3-21-2001
Harry -
I have spent some time at your site and find it informative, thank you for that.
I don't necessarily believe the responsibility for this dilemma lies solely in the state's
school finance scheme. There is not a reduction in the level of support coming from the state....merely an inflation increase only. Therefore, we are
4.8MM upside down because we committed to spend what we did not have. We need to be
watching our own spending, not just looking for more from the state.
Bottom line....if 2 high schools is where we are going in the long run, I say do it
once and do it now! If we are going to continue to have three High Schools, let's at
least attempt to honor what people like myself believed when we bought
property and that is that we were in a particular school's boundary.
Work hard tonight (no doubt you will),
D
PS - for what it is worth, those who have directed sarcasm at the Board recently
I find embarrassing.
My Reply to D
Thanks D,
Its true the Governor is proposing an overall inflationary increase for public education across the whole state. Unfortunately for us in Duluth, we've had special financial advantages over other districts and we are about to lose them. The Governor is laying out a level playing field and it means big decreases for us.
Worse yet, the Republicans are threatening to take away two other goodies which have benefited us greatly: Compensatory education money and Desegregation money. I'll spare you the Republicans rationale for this but they would share our money with the whole state. Bottom line: the $4.8 million deficit we face next year could end up being an $8 million deficit. It scares the bejesus out of me.
It turns out we haven't even begun to contemplate the real "worst case scenarios."
Under these circumstances we have more good reason than ever to look at two high schools. The good days are over.
Harry
