I frequently joke that asking me what’s going on in the Duluth Schools is pointless because I’m only a school board member and the last person to know anything. Tonight’s big news is just more proof of this.
Oh, I found out there was to be a closed meeting next Tuesday to discuss a possible sale of the Central property but that was it. When rumors started getting out today that it was for real and that Edison was the purchaser I thought it impossible. None of my Edison connections breathed a word of it to me. But Art Johnston called me and assured me it was a 100% deal. The only thing he didn’t tell me was the price. I still didn’t believe him.
Well, the price is a shocker. I’d heard rumors that Edison had offered to buy the Central site for ten million a couple years ago but our Administration never brought the offer to the school board.
I’m not usually caustic but an email from Alanna Oswald complaining about discovering the truth of the rumors before getting to the Closed meeting prompted me to chime in to whomever it may have concerned:
I have to concur with Alanna. Keeping the Board in the dark so that they have to read about what’s going on in the local newspaper is not only imprudent it suggests contempt for the School Board’s primacy. Yes, one of us could have leaked the news but as we know our Board always has the option of invoking censure to rebuke the informer.
I have heard it alleged that the District got a big offer on Central once before but that the Board was never informed of this by the Administration. I wonder if this might help explain why a buyer might decide to inform the public ahead of time?
Finally, I love the Mark Twain quote. “First God created the idiot. That was for practice. Then he created the School Board.” I don’t, however, enjoy learning that the School Administration apparently takes Mark Twain’s evaluation to heart.
For a school board facing a $3.3 million shortfall and currently discussing gutting its Administrative Office’s, third floor support staff this $4 million increase in a previous offer is what most folks would call an offer too good to refuse. But this is the Duluth School Board. Only time will tell.
Tonight our East High School representative to the School Board, Spencer Fredrickson, sent us a letter representing students at East who are very concerned for the mental well-being of East Students. Some of the staff that attend to our students are on the chopping block. His friends have a stake in this offer.
I can’t predict what the School Board will do but this is approaching a slam dunk for me.
I can’t blame the Tischer Creek folks for leaking this information. It was their only guarantee that the public would find out about it. I’ll save my arguments pro and con for a later post……..after we have our closed meeting.
