From today’s Trib:
No matter how you feel — whether it’s that retiring Superintendent Keith Dixon did a whale of a job leading the school district through a long-overdue facilities upgrade or that Dixon was a tyrant who rammed through an expensive and unnecessary construction agenda — you have a stake in the picking of Duluth’s next school superintendent.
An enormous stake.Meaning you’Â’ll want to start paying extra close attention this week. And that begins today when the Duluth School Board is scheduled to review and select semi-finalist candidates at a meeting at 5:45 p.m. Tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. And continuing on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The School Board members will interview those semi-finalists. The board is then expected on Wednesday to hold discussions and select finalists to interview to replace Dixon, whoÂ’s retiring.
Looking ahead, those finalists will be interviewed over three days, from April 27 through April 29. The process will include open public forums, with times to be announced. The School Board is expected to make its final pick on April 29. On May 17, the board is scheduled to act on the new superintendentÂ’s contract and on July 1 the new school superintendent is expected to take office.
Before we get too far ahead, though, note that this week’s meetings and interviews all are at Historic Old Central High School, 215 N. First Ave. E., and all are open to the public — just as they should be to assure transparency, openness and a true public process.
Government accessibility, including to a process as critical as this one, means little, however, if the public doesn’t take advantage by participating. Or at least by paying attention, something every Duluth district resident should want to do — whether they feel the good work of the current administration must continue and be built upon or whether they want to make sure the new superintendent is nothing like the old one.
Too bad the old majority will make the decision.
