Its a shame Virgil Swing isn’t still helping write the editorials at the Trib. Although, considering the drop in subscriptions. Maybe its better that he write for the Budgeteer now. They still go to everybody:
“The expensive and redundant stadium planned for the Ordean site is just the latest unneeded spending in the infamous Red Plan, but it is the most egregious example of wasting public money at a time the School District is pleading poverty about money for classrooms, where education takes place.
Only recently did the public learn that school officials plan to put an expansive and expensive football and track stadium on the Ordean site for a new high school. The theory is that western Duluth has one (Public Schools Stadium at Denfeld) so the east end should also.
Bad theory. Public Schools (note the plural) Stadium can serve the whole city. After all, this dysfunctional board plans to cut three high schools down to two. No new football stadium is needed, and the district already has nice tracks at PSS and Duluth Central — and access to the one at UMD.
Kerry Leider, school district facilities director, defended the second stadium by saying the community asked for one. What the community really asked for was a public vote on the Red Plan.
On a related note, the district says work at the existing Lowell Elementary School will cost $7.5 million even though the only real construction there is a new roof. Many systems will be replaced, but that seems like a lot of money to upgrade an existing building. Some Red Plan foes with an engineering background should examine those costs.
And guess who will provide program and construction managers for that and the even more costly work at Homecroft Elementary? That will be the folks from Johnson Controls, the same company that led the district down the expensive Red Plan path in the first place.”
