I was impressed with this letter to the editor today. It points out how hard it can be to follow the consequences of poorly explained decisions made by the Duluth School Board. I put most of the blame on the Administration which has never felt that telling a straight story in any way benefited them or their friends in control of the School Board. Some of it I blame on misplaced trust by folks who can not conceive of School Administrators as being anything other than committed to children. And finally it may reflect that a new reporter is having to learn a great deal about a complex story starting from scratch.
The letter does a good job explaining how the reading public is shortchanged no matter what the reason. It begins:
I know the News Tribune newsroom is running on a skeleton staff, and I know the subject matter is at times complex, but I have to draw attention to inconsistencies and contradictory reporting in the March 12 story, “School district plans to cut 30 jobs.”
The story reported that 30 non-teaching positions face elimination. What are “non-teaching positions?” Clearly, there’s a definition, referenced in the story and within School Board parlance. It begs to be explained and, in fact, is central to the story. It’s actually in the headline.
