What’s happening north of us so reminds me of Duluth’s Red Plan which justified itself by saying we would save two million a year in staff cuts years before the Red Plan buildings would be completed. There were two million in staff cuts all right but they had nothing to do with the Red Plan. Our school board simply cut staff to pay off the banks that loaned them money.
Perhaps the Duluth Schools could have weathered a two million cut in staff if everything else had gone well. That risky gamble was constantly undermined by the Board and a host of unanticipated calamities. For instance, the Board added unadvertised extras to the Red Plan like a stadium at the new Ordean High. They lost the public relations war when voters refused to vote for extra levies in the one vote the School board had no choice but to offer Duluth residents. They gave the teachers unaffordable salary raises to keep them quiet. They began losing students when the classroom programs were cut and class sizes grew. They lost millions in state revenue when students left leaving the District to contemplate even larger class sizes. The state held back on revenue because of the State’s fiscal nightmare. Now anti-tax Republicans have taken decisive control over both houses of the legislataure for the first time in 40 years.
Today’s DNT Story lists additional draconian cuts to the public school program. As they are put into effect you can be sure it will be harder than ever to retain our students.
The list of possible reductions includes:
1 The layoff of four administrators, including three assistant principals to save $487,500.
2.Reducing expenses in athletics, up to $750,000 (the district is suggesting as little as $200,000).
3.Reducing custodial services at a savings of $500,000.
4.Changing bus routes to pick up only students who live 2 miles from their school or farther.
5.Reducing special education expenses by $700,000.
6.Cutting the Habitat program for teen parents.
7.Reducing positions in media and music at middle schools.
8.Increasing class sizes by one student.
9.Moving to a four-day week.
10.Restructuring the days of elementary, middle and high schools.
And the drum beat will continue. Soon an unexpected multi-million gift from President Obama’s stimulus will run out.
To keep the public on its side the District has fed a gullible local media fantastic stories like the one about $32 millions of Red Plan savings that the School Board will be able to throw around like Scrooge McDuck in his vault of gold bullion.
If the feedback on the Trib’s Online site to the budget cut story is any indication no one much believes anything the School District has to say for itself. What’s that old saying? “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me a hundred times and I must be a graduate of your school system.”
These caustic comments suggests that the flood of lost students will continue apace along with additional revenue losses. Many of these comments are incoherent but after many years of arrogance and fiasco its hard to fault people for their apoplexy. Duluth will have to find a way to rise above this apoplexy if it ever hopes to restore health to its public schools.
JCI should give every cent it has been paid for the Red Plan back to the citizens of Duluth. And they should cart their ten million dollars worth of useless air conditioners out of town while they are at it. Maybe we can sell them on E-Bay for ten cents on the dollar.
