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On the first meeting of the new year, and I fell for it again. School board meetings start at 6:30 pm. I walked into the boardroom, paged through the agenda, and thought I’d be back in my car by 8:30. When Chair Kirby finally, at 10:34, asked if everyone was ready to adjourn, some of the citizens still toughing it out on the room’s hard chairs chimed in: “AYE!” along with the Board.

School board meeting: 1/17/17

This evening’s special school/community recognition was given to two groups students representing Denfeld and East high schools. Over the holiday season, the Duluth East students made blankets to help out those less fortunate; the Denfeld students collected an astounding two tons (five carloads) of non-perishable food for the CHUM homeless shelter. In announcing the award, Assistant Superintendent Amy Starzecki said the students’ generous giving of their time and effort had “provided a shining example of service to others.”

Recently, during a Minnesota legislative hearing, an official from the Dept. of Public Safety speculated about the reason for a drop in the number of adolescents ending up in the hands of the criminal justice system: “I just don’t think being bad is as cool as it once was.”
These super-cool kids from Duluth’s two high schools certainly proved that point.
The virtuous nature of our youth was further verified this evening, when two teachers from Lester Park school brought some 1st and 4th graders up to the podium during the Public Comment period. Pat Isbell was the 1st graders’ teacher; Mary Ostazeski taught the 4th graders. After gently positioning their little wards around the podium, the teachers explained that they’d come into the boardroom to celebrate a buddy/friend partnership program they’d started four years ago. As Ms. Isbell put it, the program allows her “sweet” 1st graders” to have a “mentor and a peer teacher,” while Lester Park’s 4th graders have a “perfect opportunity to be a leader and friend to someone who needs them.”

If you happen to be casting a play requiring eight little cherubic angels, these four fourth-grade kids and their 1st grade “buddies” certainly fit the bill. They innocently charmed the entire room. The older kids were 1st graders the year the buddy system started. They are the old ones, now--in 4th grade--helping their younger buddies conquer reading and math. They looked so earnest and conscientious about the task, everyone gave them a round of applause. By the time the charm offensive was over, I don’t think anyone in the room didn’t want to give those kids every good thing the world could provide.

After the kids were done charming the room, citizens from the audience started streaming up to the podium for their three minutes of free speech. The wide-eyed innocence of youth was replaced by the custodial concern of adults. Kristen Klos-Maki and Aresa Rockwell addressed one of the hot-button issues of the evening. District 709, for some time now, has been trying to figure out how to address the fears some parents have about the health risks to kids from rubber tire mulch in school playgrounds.

Sometimes citizens speak so eloquently it’s difficult to cull just a few phrases from their comments to the Board. Ms. Klos-Maki is a parent of a two-year-old enrolled in an early childhood program at Lester Park and a kindergartener at Lowell Elementary. She told the Board that her child at Lowell had attended a nature-based preschool. She and other parents have devoted much time and effort to create an environment at Lowell that encourages the same values the nature-based preschool instilled. “There is a huge increase of nature-based preschools that have opened in Duluth and the surrounding area,” she informed the Board, “they’re enrolling over 200 students, currently.”

Ms. Klos-Maki pointed out that these schools are making recommendations to parents about where to send their children for elementary school. “So why is it that enrollment is down in the Duluth public school district, particularly in the elementary grades and kindergarten, and these nature-based preschools have waiting lists?” She asked. “Our kindergarten classes in this district should be full from all the recommendations of these nature-based preschool teachers…As a district, we need to figure out how to make that happen.” She went into detail about how parents at Lowell elementary are “trying to change what elementary schools look like in our area.”

Tire mulch in the playgrounds doesn’t fit into these parents’ vision. “It is completely incongruous to be advocating for our children to be outside as much as possible during the school hours, and then have a toxic area for them to play on. I was willing to have my daughter at Lowell, knowing it would be a year, and (then) it (the tire mulch) would be replaced, but I do not want her exposed any longer than this Spring. I think most of us agree that engineered wood fiber is the best option, but now time is of the essence. We can’t replace the mulch on only a few playgrounds, and wait to do a few more the next couple of years. All the children in the district deserve to have healthy playgrounds at the same time.”

Ms. Klos-Maki said she and her fellow group of concerned parents, if allowed to, would “be the first people on the playgrounds with shovels removing the tire mulch ourselves. That’s how passionate we are about this decision, and how passionate we are about our schools.” Then she spoke the words that are giving nightmares to a broke school district that continues to bleed students and circle the drain towards statutory operating debt: “We will do what it takes to keep our kids healthy and safe, by finding schools that share these same priorities. We hope that you will stick to your original vote and replace the tire mulch with engineered wood fiber, and have it completed, as you promised, by August of 2017. If you uphold your promise to our children with your previous vote, we will stand by you and support the district.”

The worried consternation this speech likely sent through the Board was allayed a bit by Ms. Rockwell, who is a parent of two children at Myers-Wilkins Elementary and also a founding member of “Duluth Parents for Healthy Playgrounds,” the group that sparked the debate about playground mulch. Ms. Rockwell wrote the tire mulch analysis and recommendation report that appeared on the group’s website, but since then, she told the Board, “I’ve backed away from the project because two non-partisan doctors of toxicology have convinced me that my fears about the mulch were overblown. Given my active involvement in creating public concern over the potential danger of our children’s long-term exposure to recycled tire products, I feel personally responsible for the repercussions that may be caused by redirecting more than half a million dollars that currently funds essential programming and staffing, to a problem that has not yet been confirmed or refuted by available evidence.”

Debate over this prickly issue lasted an hour and a half during the Business Committee Report.
Two more citizens addressed a specific, child-related concern from the podium this evening. Their issue centered on the way kids are being treated on school buses. Daris Nordby spoke first. “I’m 29 years old.” Mr. Norby told the Board. “I don’t have any children of my own, but I’ve heard a lot of allegations lately about school bus misconduct. And I personally believe that children are vulnerable. Children are innocent. And the people we entrust taking them to and from school should be picked from the highest caliber.”

“Unfortunately,” Karen Perry said, backing up Mr. Norby’s concerns, “I deal with a lot of the negative things that happen within the schools of ISD 709. I feel like I’ve been coming here (to the boardroom) long enough for some of these issues to be put on the agenda…I feel like some of these things have just been overlooked and swept under the rug. And you guys (the Board) need to pay a lot more attention to this.” To make her point, Ms. Perry read some excerpts from letters written by school children about their experiences riding buses--replete with allegations of drivers grabbing kids and “being mean to everyone.” Lifting the letters and showing them to the Board, Ms. Perry said: “These are my children, and they should be yours, too. That’s why we elected you.”

           
Frying pan into the fire

The agenda outline for the Education Committee Report looked pretty benign. I couldn’t imagine anyone kicking up any dust about approving a few grants. Policy changes sometimes engender debate, but I didn’t anticipate a controversy erupting over a change in the district’s “Wellness Policy.” Never underestimate our Board or the complexity of contemporary society, however: the discussion over “wellness” did create a bit of a food fight over what snacks kids should be allowed to take to school to share with classmates. The subject that really caught the Board up in what mushroomed into a debate lasting for the better part of an hour was the “Gender Identity and Gender Expression Presentation” from the Committee meeting the prior week.

Member Johnston drew the Board’s attention to one slide from the presentation that contained “a bunch of words” he felt inappropriate to be used in an official district document. He made a motion to change the slide, “by removing nine of the most vile words.” Member Welty seconded the motion, and the Board debate was off and running.

“You didn’t say which nine,” Chair Kirby pointed out with a discomfited chuckle, “just nine of the most vile words on that slide.”
It should be noted that Board members had a photocopy of the slide. The public never learned what the nasty words were (unless some of them picked up that they were already online.) As far as most of the audience was concerned, the offensive list under discussion may as well have been Vladimir Putin’s nine preferred Russian slurs.

The presentation is intended to be used as a training tool, to help increase sensitivity to transgender issues and prepare staff to appropriately respond in a school setting. Member Loeffler-Kemp told her colleagues she’d already seen the presentation twice, and was “uncomfortable making a motion to pull out a slide; I don’t know if we need to do it in such a formal way.” She wanted the Board to instead give “feedback” to the people who had put the presentation together. She said she was uncomfortable with the Board making a unilateral change because “I know the work that was put into this. I know the thoughtfulness.”

Member Welty partially echoed member Johnston’s concerns: “If this particular slide is to be used as part of our outreach to the community, beyond the professionals who I trust will approach these words with the sensitivity they need, I would be concerned. I have not seen a school district document like I’m looking at now.” He questioned the possible “counter-productivity” of using such words.

The discussion went on interminably, with the Lone Ranger, as is his wont, holding his ground.
“We don’t have a role to be shock troops. We don’t have a role to be Howard Sterns. We don’t have a role to be the same as the kids who are using poor language in our schools’ hallways. That is not our role. Everybody knows these are unacceptable words…Just bringing these words to light somehow makes it ok that we can throw these words out into the public? No! That’s what we’re doing by making this a public document. I’m certainly willing to go back to the drawing board, but I understand that this presentation is going to be used, starting in a week or two…”

I can’t help but pause for a moment and reflect about Howard Stern being on our Board. As loony as our government sometimes operates, I guess it’s somewhat comforting to realize it could be even crazier.
Member Johnston’s motion failed 6-1. Member Oswald next offered a motion to remove the slide from official documentation (it apparently was already on the district’s website, in the Board’s working material, called the Board book.) Member O.’s motion would allow use of the slide only within the presentation for its “effectiveness for the people that attend the presentations.”

Eventually, after voluminous words about vile words, this motion was approved 4-3, with members Harala, Loeffler-Kemp and Sandstad voting Nay.
  
A promise, a deficit and mulch

The HR Committee Report was the anomaly of this meeting, very brief. Discussion of the Business Committee Report was dominated by a discussion about how to proceed with replacing the tire mulch on school playgrounds. I wish I had the space to cover the debate in detail, but it went on for ninety minutes, so I can only touch on some highlights.

Last June the Board passed a resolution to replace all the tire mulch in the district’s playgrounds by the fall of 2017, but some Board members are now hedging because of the cost. The original cost estimate was between $350,000 to $500,000. The new estimate to get rid of the rubber mulch and replace it with wood fiber mulch is $630,000, but there are some caveats. This estimate is based on the assumption that the costs calculated for Lester Park Elementary school will be the same for all (9) other playgrounds, and some evidence suggests the work at Lester Park may be more expensive, skewing the overall figure. Also, the playground at Stowe Elementary is old enough to allow facilities maintenance money, rather than General Fund money, to be used.

Subtracting these costs and possible funding help from parent groups could reduce the impact to district operations, but it surely would be useful to have the $30 million reserve Keith Dixon and the Red Planners blew, right about now. Does anyone else find it upsetting that, after running up a bill of nearly half a billion, we have to cut into operations to pay for tearing out and rebuilding facilities Duluth taxpayers are still paying for--facilities still so new we can’t use facilities maintenance funds for the job?

The Facilities Manager’s claim that the district might be able to save some money by stretching the project out over three years drew some skepticism from the Board’s engineer, member Johnston, who said he’d never seen a project get cheaper by extending it out. Mr. Johnston added that ISD 709 was at risk of losing more students if the situation isn’t handled correctly.

The Superintendent pointed out that another deficit is “likely” going to projected for the coming year, and the cost of the mulch project “will be added to that deficit.”
The Board is in a bind. After all the broken promises of the Red Plan, our fiscally reeling district desperately needs to KEEP a promise. The only thing decided tonight was to get some bids for various timelines and debate again.
Hopefully the solution doesn’t fall into an old rut. It would be very distressing to see the poorer children in the western half of town still rolling around in black soot of suspected toxicity, while the wealthy children are safe and clean.
Our best hope rests with member Sandstad, who pointed out the potential unfairness of some people waiting “two, three years, when other students are going to have this resolved this summer. Given that there is significant concern on the part of parents as far as a health impact--but also, that rubber mulch can just be kind of dirty and gross--when the bids come back, I’m going to support moving forward with all of the elementary schools this summer.”

After enduring a gusty gale of words for just shy of four hours, on their very first night, the Board’s new student representatives--Benjamin Emmel and Cabrilla Francis--announced they had to leave a bit early, because they had finals the next day. Ms. Francis, speaking for the two, said they had to “get a little study time and a decent amount of sleep.”

As he was getting up, young Mr. Emmel leaned towards the microphone and said, “Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.” The soft-spoken remark sent a ripple of chuckling mirth through the (bored)room.
The fortunate youth has a whole wonderful year to look forward to.
As for the rest of us in the room, I think I speak for everyone when I protest that our bottoms are not made of cast iron. All in favor of adjournment, say AYE!