"Frankly, yes, I would rather have my child in 'leaky, falling apart money sinks.'"

Joel, I feel for you in regard to having an autistic child and losing some of the professionals that have worked with him. But your comments just come off as snarky and selfish.

Sure, we could've kept the students in the leaky, crumbling buildings. Besides putting the students in danger, the district would end up laying off teachers and professionals anyway so they could pay the astronomical heating and maintenance bills that fall under the same general operating budget.

As others have noted, the Red Plan was a completely separate thing than the layoffs. (Although, as RG noted, Duluthians for some reason decided to punish the kids because they don't like the school board. Smart.) But a lot of people have had to make sacrifices. Think of all the teachers and professionals who have lost their jobs. Sure, your son might have to adjust to some new people, but at least you can still put food on the table. Class sizes will go up too, giving students less one-on-one time that they need. Programs that help kids with learning disabilities are being cut and kids that don't do well in traditional classrooms are falling behind.

This is not a Duluth School Board issue. A lot of kids, teachers, professionals, and parents throughout the country are going through stuff like this right now. It's not going to get any better as long as federal and state education continues to be slashed for things like "defense."

RG, it was not my intention to oversimplify.  I was trying to cover all of the issues that led to the school board enacting the long-range facilities plan. Different buildings were closed for different reasons. Certainly not all of the buildings were crumbling and dangerous. Some certainly were (Laura MacArthur, Lincoln Park, Piedmont, etc.).

Declining enrollment was also a major factor in this plan. You have to consider that Duluth had a population of more than 100,000 up until the 1970s, when the population started falling drastically. Thankfully, it has leveled out over the past two decades, but the quantity and distribution of schools throughout the city was no longer conducive to the actual population of and distribution of people in the city. Assuming that Duluth does not have any drastic swings in population over the next few decades, the current school system will be far more cost-efficient in the long-run than keeping everything the way it was. (And, as you touched on, old buildings were not built be very cost-efficient when it came to things like heating and maintenance.)

As I mentioned in an earlier cost, I do feel that the board was at least partially to blame for not getting the levy passed. So many people were pissed at the board about the Red Plan that they decided to punish the kids by not voting for the levy. I would hope that people will have the opportunity to see the new buildings and realize their advantages before the next levy vote comes up. Perhaps if the district had put the Red Plan up for public vote, public sentiment would be better now. But then I worry that people would've just shot it down and we'd still be sitting here with crumbling old buildings and too many schools. There'll always be "what ifs?" about the whole process.

I'll agree with you on that.  I don't really disagree with the board's decisions (as I've explained in detail in previous posts), but they really could have done better PR and tried to communicate the reasons to the public.