Sorry about the stupid title. I’m in a hurry.
I’ve already commented on the story about Duluth’s new Superintendent after his first month on the job. It covers a lot of territory but leaves the impression of a man with a lot yet to learn about his struggling district. How true. He won’t fully have a handle on the district even as early as a year from now. The story notes that he is seeking information from, among other entities, the Duluth Chamber of Commerce. That’s only natural. What he can’t yet appreciate is how incestuously the Chamber leadership has been in supporting Red Plan work which may soon be discredited. I can’t expect that the Emerald City is eager to disclose some of its horrors. IV will have to wait until he sees all its citizens recoiling in horror as the Wicked Witch of the West flies overhead spewing out the smokey warning, “Surrender IV.”
I’ve already quoted the new Super’s pragmatic and quite correct assessment that simply getting back our lost students will not solve our District’s problems. That gives me hope that Dr. Foster won’t make matters any worse.
I’m also heartened that he has made “poverty” not “race” the basis of his call to help distressed children. That he, himself, is a black American will give him some protection as he pursues this potentially controversial but necessary change of attitude.
At the moment all IV can do is hope that the Red Plan construction continues on without a hitch and completes on time with fewer cost overruns and change orders than seems likely. Moving the kids around after the next round of building completions will be exhausting for the staff and potentially dizzying for the students. In a less stressed staff this could be easily manageable. In Duluth? I don’t think so.
The most telling and, in my view, troubling part of the story was the listing of the Superintendent’s cabinet. If ever there was a group of people with lots to hide from a new superintendent I can’t imagine who they would be. From the Trib:
(The council consists of business director Bill Hanson, Assistant Superintendent Bill Gronseth, public relations director Katie Kaufman, and property and risk manager Kerry Leider.)
I have to leave in a few minutes for a meeting so I don’t have time now to offer much comment. For those who are interested in my assessment of these people, which I feel compelled to compose, you will have to wait. Until I do offer such comment you might type their individual names into the search function on this blog to see what I’ve posted about them before. You won’t find much on Gronseth. I have an impression of him but not much more. He was Dixon’s man and that hardly commends him. I have had a little more experience with Bill Hanson as my Board hired him and a lot more experience with Katie Kaufman. I have even more with Kerry Leider. I’ve called him a “liar” in this blog. Its an imprecation that I only recall conferring on one other local personality, Supt. Dixon. I like Kerry. He can’t be replaced at the moment. Poor IV.
