Sorry Dear Readers,
But I’m entering another moment of blackout where I’m not sure what to write because what I write on this blog could have a deleterious effect on the Duluth School District or at least the relations between the elephants (school board members) trampling the grass (our children’s schools).
The genesis of the blackout was my blog and the fact that Chair Miernicki read it and responded to my comments with an email offering to give me his side of the story this Thursday. This is a very positive development for me because up to know I’ve been in the position of asking other board members to meet with me. Mike has, to put it euphemistically, a hot potato in his hands. He said he expected a terrible Tuesday at our Board meeting I told him to expect a terrible summer instead.
I’ve had two Board members make it quite clear that they don’t care for my blog. In my cordial two hour meeting with Judy Seliga-Punyko a month ago she told me she wished I would stop blogging. I told her that wouldn’t happen. Rosie Loeffler-Kemp has turned to me during our closed meetings and made comments to the Board about our staying silent on some subjects in our writing and then turned to look meaningfully at me to make sure I understood she had me in mind when she made her comments.
I want the school board to be a team but right now its spinning out of control and I have no desire to save it from its foolishness. In fact, I’m so frustrated at the Board’s unwillingness to look at our District’s precarious position that I am resigned to waiting until a new board is elected a year and a half from now. I don’t plan to be in the position of a 5-2 minority after 2015.
My wife told me the other day that I’m not a “harmonizer.” I winced a bit at this but I suppose its true. Sometimes a person has to decide if they want to go with the harmonious flow or strike out on the bumpy road of dissent. She’s studying at at a seminary now and studying one of the most influential dissenters in history. Did his dissent make the world worse?
