The Trib has now endorsed all four incumbents making it clear, if there was ever any doubt, that they are pulling for the Red Plan without reservation.
They are supporting school board members who long ago stopped asking questions, if they ever asked any, about the efficacy of the plan. Two years ago Nancy Nilsen said that the Red Plan, then not even in the blueprint stage, was too far along to put to a vote.
Her true motivation was the same as another champion of the Superintendent former Board member Bevan Schraw who told me that the Red Plan would have been defeated in a referendum. Like Nilsen, Bevan didn’t want to risk letting voters tamper with JCI’s vision.
Over the past two years Nancy has repeatedly claimed that additions to the plan would require no new taxes and that the building would save the taxpayers money in the long run. The first claim was patently absurd the second extremely doubtful. This is what passes for leadership according to the standards of the Editorial Board. But I guess I shouldn’t be all that surprised. The Trib’s editors have explained that spending $100 million less on the Red Plan will actually cost taxpayers more.
As for Mary Cameron, I think her frequent absences from School Board meetings which have been legion reveals her lack of interest in anything other than seeing the Red Plan to completion. If she is elected it is unlikely she will put any more time into the School Board than she has during her last term.
In my experience most school board members enthusiasm flags after two four year terms. I’ve yet to see any board member in a third term do anything but go through the motions. The one thing that could recommend a third terms is experience. Judging by the third terms of both Laura Condon and Mary Cameron their fourth terms will be equally uninspired. But they will see the Red Plan through.
And that is, of course, the soul criteria for a DNT endorsement. If its candidates prevail we can expect the Board to continue with its hands off policy on the Red Plan. There will be no oversight of the next $200 million to be spent on the Red Plan.
The contractors and JCI will be greatly relieved.
