Two emails to the School Board

The news of additional offers by other school entities to buy our white elephant closed schools is ripping a scab off yet again. This is part of an email to which I responded “I agree:”

The purpose of my letter today is to once again express my support for sale of old Duluth school buildings to buyers in ANY industry, including , and especially, other educational entities.I have been continually disappointed by ‘board policy’ to deny these sales, and feel heartily that doing so is fiscally irresponsible. As Board Members, you are good-faith stewards of the District’s financials; how can you in good faith walk away from a sale of a depreciating, unused asset which you have been – for several years now – trying to sell? Your policy on this issue is akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face.

In another email about overcrowded class sizes linked to an erudite column on the limitations of large classes I answered thusly:

Thank you for sharing this. At present there is no easy solution to this because more teachers mean more revenue and our tap is shut off. We can shift a little from one set of employees to another but the bond payments for the recent Red Plan steals millions of dollars out of our budget every year. I am extremely upset about this.

Of course selling a few old buildings might allow us to hire more teachers…….but for the Board majority that is out of the question.

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