Plan B meets Duluth School Board
By Paul Lundgren on Jul 2, 2009 in Current Events, Videos
Let Duluth Vote’s “Plan B” presentation to the Duluth School Board from Greenfield Communications on Vimeo.
It should be noted that this video is not a piece of independent journalism, but rather an informational video paid for by the Duluth School District. That being said, so you may take into account it was created with intent to persuade, I don’t believe it contains any misinformation. If I’m wrong, I’m sure we’ll all find out in the comments.
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I really think the Anti-Red Plan folks don’t give a rip one way or the other about the future of the district or kids. They just don’t want to pay any more taxes. I attended Duluth schools during the tax base heyday. We had specialists, extracurriculars, classroom supplies and text books aplenty. The end result of this diabolical plan was educated citizens.
It can’t be that they “just don’t want to pay any more taxes,” considering that Plan B would cost taxpayers as much as the long-range facilities (red) plan the school district is implementing.
But yeah, the center of the whole anti-red-plan argument has been about its price tag, which is what makes the recent news about the cost of Plan B quite surprising.
I say a plague on both of their houses. I support what the Red Plan will do but I am not happy that people will lose their homes for parking lots. When I was a kid, we rode our bikes to school. Or walked.
The district has not “eminant domained” a single house–yet. They’ve found willing sellers so far…
Wave enough money and everyone is a willing seller.
It seems to me more and more that the Plan B people are just disgruntled about some of the current School Board members. Plan B is backwards-focused and saves no money. I hate more taxes too but at least the Red Plan moves us forward.
My god, it seems like some elements in Duluth will sabotage progress/good ideas just because so-and-so (whomever they don’t like) wants it.
Give it up and work together.
Chester Dark is right — I’d always been on the fence about the Red Plan, but when I saw the press conference the other day with the Plan B people, I realized they don’t give a damn about the schoolchildren, it’s all about keeping taxes down for them. I just wish both groups would realize that it’s all about our children’s future. But, if push comes to shove, and it seems like it has, I’m going to go with the plan that moves Duluth forward into the 21st century.
Again, I feel like I need to point out that, according to the information in this video and a recent Duluth News Tribune story, Plan B does not save taxpayers a single penny.
So, “keeping taxes down” can’t be the motivation behind it.
But Paul, if the group believes that it keeps their taxes down, wouldn’t that be motivation enough? I hate to think there’d be anything more nefarious behind this — who knows maybe it’s nothing more than Harry Welty’s ego wanting to be stroked. And stoked.
Well Calk, if what the Plan B folks believe about the plan is at odds with what they presented to the school board, then you tell me what that might say about their motivation.
I think the core group behind plan B just has the sour grapes bug because they didn’t bother to go to any of the community meetings, planning sessions, etc. for the long range facilities plan- which, after much community and staff input, the School Board decided on the Red Plan. Now, if you got a bug up your butt and don’t have a clue, the first thing you gripe about is the price. This gets folks riled up and the anti-tax mantra becomes a rallying cry- whether or not taxes will be higher or lower with whatever plan. People will back a plan with a simplistic message: Let Duluth Vote. Referendums for the District have always been a tough sell, so ISD 709 got smart and went the community input route. It’s kind of hard to sell that message when the local media have done such a lousy job with the actual facts and given the squeeky, uninformed wheels the majority of column inches.
Tim K, I think the newspaper is doing it to sell newspapers, it seems to be their SOP these days — manufacture controversy when there isn’t any, and stoke the fires of controversy if there is some. But, I think as time passes, more and more fence-sitters *like me* will conclude that while the Red Plan has its flaws, it is indeed preferable to Plan B — which does indeed seem to be sour grapes by some people who really don’t give a damn about our children’s education b/ they are satisfied with mediocrity.
I think it’s time to stop focusing on the big, over-arching “plans” and start picking apart the individual pieces of the facilities plan–those that make sense and those that don’t. For instance, it makes sense to me to build a new Western Middle School–a new facility in a more central location that can serve the specialized needs of that area’s student population and not be as high of a maintenance burden. But it doesn’t make sense to me to replace a relatively newly-renovated, large enough and perfectly operable Lincoln Park school with a new Piedmont elementary school on a cramped lot surrounded by houses and shopping malls far away from highly utilized park space. The devil is in the details–let’s start fleshing out their impact, shall we?
Reg Iguana, this kind of thing was one major reason i’ve been on the fence — I’m not familiar with the Piedmont school, but I do think the Ordean location is too small for a high school. The Red Plan indeed has some serious flaws. But the Plan B people seem to have made it a Red Plan or Plan B scenario. I want Duluth to move forward, so, despite my misgivings about the Red Plan, I’m going to have to support it over the Plan B plan, which seems to a bid to maintain the status quo.
Both plans have their faults.The best part of the Red Plan is realizing we only need 2 high schools.1 may be sufficient but I do not think anyone wants to fight that battle.
The worst part,that it is being shoved down our throats.
By proposing we keep 3 high schools the Let Duluth Vote are failing to make the tough decisions.
Since the red plan seems a forgone conclusion my concern is that people in the trades are telling me that many out of town laborers have already been hired for some projects.
Any comments?
I grew up in a town of about 120,000 that dropped to 85,000 or so and failed to axe one of its three high schools because too many people complained (it was the high school I wound up attending that was slated to be dropped, for what it’s worth)–twenty-five years on, the school district has never really gotten out of crisis mode.
Harry Welty’s various groups and websites are merchandising their concepts at http://www.CafePress.com/Let_Duluth_Vote and at http://www.CafePress.com/ISD709_Election .