From Florida

After four lousy nights and an all-day marathon trip to Florida I’ve actually had two acceptable night’s worth of sleep. Hallelujah!

What I’ve feared for two months might come to pass has arrived. I face three months minimum and quite possibly ten months of fighting with the current school board majority, the loyal subordinates of the Administration and a school attorney who is desperate not to lose his biggest client. Not only that, but the way I propose to fight a war for public opinion will entail the courts and that will require my raising sizable amounts of money. If I am “lucky” and it is over with by April it may not be much more than thirty or forty thousand dollars. If it goes the distance the sky’s the limit. I’ll be fundraising across the nation to civil libertarians, folks who care about public education and anyone else that might have a dog in this fight.

One of the court cases would be Art’s fight, of course. How dare a vague and ill thought state law give a school board such unlimited scope to remove a fellow board member at the expense our First amendment guarantee of free speech. The other court case could be mine. I’ve already spoken to one attorney about my situation. His advice was that I should keep my lips zipped. If I don’t keep my lips zipped that could result in my own lawsuit or, at best, a $15,000 fine.

I’m treading carefully here because any court case involving me involves my family as well and I’ve already been a sometimes notorious burden for my loved ones. I’ve made the front pages before and not always in the most flattering of ways. I’ve always wondered if that didn’t drive my son out of the ISD 709 schools. He’s not the extrovert I am and I know he didn’t enjoy the bright glare from his Dad.

At the School board’s organizational meeting on Monday, the one I decided to delay my flight to Florida to attend, Rosie Loeffler-Kemp leaned over to me and asked brightly if my kids had come home for the holidays. I nodded my assent as I thought about the two-hour conversation I’d had with my son. He came home with his girlfriend on the day I made the front page for having been censured by Rosie and company. They had even quoted me calling my mistake “boneheaded” in their resolution to add insult to injury. I did my best to explain that I felt a solemn obligation to see justice done. Thankfully he’s out of town studying for his doctorate degree and not in a public school classroom with all his teachers talking behind his back about me.

As for my extroverted daughter she once told folks after my first ever election success (running for the school board for the fourth time) that at least she “didn’t have to go to school with a paper bag over her head.”

Thanks a million Dad!

And then there is Claudia. Not only is there the fear that I could cause us to be sued eating into the money that she earned in a lifetime and that I enjoyed during my modest years of being a house Dad, school board member and snow sculptor, there is also the unwelcome notoriety. She has for years answered the inevitable question, “are you related to Harry Welty?” with the reply, “only through marriage.”

Well, all the mental ferment from the last year, the last few months and the Censure have helped me plot out a sound plan for the year I never expected and that I wouldn’t have wished on my worst enemy. I think I have a reasonable battle plan. I’m not just resigned to it. Better than that, I think I will be able to sleep reasonably soundly for most of the year despite the carnage our foolish school board is imposing on Duluth. As I’ve said on more than one occasion. God Damn us all. Now that’s a cheery thought to go to bed with every night. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Oh, and that last bit of “derogation” of mine directed at the School board. That’s the kind of stuff the board majority is trying to remove Art for having said. Screw the Constitution.

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