Schools are not the problem; they are part of the solution. School leadership is not a luxury. This time of hyper austerity is not the time to discard our leadership (as our school board is contemplating).
We need to keep our school’s progress toward community engagement. Superintendent Schwarz has greatly expanded the role of community members in leadership committees including finance, academic achievement, curriculum, and communication. She is exploring ways all the community schools can work together for the good of our children. She is prioritizing small elementary class sizes and early childhood preparation. She is attending to graduation rates and looking forward to changes in how education can be delivered differently in the future—all this while investigating for the board potential budgetary savings that include cutting her own position.
There are other responsible options.
Perhaps it is a great strategy to get people to pay attention: hold quiet deliberations and threaten to make a really bad decision. Nothing gets me more irate. Please take the bait with me and tell your school board members to keep and support our hard-won, necessary, and effective leader, Beth Schwarz. We can’t afford not to.
Jeff Kern
Grand Marais
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