I was working in my shop tonight when my wife told me I’d want to see the WDIO news story about the School Board and the civility “code.” Boy was she right.
I critics of the Red Plan have been tough on the sitting school board members but I’ve seen much worse. As angry as folks have been about the Red Plan, and IMHO quite justifiably, public comment at Board meetings doesn’t come close to some of the drubbings I experienced over eight years.
So, I watched WDIO’s video of the mike being shut off on two speakers by School Board Chair Tim Grover. (You can read about it here but the story is nothing without the video) It was a travesty and I say that as a fellow who looks back with great fondness on the time I served on the School Board with Tim. I’ve never had a better buddy than Tim in the political world. I can only speculate that the past two years have been very hard on Tim for him to have cut the mike on two speakers who were calm, polite even and who spoke with justified disappointment. I didn’t even hear them mention Tim Grover’s name. They simply quoted statements Tim made opposing the Red Plan and pointed out that they had voted for a candidate who opposed the Red Plan as a candidate.
This last comment surely stung Tim because Red Plan supporters have taunted its critics for two years by saying the community elected school board members to implement the Red Plan. Tim shut off the microphone.
Its the worst PR disaster for Tim since he voted to close Duluth Central back in the early 1990’s after promising in his campaign to fight to keep the school open. He may have enough scar tissue to blunt the criticism that will be leveled at him but its sad to see his “pragmatism” degenerating into a contempt for the folks who just can’t get over having the Red Plan foisted on them without a vote. He used to be a champion of such folks back when the two of us fought to keep Washington Junior High open. There was a time that he had a high degree of contempt for snooty East Duluthians – the kind of folks whose cars sported bumper stickers saying “my child is a Duluth East honor student.” But that was then.
