No news is bad news

Its Sunday morning and once again I put a bare five hours into my slumbers before waking a little after 4AM Pacific time. I gathered up the computer to head to the lobby to blog.

The bell captain just passed by tomake sure I wasn’t some vagrant off the streets using their WiFi early in the morning. I look a little scruffy because I forgot to pack the recharger for my electric shaver.

We head to the airport in an hour and a half to fly home to Duluth so I was glad to seem light email traffic which I should be able to polish off before boarding. The First two reminded me of what is at stake and will stay with me in the final drive to rustle up the last $30,000.

The first was the blog post Brandon Stahl composed on his blog over a week ago about why he quoted a City Attorney’s warning to City Councilors without asking permission. He almost apologized for his sense of obligation to report the news when it was inconvenient. At least he reported it. At least he doesn’t regard the Trib as the Chamber of Commerces happy talk newsletter.

The second came from a Piedmont parent and covered a story I’ve been trying to get the Trib’s Ed Reporter to talk about – the exodus of students from the Duluth Schools. If I’m right that we’ve lost 10% of our eligible enrollment that’s news. Its close to $8 million state dollars and goes a long way to explain the teacher layoffs. Most of it can be laid at the feet of Dr. Dixon.

When the City-wide PTA Chair raised some cain about this a month ago or more in an angry email to the School Board the intrepid Ed reporter told me she trying to get an interview but he wasn’t returning his calls. As far as the Trib’s reading public knows nothing’s happening in Piedmont. Read this and ask yourself whatever happened to Woodward and Bernstein.

I just wanted to pass on something I heard Thursday. Many parents from Piedmont have pulled their kids out of Piedmont. Many to the Edison’s. The mom I spoke to who was a PTA officer for many years said she was angry for being lied to by Dixon. I watched Piedmont being emptied a couple weeks ago. This mom said construction isn’t starting for a year. Why did they close it a year a head of schedule? She said one year at Lincoln the Piedmont parents would have dealt with, two NO. They have opened “Pandora’s Box” and it will be nearly impossible to close it.. construction isn’t
Piedmont was closed a year ahead of time as the board wanted it closed a couple years ago when Chester Park was closed. Now they got their way, didn’t they, for a couple years? Too bad they had to lose so many children out of the district doing this. This board, Dixon and his cronies have zero common sense. (Not you Gary)

Blessings,
B

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