The parking lot of Old Central was already filled with rows of cars, when I pulled in for the November school board meeting. The teachers’ union had organized a celebration for some of its tenured members. There were platters of cake and other hor d’oeuvres in the boardroom. Several earnest, inspiring speeches about the importance of education received rounds of well-deserved applause.
   Some people actually tried to hang around for the meeting after the party--but in droves, and one by one, they eventually petered out. Within an hour after the monthly Board spectacle started, myself and one stalwart citizen, Barb Walcome, were the only stragglers left in the room who weren’t being paid to be there.
Tonight’s episode lasted a little less than 2 ½ hours, and yes, it was boring--but, as always, the ship of state rocked and rolled on the waves: school board meeting, 11/15/16.

Public recognition

    The meeting started out, as it often does, on an affirming note. Camille Murphy and Doctor Emily Onello were given the Board’s coveted Community Recognition Award. The audience was informed that Ms. Murphy, a district 709 registered nurse, has achieved bigger success in the past. In 2014, she was nominated for the CDC Childhood Immunization Champion Award. Dr. Onello also has an impressive resume. She is an assistant professor in UMD’s Dept. of Family Medicine and Community Health, and a practicing physician at the Lake Superior Community Health Center.
   These two dedicated healthcare professionals received a round of applause for co-writing an article on immunization which was published in the September issue of Minnesota Physician magazine.
Rumor is their next article will be about immunizing ourselves against our zany school board. Apparently, clinical trials so far have found the only effective drugs are all illegal.
    The first speaker from the public podium this evening has been attending school board meetings “religiously,” as she put it. Karen Perry informed the Board that there is “quite an egregious issue going on with transportation,” an issue that dovetails with her other ongoing issue with the school district: lack of communication. She went on to describe what certainly seemed, at the minimum, some poor communication skills, charging that “children are being assaulted by bus drivers.”
   Ms. Perry asked the Board to look into the hiring practices of the bus companies, and to follow up better with school principals and the parents making complaints. She said the problems were more prevalent with the afternoon bus drivers, and brought up the perennial East/West divide that plagues district 709. “Because there is such a clear divide between East and West schools, we (the parents in the West) want you all (the Board) to take a deeper, longer look at what’s going on.” She asked, “Who do we hold accountable?” She questioned the effectiveness of the district’s disciplinary policies for dealing with such issues.
   The next speaker, Mark Irving, lives near the (lovely and lonely) Rockridge school, now vacated nearly six years by the Red Plan. He told the Board that many of his neighbors responded favorably to a questionnaire he and some other citizens had circulated, asking: “Do you feel that the Duluth public school district should consider the possibility of reopening Rockridge as a school?” Mr. Irving said that no particular kind of school was specified in the question that was asked, but that he himself had been impressed by Many Rivers Montessori’s presentation at the prior week’s Business Committee meeting. He pointed out that the Montessori school did not pose any “direct competition” for the school district.
   “A large percentage of their (Many Rivers’) student body is sixteen-month to pre-school.” Mr. Irving continued. He said he and most of his neighbors feel that selling to Many Rivers Montessori “would be a good use of the (Rockridge) school property…It’s a win-win situation, in respect to the fact that the money that needs to be used for paying down the bonds for the (new Red Plan) schools would be there. There’d be students going to that school that would not normally be in our (public) school system. Many Rivers Montessori is in one of your old school buildings, now: Jefferson school.
    What they (Many Rivers) are asking to do,” Mr. Irving earnestly made his case, as others before him have, “is to buy one of your (vacated) buildings, pay a good sum of money, get it (Rockridge) so it’s operational again, so it’s helping the taxpayers, it’s helping the students, it’s helping the school board--it seems like a win all the way around. So, please, thoughtfully consider it…”
   Mr. Irving was so hopeful and so nice, I almost hate to rain on his parade, but the chances of the DFL-endorsed Board majority members suspending policy to sell to Many Rivers Montessori appear about equivalent to Donald Trump naming Hillary Clinton as his Healthcare Tsar. From all appearances the stance of these tough leaders is firm. The St. Louis County Sheriff could be repossessing all the desks from the classrooms, and they’d only dig their heels in deeper, fold their arms tighter, and continue to refuse a sale to any big, bad “competitor.”
   As we all have come to learn, however, in Duluth hope springs eternal. The next speaker, Ron Gullicks, resides on property adjacent to Rockridge school. He told the Board he is “in support of using the Rockridge facility as a Montessori school…I think using that building as a school is the best purpose for (it.) And I think a school reopening in that area is also in the best interest of the neighborhood.”
   I feel your pain, Rockridge neighborhood. A beautiful, empty school is made to be filled with students. Against my better judgment, I’ll contradict myself and join just a little in your sense of hope. The masters of the boardroom are definitely feeling the heat. They are, after all, members of a public Board. Despite their track record, there must be some sliver of a chance they could surprise people and actually do something the public wants. Still, the odds are so bad, I wouldn’t put my money there. The better bet is that they’ll start slashing the prices on buildings to any organization that promises not to teach children.
   One other factor could change the outlook on all these vacated properties: the public voicing its opinion loud and clear in next year’s election.
This evening’s comments from the public ended with a few more uplifting stories about education. Anne Krafthefor told us she’d just reached her fortieth year in the teaching profession. (If you looked really close, you could see the faint glimmer of a halo above her head.) Ms. Krafthefor is currently teaching a class of 27 at Lester Park Elementary, and described this group of 10 and 11 year-olds as “so amazing.” Affirming our faith in the youth of our city, she told us these good-hearted young people had “worked diligently” to make this year’s “Feeding Local Kids Initiative” a big success.
   Teacher Matt Pursi also chimed in about some of the positives in our public schools. Mr. Pursi told us he was a ninth grade English teacher and the Theater Director at Denfeld High. “When I started (as Director) two years ago,” he said, “we had two dollars in our budget.” He was happy to report that, “as of today, we have $2100 in our budget. Theater is alive and well at Denfeld High!”
   
Back to our current theatrical performance

   Member Johnston pulled the first item for discussion during the Education Committee Report. During the Committee meeting the prior work, two Full Service Community Schools Coordinators--Rachel Thapa and Jen Eddy--gave the Board a presentation about the program, which has existed at Myers-Wilkins for a number of years, and is currently being implemented at Lincoln Park Middle School. Member Johnston praised the presentation and the program, but pointed out that one of the goals of reducing the achievement gap has so far shown little progress.
“That hasn’t happened, yet.” Mr. Johnston lamented. “I just want to point that out to Administration, because this is a goal I want us to make progress on.”
Member Oswald next brought up the various changes in the district’s course offerings for the 2017-18 school year. She told her colleagues and administrators she didn’t have a problem with any of the changes, but her assessment of the situation was not problem-free. “One thing I do have a problem with is the continued lack of access to classes for Denfeld students, versus East students.”
Member Welty inquired if providing the same course catalog to both schools would help, but that plan of action was implemented a few years back. Most people in Duluth are aware of the underlying reason for the problem: Denfeld High only has 996 students, while East has 1508. Even though both schools now do offer the same course selection, East’s higher enrollment makes it feasible for the school to offer multiple sections, which gives students more opportunity to fit desired courses into their schedules. It is a very unfair situation, predictably created by the Red Plan--the most expensive, ill-conceived investment in our city’s history.
   During another round of discussion about Duluth’s iniquitous East-West education gap, member Oswald, as she often does, contributed the most deeply-felt observation: “We all know that it takes more money to educate children who experience poverty; that this (problem) is heavily weighted towards the West; and that equality (the Red Plan promised “equitable education across the entire city”) is not equal…”
 
Goodbye to one Bill; new contract for the other?

Committee Chair Kirby ran through a rather lengthy list of personnel additions and deletions during the HR report, then gave special mention to one retirement.
   “This is Mr. (Bill) Hanson’s last regular school board meeting, and I guess I’d like to offer my congratulations--” (pausing, while the district’s outgoing CFO received a round of applause,) “and a personal ‘thanks’ for everything you’ve done. And I think I speak for the whole district and the Board, though I’m not supposed to--.” (A few sniggers went through the room at this reference to the fact that Chair Harala recently took a pretty stout beating for being overly presumptive regarding her authority to speak for her colleagues.) Then the Committee Chair looked at Mr. Hanson and stated assertively that he would speak for everyone: “Thanks!”
The year before last, the district’s Finance Manager retired. Last September, district 709’s long-time Facilities Manager took another job selling (somewhat ironically) risk insurance. The Superintendent has tried and failed to land three other jobs, and now the district’s Director of Business Services has decided it’s a good time to slip out. Anybody else get the feeling we’re all on the Titanic and there aren’t enough life boats?
   Just how big is the deficit we’re sailing into next year?
The interview process to replace Mr. Hanson has resulted in a contract offer to one applicant: Douglas Hasler. The length of the contract is about 2 ½ years: 11/28/16 through 6/30/19. Hopefully, Mr. Hasler owns an insulated wetsuit and can swim.
   Committee Chair Kirby waxed enthusiastically about the district’s new, pending CFO’s credentials: “He has been the Chief Operating Officer of a school district and the Executive Director of Support Services of the school district. (He’s been) the Director of Student and Employee Relations of a school district. He is a lawyer and has been a practicing attorney, though I believe he’s not practicing now. He has worked at the Indiana Dept. of Education as a consultant, in the division of School Finance. He’s been a fiscal analyst and a research assistant. So he comes with a broad, and what seems a very appropriate background for our district, and–ahhhhh–” (smiling and voicing what many in the room were thinking): “he WANTS to come here, which is very nice!”
   Perhaps the former Facilities Manager should sell him some risk insurance.
During the discussion of the contract, member Oswald voiced an objection to the fact that the new CFO’s contract starts at the same salary as the outgoing CFO: $125,000 a year.
   “I have no opinion of him (Mr. Hasler) honestly, other than the very good things I’ve heard about him. That, however, is one side of it. The other side of it is: I thought, in the business world, a retirement is supposed to save us money…” Member O. pointed out that in a recent News Tribune article, Superintendent Gronseth “mentioned that we’re looking at a deficit for the coming year, and I don’t know how we can afford this–.”
   “He’s had some finance experience and training that goes along with his legal career,” Member Welty added, “but I would like to have somebody who would be able to give me a sense of assurance that when he sits down to talk to finance people, he’s not out-classed by the people we seek advice from, because this district has had some finance problems, once again verified by the shortfall (deficit) that we’re currently (in.)”
   Member Johnston, as is his custom, was a bit more blunt. He said he would like to know if Mr. Hasler’s interviewers asked him his opinion about “reducing our deficit…In six out of the seven years I’ve been on the Board, we’ve had quite large deficits.”
   Mr. Johnston also expressed hope that someone asked the new Finance Guru about “what is opinion is in (regard to) financing our long-term debt.” He reminded his colleagues that ISD 709 is still drawing millions annually from its General Fund to pay for the Red Plan.
   Finally, our relentless Lone Ranger said he would like to know the candidate’s views towards responding to data requests. He capped this last query off by trenchantly repeating a remark the HR Manager made during the prior week’s committee meeting.
   During that meeting the HR Head, Tim Sworsky (definitely not one of the Lone Ranger‘s biggest fans,) dismissively labeled this last concern as Mr. Johnston’s “personal baggage.”
   Welcome to Duluth! With a little luck, in two and a half years Mr. Hasler (whose contract was approved, 5-2) will be able to add, “Titanic Survivor,” to his resume.
As for the other big HR story, try as he may Superintendent Bill Gronseth was unable to bypass the Board’s evaluation of his job performance before securing the three-year contract extension he wants, with pay raises. Committee Chairman Kirby said: “Future items include the Superintendent’s Performance Evaluation, and I believe we have a special meeting scheduled at the end of this month.”
   That meeting, already in the history books, was held on 11/28/16, the first day on the job for Mr. Douglas Hasler, ISD 709’s new CFO. Because it was a personnel issue, Mr. Hasler was not invited behind closed doors for the Board’s executive session, which probably saved him from his first shocking jump into some very icy water.

Business.

   This evening’s Business Committee report was uncharacteristically brief. The only part of the discussion I’m going to mention is member Johnston’s monthly analysis of the APU (formerly, WADM) enrollment number, which he went into in some depth.
   “In 20 years, we’ve (district 709) lost 5400 students; in ten years we’ve lost 1900; in the last five years, we’ve lost 640 students. To put that loss in perspective, it amounts to about $8.9 million in revenue a year. We’ve lost 119 since last November; we lost 33 from last month…” Grimly laying out reality, the Lone Ranger went over the losses from individual schools, including 20% of the student body lost from Stowe Elementary over the past three years…
Chair Harala mercifully adjourned the meeting after two hours and seventeen minutes.
   When we got up to leave, Mrs. Walcome made a comment about the whole affair being fairly “short” by school board standards. “Lately they haven’t been too bad,” she added, with a wry expression. As the two of us headed towards the marble stairwell of Old Central, we talked about what we’d just watched, shaking our heads and chuckling.
   It felt a bit like whistling in a graveyard, or exchanging gallows humor on the deck of a listing ship.