"Johnston is a bully and is reaping what he had sown."

TimK, for years I have been reading your comments here in regards to the Red Plan as you've sneered at anyone who dares to disagree with your assessment of the plan. For too long, those of us who've had intelligent, thoughtful opposition to the Red Plan have been reduced to inferiority by supporters of the Plan. I see this happening again right here and right now, with your snippy comment about Johnston.

How does the Red Plan relate to this post? Bear with me just a moment or two. I promise I'll get there.

To reduce this whole story, this whole Board meeting, and this whole situation to Art Johnston being a bully, as you've just done, is utterly ridiculous and makes me wonder if you've ever actually met him or seen him in action? I mean, have you ever actually been in his presence at a meeting, or talked with him one-on-one -- or have you just taken the media's (and therefore school board's) portrayal of him as a bully and run with it?

I don't know a darn thing about Paul King or others who protested at this meeting, speaking and holding up signs; I wasn't there. But I do know that Art Johnston has been the sole Board protester of the Red Plan for years. He's been demonized and ridiculed because our ISD 709 school board makes no room for dissent or discussion about problematic issues.

I didn't vote for Art when he ran nor do I even live in his district. HOWEVER...there are really shameful things going on in our district recently in regards to inequalities between the east and west side schools. The problems are directly the result of the Red Plan's redistricting and how it divided the city into east and west schools. Here's how I've gotten to know Art Johnston in the past month: 

At Denfeld HS, where I have a couple of kids, starting next year my kids are not able to take--in the example of one son--four of the classes he has already signed up and registered for. These classes were recently cut at the end of the year and they include classes like language, advanced music, and AP classes. If he were at East HS, however, he could still take those classes. What kind of equity do we have in our school district when, depending on which side of the dividing line you live on, you can either take advanced academic classes...or you can't? My son could take Chamber Orchestra, German 5, AP World History, and other classes IF he went to East. But for now, he has glaring holes in next year's schedule and will have to fill those periods with something challenging like, say, study hall.

The reason these classes aren't available at Denfeld is because, according to the School Board, there is an "enrollment" issue, and they simply can't offer them. The enrollment issue they refer to is not having enough kids to offer the classes for smarter kids. Because there are less and less smarter kids at Denfeld. Denfeld's own principal publicly referred to these high-achieving kids as a "niche" audience.

Don't you wonder why there aren't enough kids at Denfeld when both refurbished Duluth high schools were designed to hold the same number of students, and the Red Plan redistricting was implemented to create equal student enrollment at both schools? Doesn't this enrollment disparity seem a problem worthy of discussion?

Next year, there will be 900 kids at Denfeld and almost 1600 at East. During the Red Plan implementation years ago when our kids were shifted all over the city as schools closed and merged, we were told that "whatever was offered at Ordean/East would be offered at Morgan Park/Denfeld.

There are now three kids at East for every two at Denfeld. And every year the numbers increase. Many of us parents feel the culture of excellence is disappearing at Denfeld as the advanced classes for the high-achieving students disappear. I mean, who wouldn't rather have available the entire high school curriculum for their kids rather than just some of the classes? 

This "enrollment" problem was directly created by the Red Plan's redistricting. The parents at Denfeld have been saying, Hey Board -- you created the enrollment divide and problem, now you should fix it....we have concerns about our kids' education.

Which (finally) brings me back to Art Johnston and your comment about him.

A few weeks ago in May, many parents and students showed up at a School Board meeting to express our concerns about losing language, music and advanced classes at Denfeld, even while they are all still being offered at East. We wrote letters to Board members, spoke at this meeting, and invited their conversation. No one -- not a single board member -- seemed to give a crap about our concerns except Art Johnston. He personally called us parents, emailed us, discussed the problem, and is right now working to pull together a parent group to meet and continue discussing the issue and try to come up with solutions. 
We received no phone calls or return emails expressing concern about this issue from anyone else on the board except Art. No one.

This was my first experience with Art Johnston and I was really impressed at his intelligence, his commitment and extra hours he spent with the parents, and his understanding of how important advanced language and music classes are to a school district and especially to the personal growth of a student.

I would say he was mild mannered, soft spoken, listened well, and was reasonable. He was not a bully in any sense of the word. I have never seen him act like a bully. On the contrary, I have appreciated his willingness to stick his neck out and repeatedly and intelligently question ISD 709's practices and policies. If anyone were bullied during the past few years, I would say it was Art being bullied by the School Board.

I wouldn't call Art Johnston the problem in our District; that's a misleading path to letting our Board off the hook.

Please don't misinterpret my ramblings to be a criticism of Denfeld or its teachers. My kids have some great teachers at the school and there's a great vibe there in many ways. But for our District to not offer the same curriculum at Denfeld that is offered at East is just plain wrong. At least Art Johnston gets that.