My reaction to school referendum is shared

I understand the uneasiness of people who received that referendum flyer from the school recently. We now see some venting in the commercial media. A prolific letter writer hits the nail on the head with points made. I hate to give him too much credit because of a certain issue in the past. That issue was the cemetery chimes.
Anyway, Mr. Cemetery Chimes was disturbed by the school referendum flyer. I'm reluctant to give him too much credit but he articulates well. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about community issues, though not as much as in the past. I was not aware that any part of our public school campus was in such horrible shape, as described in the flyer.
I'm discouraged that we have to again deal with building decline issues so soon after we were dragged through all this with the old, now-razed school. I thought the demolition of that building would leave us breathing a sigh of relief over having quite satisfactory contemporary structures. All right, so we're done with all that, mold etc.? Wrong-o.
The school starts beating the drum for having to get money for substantial fix-up work. Mr. Cemetery Chimes wonders why the problems could not have been seen and addressed as they developed. Don't ask such stupid questions (sarcasm).
The way I see it, dealing with these problems costs money and this might force the superintendent, "Sick Rick" (nickname courtesy a regional blogger), to cut programs or positions to free up the money. This would cause a fire-breathing reaction by school staff, and we all know what a many-headed hydra the school staff can be. So the administration sits back, allows the situation to get very bad and then turns to a tried and true remedy: the referendum. This community has voted "yes" on school referendums in a knee-jerk way over the recent past. It sure isn't like the 1960s.
So, the administration figures it can routinely pass such a referendum, vacuum in the needed funds from the taxpayers, pay the contractors to come in and do their thing, and then presto! No staff layoffs or program reductions. The staff is mollified. I have seen the tail wagging the dog many times.
That was such a fancy color brochure that was put out, promoting the referendum. I suspect that by law, such a brochure if put out by the school cannot advocate "vote yes" directly. So the powers that be use a lawyer's cleverness to say "vote yes" in every other manner possible, without an explicit statement. I didn't come into town on a turnip truck - I can readily see this.
We read "years of use have rendered many building spaces unsafe and unusable for our students." Should the high school parents initiate a class-action lawsuit alleging that their kids have been exposed to unreasonable risk?
Society is being forced to take a whole new look at school infrastructure. We saw an article in Saturday's Star Tribune about "University of the People" that does not use textbooks, rather it keeps costs down by using existing assets on the Internet. The Internet has developed so far, what isn't on the Internet? So I have to wonder: do we even need a school library anymore? We can ask that about colleges too. The sociologist Charles Murray has asked this pointedly. What, a school without a library? The thought on the face of it might seem absurd, but I think it's totally reasonable. The school expends resources managing its library.
I gather that shower facilities are an issue at our high school. Whenever water is involved, there is potential for wear and tear and decay. So I ask: why do we even expect our students to shower during the day? We don't shower during our day at work, do we? Oh, there's phy ed classes. I have questioned the existence of phy ed classes. The counter argument might be,"we can't expect our kids to just sit in desks all day." Well no, but there are desks made nowadays that allow users to stand. Research shows there is a health benefit to this. I believe the brand name is "Vari-Desk."
And as far as exercise is concerned, why aren't students simply assigned a "walking period" where they'd simply walk laps in the school hallways, quietly of course? Oh, I'm such a conservative fuddy-duddy, aren't I? Or maybe I'm just arousing the wrath of school staff, who fear a friend or two might get laid off. Well, welcome to the real world.
I would like to see a reaction to this school referendum like what we saw with the proposed jail. The superintendent can be nudged to make budgetary adjustments to get the money to do the belated rehab. He should seek a lower price for all this than is now put forth, eh? These issues can be difficult. Austerity with school matters can bring a visceral reaction from school-centered interests/people. It can get nasty. If you want to vote "yes" and keep the same old racket going, fine. I'll just observe from the sidelines. We should all look forward to the Homecoming parade. Remember the way I used to cover MAHS Homecoming for the Morris newspaper?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com