I paid no attention to tonight’s school board meeting as my wife and I had been invited out to dine with old friends. We had gotten home and I was reading a book to my wife, In Tasmania” to help us prepare for our trip next year to Australia. Its an odd history. The first third very funny as it relates the odd coincidences surrounding the author and his connection with the “Father of Tasmania” a man who can hardly be described as anything other than a rascal. I had just ventured into a darker section about the “annihilation” of the original Tasmanian descendents when Jana Hollingsworth called with the news that Dr. Dixon had just announced his retirement. She wanted my thoughts. I joshed around much like the author of my book did as he described the Father of Tasmania. I said nothing flattering.
I asked if anyone was handcuffed and was told that no this had not happened. Loren Martell was permitted to speak and did so without interruption. I asked if Mr. Martell had said anything more inflammatory than I had in describing my thoughts about Dr. Dixon. No, in the reporter’s opinion, he had not. I told her it was just as well I had not spoken at the meeting for I might not have fared as well.
I’m not surprised at the announcement. I had to watch the news to learn it was not effective immediately but would end with Dr. Dixon’s contract after the conclusion of the school year. Standard procedure. Since Dr. Dixon would be a major issue in the election taking place at that time and since he has all but guaranteed that his Red Plan will be completed it makes sense to plan a departure before a potentially hostile school board takes over. He might even apply for another job even though he has achieved the age of retirement. If he does I’m sure the contents of this blog will make any potential employees he would supervise wary of him. Sadly his Faribault detractors were so eager to see the back of him that they zipped their lips when the Duluth School Board came sniffing around to interview the last remaining superintendent candidate available to them. The others all got other jobs or telegraphed their disinterest in Duluth’s superintendency.
I suspect the employee who penned the poisonous critique of Gary Glass and Art Johnston today for the Trib was part of an elaborate plot to pass on the good word concerning Dixon and the Red Plan. One of the emails I received from a witness to the meeting told me that a number of Dixon fans showed up to thank him for his leadership. Apparently most of them bestowed their thanks in the form of a trinity, “thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Another email from up north commented that it was amazing how the two Superintendents who had done so much for JCI’s bottom line resigned simultaneously after having fattened up the investments of JCI stockholders.
I think Dr. Dixon would have fit in very comfortably with the founders of Tasmania.
