2. What qualifies you to be a candidate for the Duluth School Board?

I am a resident of voting age. Beyond that, I have spent time teaching in every public junior and senior high in the city and some that have since been closed. I am an avid PTA parent. I'm not afraid to speak out in front of hostile crowds and I am a very friendly person. Kids like my snow dinosaurs.

3. What are the major issues facing the school district?

We must issue a bond for Washington Junior High this Fall and pass an excess levy referendum to make sure we can keep the old building open until a new one is built. Only then can we address the real problems like the lower academic achievement of students in western schools and making sure we avoid the chaos of future mass layoffs and call backs.3a I want teachers to take on more responsibility for running the schools. I want to keep better track of kids before they lose their way in school or before they lose their way in life.

4. What is your position on a possible bond issue referendurn?

I strongly supported the original bond. Now I want a bond just for Washington Junior. Afterwards, I want a well researched bond issued for the elementary schools.

5. What is your philosophy with regard to local education?

I try to teach my kids at home with books, games and enthusiasm. When parents (and neighbors) are brought into their children's classes to help out that makes education as local as you could want. Oh, but you want to know about "neighborhood schools!" Look, I want to win! Do you think I would say anything about neighborhood schools?

Tribune platform

didate for the State Legislature in 1976
    and 1978
    campaign chairman, Running own campaign
        What special expertise can you bring to
    the School Board?
        I ask questions. I find answers. I'm not

daunted by bureaucracy. I've taught poorly and learned to do better. I
think most teachers could be great teachers in the right environment.
I think most students can excel in the right environment. I'll work to
create that environment. I'm a fiscal conservative, but I'll fight for
public spending that is necessary.

What are the most important issues facing the School Board?

I've been fighting so hard to have a bond for a new Washington Junior High School that you might think that's my top priority. No way. I'm worried about our kids.,

The issues are: 2.2 million cases of child abuse were filed in the U.S. in 1988; two-thirds of teenagers age 12 to 17 drink alcohol; in 19$8 5.6 million children lived in homes without fathers; as many as 14 million children suffer from some mental disorder; a third of all children born today will live in poverty; the average television viewer watches 9,000 sexually suggestive scenes each year; a fourth of all babies born in Duluth in 1986 were illegitimate.

I haven't changed much. Too many people take themselves too seriously and think hiding their sense of fun and whimsy away make one seem more sober. As I reread this I it occurred to me that I was trying too hard to be whimsical. If you look at my responses in the short News Tribune piece I end with a littany of problems that I am very interested in. They are very grim. So between both of these questionairs you can see two very different sides of me.

1.I had just lost my job as a teacher and my levity here was an attempt to mask my embarassment.On the other hand my refering to it demonstrates my candor and my desire to be the person who brings it up rather than someone else.

2. This strikes me as a stupid question. I treated it as "why should the voters to think you are particulary well qualified?" The qualities that make me effective are my fearlessness in the face of crowds and my friendliness. I remember previous board members acting imperious.

3. I fought for Washington as long as it remained open. It was a stand in for my concern for kids who have been shortchanged by life.

3a. I really believe in this. Birchwood is a school I have supported because it is largely a teacher driven model.

5. As a former middle school teacher my heart goes out to kids who start spiraling out of control at 14 and 15. We had a report which showed that through elementary school kids are pretty satisified with school. Afterwards things get tough for them.