When Judy Seliga-Punyko talked about the issue on March 18th she pointed an accusing finger at the Minnesota Department of Education for frog marching Duluth. She called the Department hypocrites for shaming Duluth and giving us grief. I found out afterwards that officials of the MDE had watched our meeting on youtube afterward. It must have been irritating for them after having given Duluth a million dollars and deemphasizing the missing subject matter. It was if Judy was resentful for MDE having thrown Duluth a life saver.
This is surprising considering Judy’s constant anguish about the loss of our Arts and Music curriculum. This was a case of abandoned science and math but maybe the fact that Laura MacArthur is a western school took the sting out of the loss.
It appears that in this election Judy has an acolyte running to take her place Dr. David Kirby. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve heard Dr. Kirby is a nice guy. But the early indications are that he regards Art and me as toxic elements on our school board. And yet its hard for me to believe Dr. Kirby, who before becoming a family practice physician, would have done anything any differently than Alanna Oswald. I don’t think even Judy would have reacted indifferently had the children of East Duluth’s doctors, lawyers and professionals discovered that their children’s schools had shucked off science and history to make sure the neediest children could pass math and reading tests. So, should he be elected to represent Eastern Duluth it will be interesting to see how Dr. Kirby will treat his western neighbors.
I hope that should he be elected Dr. Kirby will let our Human Resources Department know that he thinks Alanna Oswald ought to be cut a break. That is if the News Tribune gets its way and gets Renee VanNett elected instead.
This 23 minute segment of school board video gives a pretty accurate picture of how things were before the Board decided to pluck Art from their midst. We are reasonable people. Getting rid of the smell isn’t like driving a few blocks past the dead skunk on the road when the damn thing is lying in your back seat but that’s the car Dr. Kirby may find himself driving.
