I read Dave Griffen’s letter in today’s Trib with interest. Dave is a good guy. He’s a teacher who has taken on some quasi-administrative roles over the years. He is a bit of a global thinker and he’s generally been able to shrug off some of his union parochialism. When I ran afoul of the Union Dave regarded my actions with some measure of charity. I’d say he’s has always been quick to support the school administration. He has certainly found no fault with the Red Plan through the Dixon years as evidenced by this line in his current letter.
“Superintendent Keith Dixon was the right person for changing one of the four: organizational readiness…. He helped focus our attention on the windshield and the road ahead. We instinctively knew our buildings were outdated, poorly located and detrimental to any serious effort at educational reform.”
I haven’t included the whole paragraph because it is curiously organized. Dave mentions outdated buildings but doesn’t exactly say that Dixon was the guy who got us to fix them up. Its kind of like Dave is suggesting that all Dixon did was to get us to see through the windshield. Whether building a whole suite of new schools has anything to do with “organizational readiness” or not isn’t clear either. Frankly,the Red Plan has all the prescience of the Maginot Line. (Hitler simply marched his armies around it and when he did the French couldn’t turn the guns around because it never occurred to them that the Germans would ever be on the other side of their colossal weaponry.)
Writers of letters never title them and the heading of this one really misses the embarrassing point: “Reader’s View: Dixon’s successor will face unique challenges” The real point is made clear in this Griffen statement:
“If the next superintendent cannot add those two to what Dixon and his leadership team have created, then their work on building improvement has been for naught and Plan B folks will have the last laugh.”
The whole point of the letter seems to be rallying Red Plan supporters to make sure their critics don’t get the last laugh. Considering the District’s downward spiral as Dixon prepares to set sail I don’t blame Griffen et al for second guessing having hitched their stars to the Superintendent. Red stars are just one step away from collapsing in on themselves.
