Monday Trib reax

Its rare that I wake up to find any issue of the DNT ripe for comment let alone the sleepy Monday paper. Today is an exception but sadly I’ve got company and I’m much less interested in spending time blogging than in the past.

The Story on Charlie Bell and his senior housing development got me thinking that the right man was elected Mayor in the last election and Charlie and Duluth are lucky that he has focused on senior housing rather than everything under the sun which is the Mayor’s lot. I think Ness has done a better than creditible job which seems to be demonstrated in his free ride campaign which leaves him without a challenger in November.

Both Ness and Bell have bent over backward not to make people mad at them (something our politicians in the Beltway could learn from) but I think Ness is the more cunning of the two. In the case of the Red Plan I would have preferred the Mayor take a harsher view of our old superintendent but practically I realize he was not in the best position to tackle Dixon. He had other fish to fry and really only time would reveal whether Duluth had been taken in. With five schools soon to open I think Dixon’s depredations are closer to being revealed. Still, there wasn’t much the Mayor could do because the School Board had such a head start. Some Duluthians have caught on and Betty Maarsa has pretty well pointed out the District’s dilemma in her letter to the editor of which I will quote but a portion.

Operating money follows students who leave the Duluth district. Up to $5,000 multiplied by those approximately 2,000 students equals $10 million, and an operating budget shortfall. According to the New York Times, Kansas City had to close 28 schools in March 2010 because of a lack of operating funds due to a mass exodus to schools in the suburbs and charter schools. No one listened. I was told by a Duluth school administrator, “They’ll come back” You better hope so! I heard from a teacher there may be 40 students in an honors math class this fall at beautiful, 21st century Denfeld. Doesn’t sound very inviting to lost students, does it?

Even the Trib seems to be catching on. In their story on Dixon’s unfortunate successor I V Foster he explains and they paraphase the impossible situation he is in:

As for recruitment of students back into the district to gain more state money), even if we went out and got 500 students back into the schools, that doesn’t translate into enough money to go out and hire enough teachers and provide a quality learning experience for them.

I’ll have more to say about the Foster story in my next post but lets go on to the DNT’s fine editorial about “transparancy.” Regarding the school district’s web page the Trib has this to say:

The state’s website earned a “The state’s 10 largest school districts and five largest cities also earned B’s,” while the state’s five largest counties scored “mediocre grade,” according to a statement released by the group.

Closer to home, the Duluth school district received a “C,” with red check marks, meaning “information was not provided,” for taxes, contracts, public records and background checks. The district provided adequate information, the analysis found, on budgets, meetings, elected officials, administrative officials, audits and academics.

Considering who serves on the new Superintendents “cabinet” I wouldn’t expect any improvements to the website anytime soon. Which gets me to wondering if the school district is still paying Howie Hanson pay off money for his addition to the District’s Internet web presence.

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