My cell phone just notified me that I’ve gotten 27 new new email messages this morning. I was already 80 or 90 behind last night. It will be interesting to see if they are still running 9 to 1 to sell.
In the meantime, I’d like to share my text messaging with the friend who took my Cannon movie camera to capture last night’s three hours worth of speakers. I’ve bolded my replies and put his texts in italics.
Friend: There was enough space on the cards to record one notch above the lowest….
Me: Thanks XXXXX,
I spaced the battery recharge. The meeting was calm and inconclusive enough that its was a win for the “don’t sell” side. I think that decision is like shooting themselves in the foot.
I am not sure how I will use the video but I am glad to have it. Thanks again.
Some of the ISD 709 teachers are genuinely afraid of the unknown because the known is already bad enough. The resentment goes back 20 years to how Edison was originally implemented.
Friend: If you take people with direct ties out, on both sides, the feedback wasn’t even at all. Far more of the don’t sell people had an interest like being a union leader or district employee, etc…
Unfortunately, the “don’t sell” crowd doesn’t care about nuances like that, they won’t let facts get in their way.
Read Don Ness FB, he summed it up well. If it came to a popular vote, it wouldn’t even be close.
If the Board votes against the sale, it will only make the charter folks more entrenched and turn more normal people against the District.
Me: The win was about influencing the four Board members who don’t want to disappoint the “don’t sell” constituencies. You are right “sell” would win hands down in a vote. The results of not selling are just as you describe.
Friend: If the 4 board members keep this up, the change you and Art seek will eventually come. Unfortunately, the District will still be stuck with that building.
Me: Yup.
The poor Edison folks never asked to be pitted against 709 and made into social pariahs. They will continue toiling away quietly in their wetlands keeping local families happy – especially those with special needs kids.
Friend: I have a neighbor putting her three kids in Proctor next year. We live in East Duluth but she works near Proctor. That says something. With my kids going to Edison, ISD 709 just lost 5 more elementary students.
The ISD folks don’t get that Edison is a symptom, not the problem.
Me: Yup.
Cluelessness must be infectious.
