. We believe they will want to wait to buy any bonds until a new board can sort matters out.
So we want to visit the state.
We want to think out a good alternative building proposal.
We want to get 1000 more signatures on a petition with teeth.
We want to tie up the Board and scare off bond buyers for the Red Plan until a new more friendly board is seated. We can discuss this all at our next meeting on Tuesday. Oh, I’m posting this on my website: www.lincolndemocrat.com so that JCI can read it. They’ve already been monitoring everything else I say. Might as well not keep them in the dark anymore.
In the meantime, we can switch from passing out petitions to putting up lawnsigns and writing letters-to-the-editor. Using deseg money to segregate the city is a good start. Of course, spending a pittance on a new highschool for half the city’s senior high in an increasingly clogged traffic corridor is another, oh, and how about our suspicions that the taxes are not flat through the twenty years of the building financing but will triple by the time it ends. Oh, and the threat of a taxpayer revolt which will kill future excess levies.or the disaster Superintendent Dixon left in his wake at his last district, Fairbault…..There is no end of things to talk about which is, of course, why the Board doesn’t want the debate a referendum would cause. We need to wake Duluth up and build more momentum.
I’m writing a column for the Trib even now. Forgive me if I’m a little distracted. My basement just got flooded last night. Ick! It looked just like the School Board meeting we sat through. I better call JCI for some ventilation advice.
