MESABI DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL, 11-2: Virginia School District residents should be very thankful that this is an election year. They have an opportunity next Tuesday to make sure some incumbents who treated them so shabbily by listening to a lobbyist — Gary Cerkvenik — rather than their constituents during the absolutely miserably failed Grades 7-12 co-location campaign are turned out of office. And they also can let those incumbents and the school district superintendent know that the Open Meeting Law is important; should be followed; and when it isn’t that doesn’t amount to a “technical violation,” as most of the violators allege. We ever so strongly endorse challengers Stacey Sundquist and Greg Manninen for election to the board. We believe they will do a great job of cleaning up some of the mess that has been created by five of the current incumbents — Tim Riordan, Heather Surla, Bill Hafdahl, Sonya Pineo and Kim Stokes. They also have a good understanding of the importance of all schools and programs to the district. And they fully get it that a School Board and superintendent are not the heart and soul of the district — its the staff, teachers, parents and students. We believe they can also address a serious morale issue in the district among teachers and staff that Superintendent Deron Stender has helped to create. Meanwhile, there is a much better communication bridge to be built to district residents. Trust has taken a big, big hit. We also endorse the only incumbent — Tom Tammaro — who broke ranks from the board on the terrible co-location plan. The other five board members were in lockstep, joined as one on the plan that would have closed Virginia’s high school as if join from a board that was in lockstep on the issue. We also believe challenger Paul Bachschneider would serve the school district well. The co-location would have combined Grades 7-12 of the Virginia, Eveleth-Gilbert and Mountain Iron-Buhl school districts into a new $180 million (construction plus interest) school building in Mountain Iron. We still are incredulous that the five Virginia School Board incumbents actually believed a pre-determined site in the district with by far the lowest enrollment in those grades would be a good thing for the Virginia School District and received favorably by the public. And then when an overwhelming majority of district residents rose up against the plan to kill it, those five board members just couldn’t let go of it. Wow! Thank goodness for elections.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 00:26:33 +0000
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