How Far Have They Fallen?

Think back to April 5, 2005. This was the date of the infamous $54 million referendum. It failed by 22 votes. The supporters of the referendum proposal thought this would be easily overcome. Convincing just a couple dozen more people in town, the new schools would be built and the supporters of the referendum would all have their names on a bronze plaque in the new school buildings.

It is now just one year later and look how far they have fallen. Hitchens is gone. Lieffort is done. Vote Yes NR is irrelevant. Cook-Shannon is out. O”Brien – actions were bizarre. Who are Jones and Skogland?

How did they do this to themselves?

Is this all Bill Brennan – fault? The Hudson blog – ? Bob Ziller’s? Jack Bauer – ? Or maybe those darn voters?

Hardly.

It is the fault of those who thought they were so righteous in their desire to “help” education that they let their power on the Board and their community leadership positions blind them into thinking that only they had good ideas worthy enough to generate support from others. They were in control of the District, managed all decisions, strategy and tactics for leading the community on school issues. What they failed to understand is that people do not appreciate being taken for granted, treated as if they have less intelligence or like being spoken to so condescendingly.

Much of blame could be placed and or lots of credit could be taken for the election results. However, the ultimate reason for the complete castration of the know-nothing cabal on the New Richmond School Board and Vote Yes NR is that it was self-inflicted.

It is a classic political tale of arrogance, refusal to listen and total disbelief that people care about how their tax money is being spent and care about the common sense judgment of their local officials.

The April 2005 Referendum was a flash point in motivating many people in town to question how the District was being run (one of them eventually filed to run for School Board and won). The loss of the referendum was an unmitigated disaster for leadership in the School District Administration and in the majority on the School Board. They lost the community – trust, confidence and respect.

Instead of laying out a plan for regaining the trust and confidence, they forged ahead on a path to pretend they were serious about listening and gaining community input.

They had their WITC community session, the public opinions survey, the Long Range Planning Commission, etc. However, these proved to be perceived as hollow and did nothing to attract people who voted NO in the referendum. In the end, the LRPC proposed exactly what Hitchens wanted. In the May 20, 2005 New Richmond News, he said “the likely recommendation (for a new referendum) will be to ask voters for a new high school and new elementary school”..the proposal would also include money to remodel West Elementary to improve security, and money to convert the current high school into a middle school.”

Anyone with a pulse knew the LRPC was going to propose exactly what they ended up proposing before they even had their first meeting.

Add into this environment the $108,000 Hitchens contract, the $25,000 Hitchens bonus, hiding the ATS&R invoices, controversies surrounding the bidding and budgeting for the portable classrooms at East Elementary School, Dr. Sarah Bridges therapy sessions, Chris Skogland – conflict of interests with her husband – business and her School Board votes, the Teachers” Union – muscle, numerous closed Board sessions, the concerns by many teachers and parents about possible health issues at West Elementary School and other issues. Most of these were self inflicted and they helped erode the built in advantages for Cook “Shannon and Lieffort as candidates for the Board.

The race was theirs to lose. And on this, they delivered.

What did these “pro-education” leaders provide their supporters? Did they build new schools? Did they pass a referendum? Did they improve the educational atmosphere in New Richmond? Did they improve the Town – image?

They failed their supporters at every step in the past year. For this they should be ashamed and embarrassed.

Unfortunately, I doubt they are.
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