Where are the Duluth News Tribune Editors?

They are at a public shaming of Duluth school board members.

I’m far and away the City of Duluth’s top shamer of the Duluth School Board and have been for seven years. As the top shamer I’m not very impressed with the Tribune editors day-late, dollar-short shaming today. Its almost as though finding a little fault with the current crop of Board members is the editors attempt to rejoin the community of Red Plan grumps. In so doing they are not unlike some cowardly kids in the circle around a playground fight telling the combatants to beat the crud out of the other kid. Its a safe thing to do.

The problem is that the crime the Trib called out was pretty minor. School Board members not showing up at a particular school’s public meeting.

There were two such crimes listed. First non attendance at a Rockridge School meeting where one City Councilor took umbrage at their absence..

Well here’s the exculpatory reply to the complaint. The building is no longer a school. Sure its school property and the School Board will have the ultimate say on its disposal but keep this in mind. The City has covered for the school district time and time again where the Red Plan is concerned. For once it makes sense that the City take the lead on a school district property. The city will have to deal with the zoning issues that are no longer a concern to the District other than to grease its ability to get rid of yet one more unwanted piece of property.

The City Councilor who made the complaint was not on the City Council when the Red Plan got under way so she could perhaps be forgiven for being irked at the School Board’s unanimous absence from the meeting. But then again, past City Councilors let previous School Board’s off for far more serious zoning and construction issues. The School Board has simply learned to ignore the City Council because of the Council’s insistence on the separation of turf.

Secondly the Editors complained that only three School Board members were present at the Congdon School meeting. To start with one of my email buddies noted with some sarcasm that it seemed the Trib has given a lot more attention to the loss of a hockey rink at Congdon than it did the impact of the Red Plan on many other schools. But that’s not really the point. The point is that three Board members did attend, almost half the Board. That ain’t nothing. They were almost all representatives of the Eastern portion of the City. That makes sense. I see no reason why all seven board members should be expected to attend every locally held school meeting.

Its as though the Editors are belatedly jumping on the bandwagon to bad mouth an unpopular Public Body. I sure won’t blame the Trib when it has good reason to gripe about this school board. I just want the complaint, when it comes, to be about something truly egregious and not just some piffle like this.

About the author