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12-14-2001 If I had an hour Dear Political Diary, I spent much of today sitting behind my keyboard banging out possible Op Ed pieces for the News Tribune. When I wasn't doing that I was ferrying heaps of paper from my office to my daughter's old bedroom so that I could clean my office. Its been two months since I've had an orderly environment. Unfortunately, I forgot to set the VCR to tape Almanac North when we headed out to Claudia's Holiday party. I'd have to wait till Sunday to watch the rebroadcast and see what my fellow board members had said or find out whether George Balach had been invited to appear. We spent the evening at the Kitchi Gammi club and with no young children for us to rush home to stayed uncharacteristically late. By One AM there was only one other couple left beside us when topic of the schools came up. They offered me their condolences and we talked for another hour. Nancy was a product of Congdon Elementary, Ordean Junior High, and East High. She was a thoughtful but passionate defender of neighborhood schools something a majority of our Board members rank well below their chief concern, "programs." I spent an hour explaining the precarious finances of the district and offered my reasoning for closing a high school. I explained that I had gotten very few calls or letters from parents and suggested that this was because by now everyone knew the Board had very little room to maneuver. As for those that were hostile I explained that given an hour of conversation I could invariably convince them that the Board was acting reasonably. Currently, however, the people who are contacting me now tend to agree with me except for the high school students. Unfortunately, our current headlong rush to close elementary schools does not seem all that reasonable. We talked for a good hour before giving up the ghost at 2AM. |