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Not Eudora
Plan B "Plan
A" honors the status quo and avoids change. It’s supported by the Denfeld
led SOS (Save Our Schools) Committee. It would keep Two years ago,
before the last excess levy failed, there was universal agreement among Duluth
School Board members that some schools had to close because of declining
enrollment. Back then Bob Mars suggested that offering an excess levy simply
evaded our responsibility. He felt so strongly about this that he publicly
opposed the levy. It has been suggested that that levy’s 45% to 55% defeat was
a crushing defeat. I have never thought so. Had only six in every hundred voters switched their vote from a “no” to a “yes” the 2001 levy would have passed. Unfortunately, it was opposed by Mr. Mars and also the FIGHT organization which paid for misleading full page ads that condemned the levy. To pass the levy had to spell out how it would be spent but another school board member did everything in her power to keep the Board’s promises as vague as possible. The campaign to pass the levy was incredibly brief because the school administration had planned fall community meetings which had to be completed before a levy proposal could be outlined. This left very little time to explain a plan to voters once it was drawn up. Finally, in addition to these obstacles, the levy was offered up in the shadow of 9/11. Thinking about
what might have been is of little use today because there is a whole new set of
circumstances. One thing however has not changed. The school board still has not
closed any schools. We have let two more years slip by. Bob Mars, it seems, was
right. I’m a sucker for money for schools but I’m torn about whether to support this excess levy. I’d rather offer a levy to provide additional school programming rather than offer one to keep partially empty buildings open. Maybe, however, offering a levy and risking its failure is the only way to get the School Board to close excess buildings. Today even the
most skittish school board members are talking about moving our administration
out of Old Central and making kids walk farther to school. Will this discussion
continue if we pass an excess levy? I don’t know. I can only predict one thing
with complete certainty. This Board will never vote to close another school.
Instead it will wait until the November election to see whether a levy passes.
If it does then the schools are home free. If it fails the current Board will
sit back and say to itself, “Well, we should leave this decision up to the new
Board taking office in January.” Of course, there is no guarantee that the new
Board will find it any easier to close a school. There will be two fewer Board
members come 2004 but that doesn’t guarantee that we won’t simply go from a
Board that flip-flops with 5-4/4-5 votes to one that flip-flops with 4-3/3-4
votes. Once again the
Board will be divided by the twenty-year old issue of “middle schools.”
Currently We currently
call our two eastern junior highs “middle schools” but they are middle
schools in name only. They are really junior highs with sixth graders. They will
remain so even if an excess levy passes. We would have to hire 15 extra teachers
to make all our junior highs middle schools. Fifteen extra teachers would cost
the district about a million dollars. But the $4.9 million that an excess levy
would raise would still leave the district short $1.3 million. That’s because
our projected deficit next year is 6.2 million dollars. Ordean and I’d like to offer an excess levy but I’m afraid that if this one is defeated it will doom future excess levy referendums even after we close schools. We may just train voters to discount anything the School Board offers them. This just kills me because if we had closed schools by now I think a referendum could pass this year which would soften next year’s six million dollar shortfall. So, if the levy
fails what will plan B be? I’ve been listening to incumbent board members and
candidates for some clue. Four people will automatically be on January’s
board. Laura Condon and Dorothy Neumann are both ardent middle school
proponents. Both have also indicated a willingness to close I have proposed turning Central into a junior high and I’m guessing that whoever wins in my Second district seat will likely support my plan as well. Bob Nygaard also favors my plan and I think his opponent, Ann Wasson, would too although she wants to preserve all three high schools. That leaves the three at-large candidates only one of which will be elected. Bob Mars is so frustrated that I think he would vote to close anything. Judy Seliga would opt for my plan to turn Central into a middle school. Mike Akervik has been the Board’s most dependable swing voter and typically votes with Laura Condon.
What’s going to happen? East could close. Central could become a junior high. Elementary schools could close. Faux middle schools could continue on. Everything depends on the passage of an iffy excess levy referendum and who takes office next January. Voters who care about the future of the Duluth Schools must pin candidates down by asking them what they will vote for if the excess levy fails. Welty
is a small time politician who lets it all hang out at: www.snowbizz.com |
By Harry Welty