Frank Wanner was immensely proud of his “Quality Steering Committee.” Twenty years ago he told me how his brainchild had been written up in Academic Journals as an example of a new wave of cooperation between teachers and administrators. The Committee was a blend of both parties and would get together to plan for the future of ISD 709. I couldn’t wait to attend it because I believed that was just the sort of thing that a healthy school system should encourage. The Committee died shortly after I was seated on the Board. I did go to one of its last meetings in the basement of Old Central. It looked like a classroom and various folks came up to the front of the room and talked about important things. However, it soon became apparent that our administrators thought the meetings were a waste of time. Our Administrators called the DFT newsletter “the yellow rag” and they felt the same way about the QSC. It was a two-way street of distrust.
Within months, if not weeks, of being seated I discovered that plans were afoot to set up a Charter School in Duluth. It was obvious that the Edison group out of New York City had a big leg up on being selected. At the time the Minnesota Charter law, the first in the nation, was only five years old and that’s about all the charters there were in the state. Any plans I had for working with teachers over the next eight years would be clouded by the support I was to give the Charter.
The QSC lay fallow all those years but was reawakened when Supt. Keith Dixon came to Duluth. Just as with Mark Myles, Dixon’s Faribault teachers had passed a vote of no confidence in him but he had an easy solution to win Duluth teachers to his side – he settled contracts early and settled two successive contracts at a time covering four years rather than just two. There was none of the foot dragging that demonstrates a School District’s resistance to paying more for fewer teachers. Dixon had good reason to make friends with the teachers. He wanted the biggest, most expensive, school building project in Minnesota’s history. Once an organization rose up demanding a referendum he wanted even more desperately to avoid conflict with the teachers. Sometime during Dixon’s tenure Frank’s baby the Quality Steering Committee made a come back. It did so at about the same time as ISD 709 teachers began to clam up about how the District might be hurt by the Red Plan. Today it appears that the QSC still plays the roll of a teacher minder.
I wouldn’t know for sure. In my second year I asked Chair Seliga-Punyko to be appointed to it. I wasn’t. I also asked her if I could attend its sessions. I was told I couldn’t. I suspected that it was legally dubious to prevent me from attending but decided not to buck the system. I’d had more than my share of contention in those first two years on the School Board. (If you are reading this blog post years after I upload it just put “Art Johnston remove” in the search function and you will be presented with a small novel’s worth of posts.)
A couple posts from now I will upload a four-page letter I sent to the Teacher’s Union President some weeks back with judicious XXXXXXX’s placed over some of the names. I wrote the letter in a cold fury.
My letter mentions the QSC and refers to some members of the tight little gang that runs it. Getting on it seems to be a little like facing a fraternity black ball during Pledge Week. Alanna Oswald also asked to attend it and was told by the Superintendent that she wouldn’t be permitted to. I refer to this in the letter to President Burnham. I also ask Bernie why, if the membership is so restricted, Rosie Loeffler-Kemp was introduced as its soon-to-be new School Board representative at its December, 2013 get-together by Superintendent Bill Gronseth one month before she was seated on the Board!
At least this is what its secretary Anne Krafthefer wrote in the minutes of the December 2013 meeting. I recently asked the Superintendent how this had come to pass what with the limitations put on attendance. Mr. Gronseth explained it to me this way. Anne Krafthefer simply made two mistakes. She should have said that Board Chair, Ann Wasson, had made the introduction of Rosie and she should have explained that Rosie was introduced as a possible new Board representative to the QSC. I’ve known Anne Krafthefer for many years and she is an exceedingly bright and careful teacher. I’m surprised that Anne would have been so careless in drafting the permanent record of the organization. But, as I’ve clearly demonstrated just today, anyone can make a mistake.
I have heard some additional details about a recent meeting of the QSC that I describe in my letter to President Burnham. They seem out of character for an organization that is doing its best to make our schools a better place. Following an allegation by one of the QSC members that some teachers were “insubordinate” during a Think Kids meeting at their school there was a call for an investigation of these teachers for “insubordination.” When I got wind of this I quickly called our new Assistant Superintendent and explained that I was horrified by this allegation. I had attended the Think Kids meeting in question. Heck I’d attended six or seven of the meetings. I had seen nothing in this particular meeting that was in the least insubordinate. Some frustrated teachers brought their concerns to the meeting which was being held for feedback from all the school’s stakeholders. Board member Alanna Oswald was at this meeting too and saw nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, Rosie Loeffler-Kemp, our Board’s Clerk, was also in attendance. Rosie did become, and still is, the School Board’s representative on the QSC.
The QSC member who wanted the investigation is related to one of our school board members. Evidently this relative, and Rosie and the DFT’s President Burnham all demanded that an investigation be held on charges of insubordination. Forewarned by me that two of the Board’s members were witnesses and shocked by the allegation Mrs. Starzecki rethought her role. She held a “safe” talking session with the half dozen teachers to hear them out while offering words of encouragement and hope. Nicely done.
But the teacher who brought the complaint was not satisfied. She appealed to President Burnham to send the suspect teachers something to help them sit up straight and behave or rather keep their mouths shut. President Burnham put a Teacher’s Code of Conduct in unmarked envelopes and had the DFT’s union Steward at the school place them in the trouble maker’s mail slots. If this had happened at the time I wrote my letter to President Burnham I would have added this to the list of points I mentioned to her.
This episode sure isn’t what I would have imagined President Wanner had in mind for his Quality Steering. Of course, all those teachers complaining about the Red Plan shut up in unison. I guess that was a good sign of union/management cooperation. It might also explain the excellent coordination of the Anti-Central Sale forces which comprise such a small subset of the Duluth community.
PS. I did get one surprise out of this story. Evidently when one of the offending teachers inquired what the Code of Conduct was all about the teacher who brought the compliant told her to check my blog for any mention of “insubordination.” Golly, I didn’t put this in my blog before but I sure wouldn’t want to disappoint her.
