ISD 709, The latest threat?

The banner headline in today’s Trib pretty well astounded me: Duluth Diocese considers new Catholic high school. It begins:

The Duluth Diocese is considering restructuring existing Catholic schools in Duluth and possibly opening a Catholic high school in the city for the first time in more than 40 years.

The story itself is probably not that much of a threat to ISD 709. There are fewer than 700 students in Duluth proper’s Catholic schools and the number of students they think they might add from 9th to 12th grade is just above negligible, around 30 per grade. Plus, its not easy to start a new school especially with numbers like these. As a non public school it will largely be tuition based and I presume tuition for a high school will be higher than for elementary grades although I don’t know that for sure. The Catholic schools no longer have access to so many priests and nuns to teach without salaries.

These are the optics. The Catholic church, so badly discredited for years of betraying children, is considering making a comeback in secondary schooling in Duluth. Really? If ISD 709 wasn’t having such a hard time I can’t imagine it would occur to the Duluth Dioceses to consider such a proposal.

I feel like an ancient mastodon stuck in the la Brea tar pits with vultures landing on my back and dire wolves circling the pit’s edge.

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