So the Minnewaska referendum failed

A welcoming entrance

Will Minnewaska ever attempt another school referendum for extracting more money from the citizens? Is it true the lakcshore property owners would get socked? I heard that once but then I hear lots of things. Minnewaska is developing a losing track record for trying to get referendums through. Another one bit the dust last week. 

The "Minnewaska" school name might throw people outside of the area. They might say they are not familiar with any community being named Minnewaska. Would be a reasonable take by them. 

Just as the MACCRAY and BOLD school names can confound us, we have "Minnewaska" which is a lake rather than a town. 

Maybe it's harder for he citizenry to get fired up about a referendum for a school that does not directly represent a community. "Glenwood High School" would get the Glenwood people aroused more, I would presume. If you have hung around Glenwood, you'd get the impression that the place is easily viable enough to have its own K-12 school. I presume it would be on the outskirts of town as most new schools are. 

In my Morris we had the building right smack in the middle of town for so long. Starting in 1914 in fact. Seemed like a real big accomplishment when it got built. It turned into an erector set type of place as additions came along. We had the quite distinctive art deco auditorium. We were told it could not be preserved by itself. 

That piece of land has been transformed for other purposes. I like the new purposes. Older people attach lots of memories for when the place was the school hub. The auditorium doubled as a gym. And that's where the 1955 basketball team worked to the state tournament. That was in the old one-class system for basketball. Imagine Gene Hackman as "Coach Dale." 

Minnewaska is doing super at present in the girls sports of volleyball and basketball. I had the opportunity to blog about volleyball in the fall. I had a better opportunity to blog about Minnewaska than Morris, would you believe. The info is accessible online most of the time. It looks like the Morris coaches have gone along with letting the Morris newspaper have a monopoly. Problem with that is that the paper only comes out once a week. It was twice through all the years when I was involved there. 

Anyway it's a pleasure for yours truly to stay connected to Minnewaska Area. I'm assuming that girls hoops will be boffo this winter. We'll see about the boys. 

I attended the Minnewaska Showstoppers musical "Newsies" during summer. It was really a thrill to take that in. But in spite of all the neat stuff happening over there, they can't get a referendum through. Looks like it wasn't even close. 

Am I downbeat about that? Not at all. Maybe I have a subconscious skepticism about referendums because of my long-time bias against teachers or specifically the groups or cliques they form. They of course are unionized. A pox on teacher unions everywhere. 

We saw the Morris teachers become real troublemakers in the late 1980s. They were so unyielding. They didn't care if they plotted ruination of certain people and their businesses. So I guess if teachers are going to benefit in any way from a referendum passing, I'm thumbs-down. 

Are my feelings really subconscious on this? Maybe let's put it in different terms: it's conscious.

 

Receipts 

Oh I know I'm not isolated with such thoughts. And I can get totally specific: I remember a conversation I had with a Minnewaska school parent many years ago. This was right after a failed referendum. This individual worked at the Lowry printing plant for newspapers where I was involved as rep of the Morris paper. 

This employee told me she wanted to celebrate because of the referendum's failure. And why would she feel this way if she was a parent? She explained. She said the 'Waska teachers were known to be talking about how they looked forward to an anticipated enrollment drop. The presumed idea was that the teachers' job would be easier with fewer kids. 

You don't want to talk like this and have such feelings be known to the school parents. The parents want the school people to be thankful for each and every kid, period. 

"They (the teachers) should have been happy they had them," I remember her saying. 

 

Can't forget this 

Yes, some of my feelings about teachers are based on the struggles I had in school. The baby boomers found the school environment more harsh than the kids of today, I'm sure. We had irrelevant/arcane subject matter thrust on us. And then if we acted bored, teachers would assault us emotionally. As if we had issues of character. 

I strongly assert that once a kid has gained mastery of reading, writing and arithmetic, that kid is equipped to go out in the world and do all sorts of things. 

I was a "Cold War kid." Our national leaders pushed this idea that we had to "compete with the Soviet Union." We about went nuts seeing "Sputnik" in the sky. Why? Oh it got worse as we sent tens of thousands of young men to their deaths in Vietnam due to our insistence of "fighting communism." Is there anything more stupid from all of world history? 

And I'm sure the national government felt our public schools had to be seen as an extension of our national defense. But the government rationalized (or imagined) that so many things were part of our national defense. Eisenhower sold the Interstate highway system this way. Bureaucrats dug in and used the prevailing arguments to of course get more money. Because it always comes down to money and self-interest. 

The boomers "survived" school. The kids of today have it better or so I gather. Schools are supposed to lift up kids' self-esteem. Imagine encouraging basic happiness and sense of self-worth among kids. And toward this end I think extracurricular is very important. 

Morris went through excruciating pains in getting extracurricular improved back around 1990, after years of agony. The success came with a pricetag. There was oh so much conflict. Certain people got dug in on the regressive side by saying "academics comes first." And in a perverted way they were comfortable with seeing extracurricular held back. That attitude had to die. Then finally it did.

Teachers do not wield the clout they once did. But it was bad enough at one time, that to this very day I root against school referendums. I don't trust the system enough. 

 

Tale of two towns

Whither the relationship between Glenwood and Starbuck? If the school was in Glenwood then what of the Starbuck people? Well they could send their kids to Hancock if they wanted. I believe some have done that. 

Even Glenwood might not have it made, because parents there might want to send their kids to the fabulous new Alexandria school. But I think Glenwood ought to have a school on the outskirts of town. Complete with a football field. And I think a referendum would be an easier sell because the school would be a part of real civic pride. 

The way it is now, whether you live in Glenwood or Starbuck, the 'Waska school has an "out-of-town" feel to it. It's not a token jaunt. And it's necessary for motorized transportation to be used for everyone going to or coming from the place. That in itself I find discouraging. 

The Minnewaska school would not be created today. The legislature put its foot down many years ago and determined "no more cornfield high schools." Another mistake was made with the Lac qui Parle school - same as 'Waska. A school should be in a community to take advantage of established infrastructure. Also, to be in close proximity for people to visit.

 

Oh, Starbuck 

But what about Starbuck? Well first of all they should congratulate themselves on the influence they had for getting the school situated where it is. There has been a consensus that Starbuck had way out-sized influence. Someone I know said "it was the tail wagging the dog." So apt. 

Why? A good question to hash over. My friend and colleague the late Ron Lindquist was a Starbuck person who asserted himself. He ran the Starbuck paper after he left Morris. There is no Starbuck paper now. 

The recent referendum vote was not even close. That did not surprise me one bit. Minnewaska is a beautiful lake to behold as one exits the 'Waska school. But the lake does not produce kids, it is the towns that produce the kids. 

Will 'Waska ever attempt a referendum again? Maybe not, but you can bet there are scheming individuals at work trying to change the system so the schools can get $ without having to go through the voters. 

In conclusion: education is not part of the USA "national defense." The schools prepare kids for life. And toward this end they should have the kids' self-confidence and self-image lifted up, not battered down. 

I'm saying this as a boomer who grew up in the Cold War. I'm a casualty of the Cold War? Maybe. It became a hot war in Vietnam. And we lost the war.

Boomer kids got "grades" according to an onerous system. That situation has improved 100 percent. Congratulations. Our generation had parents who experienced the Depression and World War II. So maybe they felt suffering was just a natural part of life. 

The beautiful Minnewaska school csampus

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com