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Thursday, April 24, 2003

Julio Calls

Dear Hockey Saga Diary,

It always seems to start with a call late at night. So Julio called me to tell me that Mike Randolph was not going to be renewed. 

Normally when a teacher is removed I don't get a call unless the police are in on the case. To say the least its remarkable that the Superintendent of Schools would call Board members to tell them that a part time extra-curricular advisor was not going to be rehired. Not fired mind you, simply not rehired. Mike Randolph, the Duluth East Greyhound's mythic hockey coach was keeping his job as a teacher. He just wasn't going to be rehired as the hockey coach.

Before our conversation ended I told Julio, in my typically impish way, that firing a winning coach was the kind of thing that could cost a Superintendent his job. Julio knows me well enough now to know how irreverent I can be. I'm not sure he was amused because Garry Krause asked me a couple days later if I had been the Board member to tell that to the Superintendent. Well, Duh! Who else would have said such a thing?

We talked for about twenty minutes. I wanted to know why. Julio told me that he really couldn't tell me. I expressed some frustration and told him I was looking forward to a closed session where the Administration could tell me why they had made the decision. Julio told me that I wasn't the only Board member who was upset about being kept in the dark. Our Chairman, Bob Mars, was also pretty steamed about it.

I told Julio that I trusted his good judgment but that I would wait to get more answers at that closed meeting. 

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