Comments on: Plan B meets Duluth School Board

By: Linkin Mall

Linkin Mall — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:48:26 +0000

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 .

By: The Big E

The Big E — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:31:49 +0000

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.

By: jay

jay — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:00:31 +0000

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?

By: Calk

Calk — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:07:32 +0000

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.

By: rediguana

rediguana — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:27:37 +0000

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?

By: Calk

Calk — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:12:52 +0000

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.

By: Tim K

Tim K — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:22:50 +0000

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.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:27:20 +0000

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.

By: Calk

Calk — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:09:12 +0000

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.

By: Paul Lundgren

Paul Lundgren — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:28:00 +0000

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.