One after another of Duluth’s six school board candidate’s have spoken in praise of transparency. I like the talk. I want to see the walk.
So, will today’s candidates for the school board turn the Duluth Schools around? I don’t know but I completely agree with the Tribune’s editors that there is hope based on the forum they spoke at yesterday. I’d take any of them, even Dr. David Kirby who seems most wedded to Judy Seliga-Punyko’s vengeful actions, over today’s school board members.
That appraisal of Dr. Kirby is about as candid as it gets, just short of brutality. I think voters ought to keep my observation in mind because I know they are as sick of the current school board (including me no doubt) as I am. The only difference is that I’ve had to endure it up close day by day including a dubious motion of censure. A new Judy Seliga-Punyko is the last thing we need.
I’ve been just as candid in appraising the Tribune’s passive aggressive side taking. They routinely listened to, and gave comfort to, our now departing Board members over Art Johnston. One member of the editorial board walked out on a meeting with Art. The editors begged Art to admit that he was a violent, racist by resigning from the Board. They ridiculed Art when the Board dropped its attempt to remove him while squandering a quarter-of-a-million dollars on their vendetta.
And I heaped abuse on the editors when they slammed one of the two best candidates in the field in what appeared to me to be retaliation against me for my criticism of the editors. I’d like to think my blog criticism got them to reevaluate their pettiness because the reporters especially have accorded Alanna Oswald the respect she deserves. Even today’s editorial was a welcome change in that it lauded all six candidates equally for their vows to get along with each other.
But I can’t let the editorial off Scott free. It expressed doubts that Art’s dismissal of his suit had a genuine constitutional issue. In case any of them are reading this let me explain it again as I did yesterday.
The Trib’s editors wrongly described our new ethics policy as having been a “model policy” written by the Minnesota School Board Association. In fact the attorneys for Judy Seliga-Punyko’s School Board inserted poison pill language into the model language giving the Board the right to remove Art, me, or any other Board member for the release of private data. After what I posted yesterday and will post again today I am now subject to removal. Then again, the editors of the Duluth News Tribune may not fully understand the essence of our Constitution’s First Amendment based on their misunderstanding of the word “defamation.”
But my biting the elephant’s leg is no more helpful to our school’s future than the elephant’s editors picking on my favorite school board candidate. I’m ready to call a truce. I hope the Tribune’s editors are too. I share their enthusiasm for this year’s crop of hopeful and cooperative sounding school board candidates.
