Kevin Skirwa-Brown wrote an op-ed piece a couple days ago about the disarray on the Duluth School Board. Let me note that our School Board is fully capable of dysfunction even without me serving on it. It was also gratifying to see the Trib write a hard hitting editorial about the importance of transparency. When Art Johnston and I were clamoring for transparency the Trib’s editors didn’t make a peep.
Much of what Kevin says I agree with. Kevin is one of the leaders of the equity group one which Art and I offered a lot of support to before we left office. So, I was a tad chagrined when I read his concluding sentence: “In the last election we made some progress in electing School Board members who valued transparency and equity. We have more work to do.
Art and I argued for two years to put all our meetings on cable TV. Art sent a dozen requests for information with my support and only after he left the board did he get some measure of it when the State came down hard on the School District. I mistakenly said the District paid a fine a few posts ago. To clarify, rather than risk paying a fine and for all Art’s legal fees the District offered a settlement of $55,000. That was unprecedented. I will agree with Kevin that the new Board has seen fit to follow Art and my example where transparency is concerned. That doesn’t include the incumbent I’m challenging who got dinged in the Trib’s Editorial.
The meat of Kevin’s op-ed is speculation about Denfeld Principal Tonya Sconiers and the reason she fell afoul of the Administration. Kevin writes: I feel we have an administration striking back at the only target it can for her outspokenness and perhaps as a way to cut off information to community members who rely on such information regarding policies and practices that are inequitable.
I don’t buy this and, unlike Kevin, I’ve been on the Board to look at this relationship up close. In fact, its just because of such uninformed speculation that jumped at the chance to have an internet presence. Even reporters, rarely talked about the human dynamics of school board actions. Tonya Sconiers was a team player right up to my election in 2013 until the conclusion of my four year term. When the Denfeld teachers sent the Board a letter begging for changes at Denfeld she jumped down their throats forcing them to send the Board a big “nevermind.” But the cat was out of the bag. The Trib wrote a story about the teacher’s concerns and I blogged about it. I did not however, mention Tonya’s successful squelching of the letter.
Until today I’ve only mentioned Tonya in four posts (unless I misspelled her name which I’ve done before) I’ve known her for twenty years or so and I always found her enthusiasm infectious and engaging. She was a natural to post as a principal and a coup for an administration whose hiring of minority staff has been so dreadfully anemic. Kevin is correct in writing about her Big Momma temperament. It does put some people off. I further agree with Kevin that the written directions given to Tonya by our new Assistant Administrator are embarrassing. I guess her outspokenness wasn’t a problem until she fell afoul of the Administration. And I am led to believe that she did make some serious mistakes. We won’t know for a long time what those might have been and that will only strengthen sympathy for Tonya…….among many. I can assure my readers, however, that Tonya made many enemies. Several of them (former students) stomped on her apparent grave in Facebook posts I ran across. The teachers who were squelched when she was the darling of the Administration are also not in Tonya’s fan club.
Kevin is right to be concerned, but as for Tonya’s advocacy for Denfeld? It appears to me that it grew more vocal as her position with the Administration grew more precarious not the other way around.
And one more detail to demonstrate Tonya’s status as a team player. I wrote this post about my most “distressing day” as a school board member. Its the day the District’s hired gun lawyer came in with her “stinking fish” semi-indictment of Art Johnson. It was a Kangaroo Court and I was still under the delusion that my fellow board members had a shred of decency. I thought if I could just act out what had obviously happened I could save the day and put a bad chapter to bed. So, when I bulled out onto the Boardroom floor to pantomime how it could have appeared that Art had shoved Bill Gronseth the Board adjourned itself and I was left standing out in the open like a first class fool. No one accused them of foolishness for pursuing this when the target of the “shove” said he hadn’t been shoved.
What I didn’t write in the blog post was that Tonya Sconiers came charging out to stand in front of me on the Board room so that I could not move. However I turned she stood under my chin for what seemed like ages as I realized I had no where to escape to. Tonya was making her defense of the Superintendent manifest. I tried joking with her but got nothing but the evil eye. I asked if she wanted to dance. More eye. Something caused a break between Tonya and Bill. I strongly doubt that it was Denfeld.
BTW – I am delighted that Mr. Skirwa-Brown is part of the Equity group. Nearly a year before the 2017 election I tried without success to coax a Denfeld parent into running for the school board. Kevin was one of the people I was angling for. He could have won. He’s frustrated with the Board now because he doesn’t have a say. I understand. That’s why I’m running. He didn’t
