As the clouds grew more overcast I fretted about hauling all the ruined carpeting to the landfill before a big storm soaked it even more. I would’ve started bagging it up but I got a call from Gary Glass who wanted to have coffee with me yesterday. Of course, I put him off since I was still trying to dry out the basement but there were things we needed to discuss.
He picked me up and asked for another dozen lawnsigns. I sat down tired and exhausted but came out two hours later bubbling. Here’s what happened.
An old acquaintence of mine, an ed “specialist,” was there and asked for a lawnsign. I later introduced him to Gary as a “specialist.” By coincidence, after last Tuesday’s school board meeting three or four JCI suits came up to beat on Gary for misusing information they had given him. He had said the Red Plan would cost teachers jobs. They insisted it wasn’t so and told him the “specialists” on the cut list weren’t teachers. My specialist friend was interested to hear that. He was a teacher. He signed our petition.
A group of seven ladies sat nearby. One came over and asked if they could sign the petition. Gary obliged and we got seven more signatures.
The former principal of East High walked past. He pointed his finger and me and smiled, telling that I was making trouble again or words to that effect. We talked to him for a minute and he said that since we spent $800,000 putting a new roof on East in 1998 he had no idea what JCI was talking about when they claimed a roof leak had so damaged one of the staircases at East that no one was permitted to walk up it. He seemed to be enjoying our fight.
A woman at a table behind us told us that she couldn’t help overhearing us. She told us she was a teacher in UMD’s education department and that the entire education faculty was aghast that the Red Plan would divide Duluth into a segregated school system. We encouraged her to have someone send in a letter-to-the-editor and she said she’d see what she could do. She signed our petition and took a sign.
The wife of a former School Administrator walked past and congratulated us on our work. She marveled at the Chamber of Commerce’s President, David Ross, stuck up for the Red Plan since it made so little sense to her and her husband. She told me how great the letter-to-the-editor in yesterday’s Tribune was, coming as it did from a former school board member. I had been up to my ankles in city sewage yesterday so that had slipped by me. It was a great letter. (I’d link to it but I can’t find it on the Trib website) She signed the petition.
The revolution has begun.
