When I served on the School Board I persistently advocated a two high school district. Early on I’d run into people who told me that it was a wild, impractical idea. As time went on and I got a few op ed pieces in the Trib people came around to seeing the logic of my proposal.
Ironically, the logic bent over on itself with the Red Plan. Many of the folks who came to see a two high school model as a sensible one bought into the Red Plan because it left Duluth with two high schools.
But there was a great difference between my plan and the Red Plan. Mine was meant to pour more money into the classroom. By closing a high school we’d have saved on building maintenance; perhaps as much as $1.5 million annually. The Red Plan adds an average of $20 million in taxes to the district annually over its twenty year bonding life. $400 million divided by 20 yrs. = $20 million. Its killing our student programming. The cuts to our school programming in order to fund the Red Plan are criminal. Its created a vicious cycle. By driving families out of the District we are having to pay other Districts with our state revenue to educate our open enrolled students. Why the Hell the Duluth News Tribune hasn’t written a story about this I have no idea.
If Duluth had been given the chance to vote on the Red Plan I’d have gone along with some skepticism but without a peep.
This news story which I heard about last night only appeared a couple hours before the meeting it announced. The District is once again hiding its Red Plans from the public. But someone was paying attention and got the neighbors to show up anyway. I was sent a report on the meeting. I condensed and posted it. Today’s Online Trib doesn’t carry the story yet but it did make the morning newsprint version. Sarah Horner reports the same info as my blog posts but she puts the attendance higher. She says 70 people attended not 50. Dr. Dixon must have had a heart attack.
The feedback on this story which I could only find by punching in “Sarah Horner” in the search box is interesting. Twelve comments and all but one are caustic.
I particularly liked this one which suggested that I’m having the same success educating the public on the Red Plan that I once had advocating for a two-high school district. From J C. Duluth, MN 03/24/2009 8:31 PM:
I didn’t support Harry Welty and his “Let Duluth Vote” campaign to begin with. I was a staunch supporter of the Red Plan. Since then, I have noticed the way the school board operates by slowly letting out pieces of information, making misleading statements, not questioning Dixon, but the last straw was eminent domain and the ridiculous addition of a second football facility crammed in at Ordean. This has to stop. I now fully support Welty and his lawsuit against the district.
Note: I’ve been knocked for abandoning my preference for two high schools. I haven’t. I simply have acknowledged that if by spending a lot less money than the Red Plan demands we could offer a richer school program I’d have no objections to keeping three high schools. Our Board has already borrowed $160 million dollars. We have to pay the banks back. So, if we can shrink the Red Plan building and win state permission to put some of that $160 million into the classroom and maybe even return some to the taxpayer AND keep three high schools…..
I’m a pragmatist. When life gives me lemons I make lemonade.
