Today’s DNT story about our discussion of extending the Superintendent’s contract during the Human Resource Committee is not inaccurate. On the other hand it fails to convey the full mood at the meeting and/or the comments made in our long discussion. The Discussion – absent two of the Board members who were very much on my mind, Chair Harala and Clerk Rosie Loeffler-Kemp, went so long that the representative of Many Rivers Montessori who waited patiently for an hour and a half had to leave before we had a chance to invite him to speak to us or to give him the cold shoulder.
I’m sure he got an earful. Art Johnston told me the head of the Montessori, Mr. Niedermier, has a background as a mediator.
So far only 35 folks have bothered to peek at our 2 and a half hour video. Scanning through the meeting to report the point at which I gave my ten minute peroration I could see the camera looking down on me captured a long period a deep reflection. I tuned out everything but the Board conversation and tried to think about what I could add to a conversation that didn’t really reflect what I was thinking. There are times when the elephant in the room can no longer be ignored and it took me ten minutes to give birth to the darned pachyderm. If you don’t have the patience to listen I can sum it up now simply.
In the Orwell novel I read for a ninth grade class, Animal Farm, there is a famous quote. “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
Art, Alanna and I are unequal animals in our farm. Information seems to be shared by the majority that the three of us have to find out through the grapevine often much later. The Three River’s offer to buy one of our empty buildings is just the latest example. The response by the majority to our complaints is to circumvent our inquiries. Today’s meeting was an example of the circumvention – Chair Harala directed Administration to create a resolution that would violate the policy which allows three Board members to place a topic on our agenda – in this case a presentation by Many Rivers.
Unlike the other animals on Orwell’s farm three of us are not willing to sit by and be rolled over by a majority. That has been the source of much conflict since I rejoined the Board almost three years ago. The question I can not answer is what is the role of our Superintendent in this process. Mr. Gronseth has suggested to me that he has no power or authority to countermand or influence our chairperson and the majority that elected them to be more open or fairminded. None of that contemplation of mine makes it into Jana Hollingsworth’s story.
You may not have to endure watching the video to capture the sense of the meeting. Loren Martell sat through the entire two and a half hours. He can’t seem to give the doggonned school board a rest despite an attempt earlier to divorce himself from his uncompensated labors to tell our sorry saga. If he writes another Duluth Reader column it probably won’t show up this Friday but the the following. I’m sure it will be gloomily entertaining.
When I was elected chair of the Board over George Balach in January of 1998 Dr. Balach told someone that I was no different than any other Board member. He explained that I only had one vote. The same could be said for the more recent generation of Board Chairs…….or at least it ought to be said of them.
