I haven’t counted the words in today’s series of All CAPS posts. Its not nearly the 10,000 words I’d imagined a day ago but its been enough to give me the sense that I’m showing the public the sausage making that has gone into the Duluth School Board’s politics. I wouldn’t buy it but that’s sort of the point with sausage. You never eat it raw. The optimist in me believes that something good will come from our School Board if only it cooks enough. I’ve said before that I’ve never met a school board member who didn’t want things to be better for children and schools. I believe that’s true of the members of the Duluth School Board as well.
I had at least one more post planned as this day went on. That had to do with the meeting I had with the Superintendent on Wednesday morning. I thought it would be A one on one meeting, our first in eight months, but that was not to be. The Chairman’s best friend Bill Westholm was present when I arrived. I was not disappointed. It was a good addition to our meeting. I’d originally thought that Mike himself ought to be present but his proxy was a good addition. I think Westholm is looking out for his friend Miernicki’s situation much as Mike has taken a hand in looking out for Westholm who has soldiered on bravely and good-naturedly with the MS that keeps encroaching on him. I was candid. I took in some of what I was told with considerable skepticism meaning I’m not sure my level of candor was reciprocated. Still, I’ve decided that for now I’ve laid out all the sausage making that the public needs to see. There may be a point of diminishing returns at which point my plan to to restore this Board to good function will succumb to resentment.
There was one thing I will mention for now that was said in that meeting. It was suggested that Chair Miernicki and Member Rosie Loeffler-Kemp were given a list of organizations that could guide the board in a session to get past our ill will. It was further suggested that because the Board needs to look to its own devices that the Administration did not more to push a session on getting along better. However the ball dropped I don’t think its too late to attempt some sort of get together where we don’t talk policy we talk trust which would allow us to meet without violating the Open Meeting law.
I campaigned on the promise of “honesty” so I will be candid with my fellow board members if some sort of conclave is organized. In the absence of such meetings thus far I have taken it upon myself over the past seven or eight months to share my thoughts more widely with the public in this blog. Its extraordinarily time consuming to meeting with six other Board members at their convenience one at a time when you have hours worth of conversation that needs to take place. Its even slower when folks you try to meet with play hard to get.
I know that my candor must make a lot of folks uneasy. I’m sixty three and have a lot less time than I had when I was 45 and got elected to the School Board for the first time. Our challenges are also greater than they were eighteen years ago. I’m patiently impatient for our board to begin acting like grown ups. If I have to wait until a new majority takes over so be it but it will mean wheel spinning for another year and a half. I don’t like that prospect.
I took a look at my blog post in the Reader Weekly today. I’d sent it in with some mistakes in it but they seem to have been edited out by the Publisher’s staff. I hadn’t heard back from the Reader about whether they would put it in or not so I was pleasantly surprised to see it today. Even better it made sense to me. I read it three times over in print and every time I had the satisfaction of seeing that I had done a good job relaying my thoughts about Attorney Mary Rice’s report and doing so with some panache and economy.
Art Johnston thinks this school board is about to remove him from office. I keep telling Art that this Board is not that stupid. I’ve also told Art that he’s not a very good reader of people. I hope I’m right. If I am right that will be part one on this Board’s recovery of its good name.
Part two will be some attempt to find a facilitator who can get us all together and talking to each other rather than slinking around with knives hiding behind our backs. The Civility Project has been desperately trying to get someone to OK such a get together. Let’s hope part two comes to pass.
As promised, or threatened, today’s ALL CAPS posts require too much time for proof reading and editing for my taste. They will only have about three thousand readers online over the next thirty days. In contrast my blog post reprinted as the Stinking Fish in the Reader Weekly could be read by as many as 30,000 readers. I’m glad that the fish got a good proof reading.
