The title above is one good reason to reconsider the sale of Central. It is representative of the school board majority’s failure to grasp the full reality of the sale of Central. I’m grateful for Loren Martell’s close recording of and listening to our school board meetings and his capture of one of our colleague’s misconceptions. Loren is almost as windy as me when it comes to describing our Board decisions but his latest column the Duluth Reader is particularly good.
Here Loren teases out the truth:
“Like many other Duluthians, I’d been carrying around the misconception that the organization was a for-profit venture. The school currently contracts with a profit-seeking company called Edison Learning for business services like payroll, but intends to discontinue that relationship by the end of the fiscal year. I was surprised to learn, as I nosed about in this arena, that the company that leases property to Edison–Tischer Creek Building Company–is also nonprofit. I’d always assumed the leasing company had to be a for-profit, private venture. It isn’t true that Edison would be a ‘third, non-public high school.’ The organization is structured a bit differently than traditional public schools and is not unionized, but it is a free, public school.”
I have submitted my own op ed piece but to the News Tribune. It will run Monday and I’ve promised not put it in the blog until that date. I have not appeared in the Trib for quite some time although this particular op ed piece I wrote for them was my sixth attempt at one over the past couple weeks. Ultimately I focused on only one aspect of the debate. How not selling Central is a threat to ISD 709.
You will have to wait a couple days to read my discourse but I don’t think the Editorial Board would mind too much if I quoted my last sentence. It is:
“The public is welcome to hear our discussion and offer public comment.”
