Todd Grina brought up excellent points in the April 21 letter to the editor regarding school board accountability for financial woes. The increases in overhead by hiring a third elementary principal along with significant salary increases for the superintendent and business manager over their last two contracts do not align with declining student enrollment the past 10 years. Since 2012, ISD 423 enrollment has steadily decreases, from 2,922 to 2,621.
Even worse, in May the school board unwisely brought up a proposal to spend $15,000 for so-called leadership training that many see as an element of CRT “woke” training. Thankfully, parents and grandparents showed up in force at the June 13 school board meeting to speak up about this and ultimately the board decided to drop the whole thing.
Concerns remain high about the liberal majority of the current school board. We remember just 18 months ago the divisive Facebook posting by school board member Sara Pollmann that accused supporters of President Trump and Mayor Forcier of being aligned with voters who believe in white supremacy, believe hate is welcome in Hutch, believe Black people do not deserve justice when murdered by police, and that Martin Luther King and civil rights were a mistake.
In January, a petition with more than 500 signatures was presented to the ISD 423 school board asking for an apology. This was ignored as no action was taken by either the individual or the liberal majority school board. It is hard to imagine someone with such a strong viewpoint not influencing board policy and decision making with this line of thinking.
When Pollmann spoke positively at the May school board meeting promoting this “progressive” training the alarm bells start going off, again. We especially do not want to provide any of our taxpayer funding for training like this.
The vast majority of our community strongly disagrees with teaching our students that some are privileged, and other oppressed, because of their skin color. This serves to drive students away to charter and other schools. This woke philosophy reduces enrollment as is happening with the Hibbing High School and other school districts in greater Minnesota. The Hutchinson leaders should take a poll on this to gauge the community’s position about this new progressive woke training.
The school board needs to make a commitment not to support or spend money on any CRT “woke” training before asking for more levy money. Taxpayers have supported our Hutchinson ISD 423 schools in the past, but these changing times prove that parents must have more say on what the money is spent on. After 18 months, it’s still not too late for that apology either.
