…this is what Loren Martell wrote today:
Duluth School Board Chairwoman Judy Seliga-Punyko compared the tax impact on the average homeowner in Duluth from the school district’s operational levy request this fall to a couple of lattes a month. I think the remark displayed an elitist insensitivity toward the real financial problems many are facing.
Just six days after voting to approve the layoff of more teachers, Seliga-Punyko and her allies approved $15 million more for the Red Plan. Seliga-Punyko was one of three who went one step further, trying to add another $19 million, for a total of $34 million. She didn’t ask why the plan was so far over budget or what had become of an $11 million contingency fund. Less than a year earlier, then-Superintendent Keith Dixon and Johnson Controls said they likely wouldn’t have to tap into that fund. Seliga-Punyko claimed in an article in an alternative weekly paper that more spending on facilities “isn’t costing taxpayers.” Apparently she has access to a money tree.
Seliga-Punyko’s top priority has clearly been facilities, including millions for a new athletic stadium, atriums, top-dollar terrazzo flooring, media rooms and commons areas with 25-foot ceilings and
50-foot glass curtain walls. East High School’s expansive, radius-glass entrance came with a price tag of about $250,000. The two high schools alone cost $109 million. The chairwoman’s special project, two huge aquatic centers, will cost our community at least $11.5 million, with interest.
On and on, with Chairwoman Seliga-Punyko’s approval, the district has been pouring money into bricks and mortar (and Johnson Controls’ pockets) while losing teachers, nearly 40 fewer in just the past two years.
No one should be surprised when the chairwoman comes back for that extra $19 million, if she and her allies retain control of the board.
Everyone knows our schools needed attention, but many do not view the chairwoman’s grand aquatic centers through her rose-colored glasses. They see this plan as misguided and over the top. They still object to a community decision of such magnitude being made by a narrow board majority forged from betrayal, a faceless corporation and a hired gun who
didn’t bother to buy a house here.
I believe Seliga-Punyko and her allies controlling the board were unwise to put their objectives above the most basic principles of democracy. Most residents have accepted the inevitability of this plan, but pushing such extravagance through without full representation has eroded trust.
People grieve the loss of Central High School and the Secondary Technical Center building and don’t believe what they’ve been told about the financial burden. They’ve watched their neighbors abandon our public schools for other educational options. So many students left during Dixon’s tenure that the loss of 100 fewer than expected at the beginning of this year was cause for considerable promotion and celebration. (Most of those 100 students likely came from Lake Superior High School, a charter school forced to close when the district pulled its sponsorship.)
The heart of our education system is corroding. Class sizes are ballooning from the loss of so many teachers. In June, Duluth Federation of Teachers President Frank Wanner described teacher morale as “terrible.”
This newspaper reported that “several of the 36 teachers laid off earlier this year have already been recalled.” That statement was inaccurate, according to my research. Hours were increased but only one teacher actually was called back.
We have new schools. It is fine to accentuate the positive. But the time has come to turn off the Dixon spin machine.
Current board leadership has led the district into desperate financial shape. “A couple of lattes” is a demeaning way to request more money from hard-working citizens. We need a change of attitude toward the public. We need a change of direction, of priorities. We must get back to financial bedrock and face the reality of the moment. A half-billion-dollar investment, literally our future, is hanging in the balance.
Loren Martell is a candidate for the Duluth School Board in the 2nd District.
