Oh, the intrigue. Those who pay no heed to local politics literally do not know what they’re missing. Your assiduous Reader reporter found himself at the City Council meeting on Monday evening, April 14th, while a brouhaha reportedly erupted in the Public School Administration building, a few blocks away. Board chair Mike Miernicki and Board clerk Judy Seliga-Punyko apparently decided that elevating themselves to their feet would help drill home some counterpoints during a Business Committee meeting. To use the expression of one Board member, both looked “pretty worked-up.”
The issues that led to the argument were like little wooly threads in a big Red ball of yarn. By now, no one should be surprised to discover who’d started tugging at the threads: that truth-seeking curmudgeon Art Johnston. He’d recently uncovered some sizeable Red Plan change orders signed off by previous Board chairs without full Board knowledge, as well as a sticky little legal term called “reimbursables.” Johnson Controls apparently decided it should be “reimbursed” 10 percent of one $2,800,000 change order, netting the giant corporate operator a little extra chump change. Listed in the JCI Program Management Agreement and other contracts, reimbursables are Red Plan expenses the company believes Duluth taxpayers should be obligated to foot. The lists are lengthy and include practically everything under the sun. A partial sampling: overtime and insurance, tool rental and purchase, safety inspections, hoists and cranes and operation of such, trash removal, pavement repairs, glass cleaning, “continuous” cleaning, “final” cleaning, and “progress” photos. (For the record, all Red Plan progress photos feature mug shots of various JCI head honchos, grinning self-satisfactorily.)
During the Business Committee meeting, Member Welty suggested the Board look into reclaiming some of the $280,000. (A couple of hundred grand for the District wouldn’t hurt. Just last month, Superintendent Gronseth pointed out that Bill Clinton is still our current president in social studies textbooks). Mr. Welty then tossed an incendiary spark into the discussion by stating that the Red Plan had never been approved by the full Board. Tempers flared, and the skirmish spilled over into the approval of the agenda for the regular April meeting.

Eight days later.

Member Johnston made a motion to amend the April meeting’s agenda to add discussion of Johnson Controls change orders to the Business Committee agenda. He went on, tactfully referring to the “fairly thorough discussion” the Board had had about the issue at the Business Committee meeting: “I asked at that time and I’ve asked before that for this to be on the agenda, and it never was. In particular we talked about a $280,000 change order, which I thought people would be fairly interested in having a discussion [about] because we’re trying to find some ways to save money and to get money into the classrooms. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest in that, so I’m asking it be put on the agenda now.”
Board Member Welty added congenially, “I think it’s a topic that is worthy of discussion.”
Member Judy Seliga-Punyko, however, was having none of it. “I have the longest tenure right now on the Board… and I do know there’s another Board Member (Johnston) who’s also been here four years, and has… learned the same things I have. So to continue to bring this up every time we meet has continued to be way too much, and I will vote against it. I think this is ridiculous to keep on bringing this up, and agenda items are constantly brought up that are repeated. We have voted them down; they keep coming up. And so this is unnecessary and I move that we vote on it right now. I call the question.”
Chair Miernicki declared, “The question has been called. By for voting for the question, you’ll end debate. By voting against it, we’ll continue the discussion.”
For a moment the earth stood still: the Board’s Lone Ranger actually won a vote, overwhelmingly. Several people in the boardroom listened for the thudding sound of Johnston falling out of his chair! Only the two hyphenated Members—Seliga-Punkyo and Loeffler-Kemp—voted to stifle debate. Seliga-Punkyo was so chastened by her rare defeat that she called for a show of hands, and the vote was verified: 5-2.
Emboldened, Johnston went on to introduce a motion to put an item on the agenda to explore new ways for Board members to get items on the agenda. Such a discussion would be truly revolutionary. Just one little toe has been lifted to the bottom rung of the ladder, but stay tuned.
Meanwhile, unable to get anything on the agenda of this meeting, Johnston used three minutes of his time as a private citizen from the public podium to address his concerns. Shoehorned in before him, however, was one of those warmly affirming moments about kids and learning. The Board recognized the Duluth Aviation Institute for its Path to Aviation program, which provides “real-world experience designed to inspire interest in science, technology, engineering and math… creatively teaching these subjects as they are used in aviation.” Oh, the thrill of opening worlds! Students who excel in the program are rewarded with a “young eagle flight” from the Sky Harbor Airport.
After this brief, heady flight, we circled back down to earth and Member Johnston’s concerns about brick, mortar, and money. From the public podium he declared, “I have recently found that this District has entered into at least five change orders to the Program Management Agreement and job order contracts [with] Johnson Controls… I have queried six current and past Board members and not one of them were aware of these five change orders. Another Board member and I have combed through the minutes and books of this School Board, and there is no notice of these change orders from 2009 to the present. This is not insignificant. In fact, the change orders total at least $11.2 million.
“Of particular interest is the change order from Jan 13, 2012, which gave $8.7 million additional money to Johnson Controls. I would like the people of Duluth to recall that on March 6, 2012, this School Board approved a $19.3 million increase to the Red Plan… Never once… were Board members or the public informed by District Administration that of that $19.3 million Red Plan increase, Johnson Controls was already planned to get $8.7 million. 45 percent of the increase would go directly to Johnson Controls, not to the children of our school district, or to build them new schools…”
Time for another progress photo: lick your lips and let’s have a big, corporate smile!
 
Soaring on, to Education.

Over the past few months, the Education Committee Report has engendered the most heated debate, but tonight’s report, delivered by Chair Annie Harala, was virtually free of contention. The Board approved the District’s achievement and integration plan without debate. And who’s going to turn down federal grant money for Head Start? The only resolution requiring a separate Board vote was just a routine procedure to accept more grant money from private donors. No one complained any more than they would if a rich, late uncle had left them some cash.

Some New Hires

Chair Welty assured the room that the Human Resources Committee Report wouldn’t take as long as his committee meeting had lasted, which he facetiously described as a “world record.” Up to this point in the meeting, Mr. Welty had, in fact, been a man of few words. Had the Business Committee skirmish rendered him gun-shy? Or was he just content to let the written word do his talking? Before the meeting, he handed me an open Board letter. Filling both sides of a sheet of paper, this missive was a plea for honesty from the District’s finance department about the effect the Red Mess has had on the budget, and subsequently, education. It suggested that he honorable Gary Glass was due an apology, expressed worries about another round of salary increases exacerbating already-projected deficits, and (being a complete critique) engaged in some vigorous bashing of that excessively profiteering corporate wonder boy, JCI. By the time I got to the bottom of the back page, there wasn’t a heck of a lot more to say, except “Good luck with all that!”
Ever hopeful, Chair Welty managed a bright tone as he announced some new hires in the Curriculum Department. “In recent years,” he narrated, “our once-formidable Curriculum Department—a very important part of every school district—has taken a lot of hits and is a shadow of its former self. We are now going to be appointing a director of curriculum (as well as a few other new hires) and building that department back up.”
An uplifting note to end on. The HR Report was swiftly moved by the Committee Chair and passed by the Board.

Down to Business.

This is more normal. For years the Business Committee has been the real test of anger management, as everything in the public school district became redder and redder: Red Plan, Red Mess, Red Ink. Even with one hot agenda item—the teachers’ contract—tabled, there was plenty to get in a tiff about. First off, there was the resolution to accept a partnership with DEDA to help sell the Central High property. Member Johnston had this to say about the whole idea: “We’ve had the Central property up for sale for three years now and no bites at all… obviously that means the price is too high… $13.7 million is obviously too high a price. But, looking through this contract, there’re a few other things that concern me. [The property] now must be divided into parcels and sold separately… We don’t know how far we’re going to go with this, but this potentially means we’re going to be putting in utilities, sewer lines, [paying for] surveys, putting in roads… that’s what we’re looking at here in the long run… If we get to the point of us demolishing the buildings, I think we as a Board have to look at this… demolishing [the Central High] building… is going to be at least a million and a half…”
A measly million and a half to demolish a multi-million-dollar building only forty-three years old? A Red Plan cheerleader (who doubles as a School Board Member) recently proclaimed, “Thank God for the Red Plan!” I hope someone better connected than I am passes the word to God that He (or She) can spare fair Duluth from Armageddon. We’re already paying for our sins.
 Member Welty inquired what the cost of maintaining empty buildings has been for the District. “I don’t have a number I can throw out there tonight,” Facilities Manager Kerry Lieder replied. The number reported in the Duluth News Tribune the next day was $170,000 a year for the Central Campus. Nettleton, Rockridge, and Morgan Park schools are also sitting empty.
Don’t be concerned. This plan is SAVING US MONEY!
Welty further observed that the Red Plan has “moved schools out away from the inner city, and yet there’re housing programs that have been bringing families back in.” Couching criticism of this lunacy in a soft-spoken voice, he added, “And that’s rather ironic.”
The debate moved from closed and empty schools to enrollment numbers. “We’ve lost about 40 students from last month,” Member Johnston pointed out. “[Enrollment] is as low as it’s been, ever. That concerns me.”
“Our enrollment right now is above our projected enrollment,” Superintendent Gronseth countered. “Every year there is a decrease from the beginning [of the year] to the end. But that has slowed, so we’re encouraged.”
“Yeah,” the Board’s tenacious watchman responded, “it’s above our projections. But our projections should be going up, not going down.”
The Superintendent had an answer: “There are a lot of things that factor into [declining enrollment].” The first thing he recited from his list was “a growing home-school movement.” Home-schooling inarguably now poses an increasing challenge to traditional schools, but did our Red Plan prognosticators prepare us for this eventuality? This is what they foresaw when they drew up the plan in 2007: “Although the percentage of home-schooled children is likely to increase both in Duluth and across Minnesota, the sheer numbers are not material for long-range planning purposes.”
The most material part of long-range planning is to make certain we take lots of glossy progress photos so that we can preserve every step of our blind foolishness for posterity.
Member Seliga-Punyko took the floor and staunchly defended the wisdom of our chosen path, claiming the Red Plan had calmed the raging seas of instability. “That was something we saw over the past twenty-five years: the instability of this District.” (The turbulent storms of the last seven nearly sank the ship.) But obviously, and thankfully, our prescient leaders have led us to stable ground now. Member S.-P. trumpeted as much with a note of pride: “We have facilities now that support curriculum.”
Johnston must have forgotten his rose-colored glasses. “The buildings may be able to handle all this curriculum,” he countered, “but we’re cutting curriculum; we’re not increasing curriculum.”
“I know we have cut,” Seliga-Punyko responded, once again crossing verbal swords with her long-time, trenchant foe. “And I have been most frustrated by some of the arts that have been cut… but I’m going to say it again: The biggest funding problem we have is from the state and the mandates they put in place… The biggest one is special ed, and it’s supposed to be paid by the state…”
“We can’t blame special ed for this,” Johnston pressed, overriding Chair Miernicki’s desire to move on. “Blaming special ed for our financial problems is completely wrong.”
The Chair sat up straighter, his broad face flushing. “We’re not blaming special ed! We’re not blaming special ed!” he objected, his raspy baritone rising a decimal. “I want to tell the audience, out there: One time Jesse Ventura said something I agreed with.” Pointedly ignoring the audible chuckles this reference elicited from the room, Mr. Miernicki forged ahead and told a story about how our former macho governor once stood up to the president. “The federal government promised it would fund 40 percent of special ed!” Jesse (The Body) evidently growled. “If you just funded half of what you promised, we’d be in good shape!”
The Chair moved his meeting on to one last facilities item: a roof that still needs fixing. Member Johnston queried Facilities Manager Lieder about where the money is coming from to repair the tile roof on Congdon Park School, when the Red Plan is supposedly done. Lieder responded, “The Board approved a ten-year plan last year that included a levy for this project… also revenues from Alternative Facilities Funding [the Board’s handy, tax-the-people-without-asking-them authority]… will be used for some of the masonry portions of the project… Alternative Facilities Funding [will be used] in both cases [the masonry work and the roof].”
Johnston took the floor again, and drove his point home: “It’s going to be levied money, and that means tax money… Anybody could see Congdon’s roof was not good. You could see holes in the tiles, just looking at it. It’s frustrating. This money was not included in the long-range facilities plan. It should have been…”
Wonderful Big Red was supposed to make all our schools “new, or like new.” After the Board ran up a bill, with bond interest, of nearly half a billion, the taxpayers now have to pick up an $814,000 tab for a new roof. Johnson Controls apparently weaseled out of the work, but the company might still consider taking some pictures for us when the job is finished. Of course, all expenses incurred will be padded to the hilt and reimbursable.
The Business Committee agenda was moved and passed. There were a few more comments, then Chair Miernicki adjourned for the evening. As I watched the gavel drop on another School Board meeting (all entangled with threads of Red), I felt a sudden certainty that Harry Welty’s wish for a public apology to Gary Glass would never, ever happen.

So let me say it now: Sorry, Gary.

Loren Martell has been involved in Public School District issues for several years. He wrote the Red Plan report for the State Auditor’s Office and ran for the Board twice.