Tomorrow’s Trib story quoted me as I described our School Board’s futile efforts to pass an operational levy this fall. But my comments pale before those of others who addressed the Board tonight.
This is what Trina LeGarde told the Board:
“I am beginning to wonder if I live in the same city as you do.
Two headlines from the Duluth News Tribune for Tuesday, August 12th were:
City To Lay Off Up To 217 Workers; 47 full-time, 170 seasonal and temp employees slated to lose jobs in budget-balancing plan
Fuel Costs Force Changes in School Bus Routes; Northland districts are looking for ways to transport their kids more efficiently
Another headline from the Duluth News Tribune Saturday, August 16th: City’s Black Friday: 169 Jobs Cut; Difficult Days Ahead
So what do these headlines have to do with the Red Plan you may ask? For one, while the city is having to cut jobs and is desperately looking for ways to balance their budget, the Duluth School District is spending millions of dollars of tax payer money – all without a vote. An editorial cartoon from Sunday’s newspaper pictured this: The city of Duluth, being portrayed as a beggar on the street corner, looking for a hand-out, while the satisfied and overweight Red Plan walks on by without a care in the world. This simple cartoon conveys exactly what the citizens of Duluth have been trying to communicate to you for months: that the Red Plan, as is, is just too expensive for our city. We need a simpler, more affordable plan.
Tony Stauber (a gentleman who I do not know) had an excellent letter to the editor in yesterday’s Duluth News Tribune. In it he said, “Taxpayers were taken to the cleaners by being denied their right to vote on the biggest and most outrageous levy in district history to remodel and build new in addition to closing six schools. Ignoring us soured support for any renewal or increased levy.” These are difficult, yet truthful words that I believe you need to hear.
The likelihood of the fall levy failing should not only concern you now, but it should have concerned you long ago. When you chose to continually ignore the many valid concerns that the citizens of Duluth have brought forward re the Red Plan, you eroded their trust in you, as well as their confidence in your ability to make sound decisions on their behalf. If the fall levy fails it will be by your hand, not ours.
Superintendent Dixon has already stated that a local levy is no longer sufficient, that it will not solve long-term needs, and that cuts will continue to be made for the next 5 – 7 years. So just how exactly is the fall levy going to help the students both now and in the future? Will it reduce the class sizes? At what grade levels? Will it give the students 7 class periods instead of 6? Would that be permanently or just temporary? And what about those science lab supplies that the students at Denfeld are in dire need of? When can they expect to receive them?
You see, while I do believe that our students deserve an excellent education, before I vote on another levy I want to know exactly what my money is going to be used for.
The citizens of Duluth trusted you to make decisions that would be in the best interest for all of our students. However, we did not give you the authority to tax us without representation. There is still time for you to pause and listen and make some necessary changes to the Red Plan before the operational levy fails to pass in the fall – which will only hurt the students and the teachers even further. The question is: Do you want to? I’ve said it before and it bears repeating: New and/or remodeled schools won’t do the students of Duluth any good if there is inadequate programming in them. You will give me, as well as other parents, no other choice but to look elsewhere to educate our children. This should not be. I should be able to educate my children here in Duluth.
Thank you.”
