…as the audience at a magic show. They have just given Dr. Dixon far more than his due in their editorial today. Read it and cringe:
Listen to all of it, laid out point by point, and then try not to be impressed by the progress and the improvements made by the Duluth school district over the past six years.
Not a braggert
Retiring, outgoing Superintendent Keith Dixon ticked off the high points for Duluth business leaders yesterday, not because heÂ’s a braggart but because he was invited by the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce to speak. And he obviously was hungry for the chance to thank all those in the community who supported him and who partnered with him for the good of schools and the good of students during his eventful (to say the least) tenure.
Forgive Dixon if his voice was tinged with pride.
For starters Dixon gave his address before the Chamber of Commerce of the Emerald City as his loyal accolyte David Ross calls Duluth. Mr. Ross has been the Red Plan’s biggest booster and Dr. Dixon could expect a good reception because the Chamber for good or ill hitched themselves to Dixon’s Red Star.
“I would describe our culture six years ago as combative, confrontational and competitive,” Dixon said at the chamber luncheon held in the Kitchi Gammi Club. “We were really stuck. We couldn’t move forward. The level of trust was low.”
Dixon who has been hiding for the past couple years might like to think he inherited a fractious District but it took his tenacious efforts to avoid a public vote on the Red Plan to really divide Duluth. If trust was so high upon his imminent departure one tenth of students would not have fled his district.
Dixon didnÂ’t have to look further than the 36 unresolved teacher grievances that greeted him when he arrived in Duluth in July 2005.
To begin changing that culture, Dixon created a Quality Steering Committee. It brought together warring factions around their common beliefs and goals, capitalizing on their shared desire for excellence and success. “We found we had more in common than we had differences,” Dixon recalled. He relabeled the district’s challenges and complaints “OFIs,” or “oh-fees,” for Opportunities For Improvement. A focus on opportunities rather than on problems was a focus on what’s positive vs. what’s negative.
Behind the scenes and outside of the headlines, the district started moving forward.
The Editors have taken Dixon’s word for it that we have started moving the District forward by adopting the Red Plan partisan’s favorite slogan. The loss of students and ten percent of our teachers with them apparently being of little consequence.
Curriculum improved. New reading, math and science curriculums have been added.
At what cost? One of the many things that were killed off to make all day K possible was the transportation of many children to school. Additionally many kids will no longer be able to stay in school for after school activities because their parents can’t pick them up and drive them home.
The district slashed its health insurance costs — by 8 percent last year alone.
What a crock. I addressed this in a column defending Gary Glass from a union hack.
It now has a process to improve the performance of underperforming teachers and, when necessary, to have them removed, even if theyÂ’re tenured.
There is nothing new about the District’s efforts to improve “underperforming teachers” or to have them removed when necessary……even when they are tenured.
The district improved its relationships with the city
By constantly stonewalling the City Council when questions arose over the problems associated with the Red Plan.
(its new schools promise to be true community gathering places), with the University of Minnesota Duluth and Lake Superior College (to bolster student success beyond 12th grade), and with the media.
Empty talk. Like Dixon, when the Trib want to shut people up they go on and on and on and on and on. Here’s some evidence that the community was involved in the schools long before Dixon. Lincoln Middle School was a remarkable place in the West End with a great many civic organizations and health centers making it a community meeting place. Dixon killed it. There is nothing in place to assure that the schools will be any better community centers than before Dixon showed up. These editors seem completely unaware of pre-Dixon contact between the School District and UMD and other Duluth entities.
All-day kindergarten is now available;
It was before but not for the well to do without their digging into their pockets. Providing it has forced Duluth to cut other programs which remain unmentioned in this glowing rehash of Dixon’s unrepentant self promotion before he crawls out of town.
bullying is being addressed head-on;
With all the disruptions in the Red Plan bullying is worse then ever. Its an epidemic in some schools.
students have a louder voice, including as representatives on the School Board;
Students have sat off and on on for decades on the dais with School Board members through their tedious meetings with no vote.
and progress is being made to close the achievement gap
Where’s the proof of this? Several recent news stories have made a strong case that achievement has declined in under Dixon’s reign.
“The reality is we’re all on the same team. We all have a vested interest,” Dixon said. “And we’ve finally become a district.”
A district with “incredible learning centers,” as Dixon described Duluth’s newly renovated, rebuilt or altogether new school buildings. They’ll be his legacy, the fulfillment of his No. 1 priority, which was to bring order and answers to decades of debate and divisiveness over Duluth’s aging school buildings and declining student population. The long-range facilities plan was borne from an extensive, 18-month public process — but a process that didn’t include a public vote, something for which Dixon will long be criticized.
Yup. The Red Plan will be Dixon’s legacy. Good education won’t be. Somehow Duluth will have to recover from the consequences of Dixon’s determination and successful suppression of the public will.
“If someone said, ‘Would you do it differently?’ I would say, ‘No,’ ” he said, unwavering to the end. “I believe we’ve made remarkable strides as a district. We’re a really different district in my judgment than we were six years ago.
And now that he has achieved the Red Plan (provided money for it’s completion doesn’t run out) he’s slinking off much maligned to a comfortable retirement at his lake cabin.
““My biggest hope is that all will say, ‘We did that (when looking at and considering DuluthÂ’s new schools and the progress and improvements made by the district). Not me,” Dixon continued. “ ‘WeÂ’ accomplished this.” “
Its more than a little galling to have Dixon wrap himself as “We.” Don’t include me in Dixon’s “We.” I’ll be part of the “We’ left repairing the damage that Dr. Dixon inflicted on Duluth. Damnable transient.
