{"id":3732,"date":"2011-06-24T08:14:22","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T13:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=3732"},"modified":"2017-02-28T14:54:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T19:54:36","slug":"george-balach-on-dixon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=3732","title":{"rendered":"George Balach on Dixon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.duluthnewstribune.com\/event\/article\/id\/202550\/group\/Opinion\/\">Succinct and pithy<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On Keith Dixon: things to remember. He was offered the job when preferred candidates withdrew. He came from Faribault, Minn., where controversy was apparent.<\/p>\n<p>Recognition of the need for two high schools was evident 20 years ago and had reached a level of grudging acceptance by Dixon&#8217;s arrival. The difference being 20 years ago Central would have remained a viable middle school and a focus for the central core.<\/p>\n<p>Former state Rep. Mike Jaros&#8217;s referendum legislation bypassing a citizen vote was never intended for this type of project; Jaros said so himself and was duly ignored.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson Controls has a mixed record for predicting results (see Duluth Steam Plant, city of Ely and St. Louis County). Though not a construction company, it was placed in charge of the projects, only to add construction managers to the cost and shovel local money to metro contractors.<\/p>\n<p>Duluth taxpayers spent millions on Duluth schools over the years. Maintenance wasn&#8217;t ignored; in fact, it was planned for.<\/p>\n<p>Duluth taxpayers support referendums. The district continues to have budget problems but Dixon&#8217;s leadership with board cooperation has created an atmosphere where operational levies will be difficult, if not impossible, to pass.<\/p>\n<p>If Dixon leaves the area, he&#8217;ll avoid the continuing increase in property taxes he leaves as his legacy to Duluth.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, a question to ponder: Did Dixon&#8217;s tenure result in a noticeably positive result in Duluth&#8217;s educational performance?<\/p>\n<p>George Balach<\/p>\n<p>Duluth<\/p>\n<p><em>The writer was a Duluth School Board member from 1988 to 2000<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Succinct and pithy: On Keith Dixon: things to remember. He was offered the job when preferred candidates withdrew. He came from Faribault, Minn., where&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-red-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20410,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732\/revisions\/20410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}