While the District is prepared to prove you can put an elephant in a Prius for the sake of energy efficiency I’m interested in what’s going on at Central High. Even the folks in the West End who sent their kids to Lincoln are scratching their heads over not using Central for a junior high rather than spending $45 million in their neighborhood for a new middle school.
Yesterday a small group of folks left the Tea Party at the DECC and waved Let Duluth Vote signs at the bottom of Central’s drive leading out to Central Entrance. A lot of people were glad to see them there. Which raises the question: Why are the Central folks so quiet?
Part of the explanation rests on the Dixon Administration’s skillful use of threats and intimidation. An LDV supporter sent us this email about a Central parent who stopped in her store recently:
Hi! A mom came into my store last week named *** *****. She is very upset about the shuffling of her kids and Central closing. She said everyone at Central is MAD. Then I asked her where everyone that is mad is? Voices unheard. She said they were told different threats of sorts…program cuts, no advanced courses etc. by the district, so were made to believe by fear, it had to be. That is why we haven’t heard from the Trojans. They encouraged some students to leave if they weren’t going to graduate from DCHS. I said we need 1,000 people at the board meeting. Lots of Red and White. How can we get everyone from Central at that meeting? She said hold signs at the bottom of the hill after school when everyone is going up and down at the end of the day.”
I received this email this morning after some of our supporters did just that. I think a grass fire would be lots of fun.
While I’m on the subject of Central I’d like to toss in this tidbit I’ve been chewing on since I heard it a couple weeks ago. One Central Alum is the head of the Duluth Federation of Teachers and has remained so for a quarter of a century. We go way back as friends and adversaries. Frank Wanner was on the “Citizens Committee.” Frank, as the DFT President, is routinely appointed to important committees and if they are tedious he finds good reasons for skipping their meetings. This seems to have been the case for this assignment which was intended to plan the District’s future (and seal Central’s fate).
A friend has a son in one of Frank’s classes. (BTW – back in the 1980’s I used to substitute for Frank when he was doing union work) He told me this story.
Frank is a garrulous teacher who eats up lots of class time by talking about politics. He was joking about our (my) lawsuit against the District and JCI. He told his students that Harry Welty was going to get creamed by Johnson Controls with its deep pockets and ordered to pay court costs which JCI would jack up to the sky.
Frank is not the most reliable source for good information. Ten years ago someone told Al Netland, the head of the local AFLCIO that our ex Superintendent had been given a job with the Edison company as a reward for bringing the Edison schools to Duluth. Netland then wrote a column in the Duluth News Tribune passing on this misinformation. The former Superintendent sued him and an out-of-court settlement was arranged. Just how much the Union had to pony up for this libel is any one’s guess.
Any guesses as to where Al got his inside info?
