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Friday, 1-11-2002

The Big Fix

So the Governor spelled out his Big Fix for the state's anticipated 2 billion shortfall yesterday and it was outlined in the Trib today. The general assessment for K-12 education is that it could be worse. 

I spent much of the day catching up on this diary. Editing is a lot of work.

I picked up the booklet from the Center for Disease Control that I'd dropped off with Bruce Watkins. Its about encouraging kids to walk to school for their health. It didn't look to me as though there was any money attached to the program but the Kids walk to School program is well motivated and had some good suggestions. If our district increases the walking distance for children to walk to school we may be able to use this guide to encourage adults to walk with the children. 

I had called up Louie Thompson, a member of the Superior School Board, the day before to offer him the booklet. I'd just read about Superior's decision to increase their walking distance from one mile to two miles.  Louie suggested I take it in to their Superintendent which I did. Jay Mitchell greeted me cordially and invited me into his office. (My, but Superior has a modest little Administrative office)  We spoke briefly and he took the booklet. Apparently one of the Superior elementary schools had already gotten parents involved the year before on a walking project very much like this. 

As the day wore on I called Greg Hein and asked him if he'd done any calculations on the costs to us of Jesse's Big Fix. He told me it would take a while for him to work through the numbers. It sounds complicated.

Our new chairman, Mike Akervik, made the news tonight arguing for a smaller administration. He doesn't want us to hire a new Director of Personnel. I think this would be a big mistake in a district with over 2,000 employees and eleven collective bargaining agreements. Decisions like this are what lead our retirees to petition us for more attention.

Claudia sent me off to Savories for a take out dinner to eat while we watched the Friday evening news shows. We wanted to see what the pundits had to say about the Governor's plan. He's served and now the ball is in the legislative court.

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