The News Tribune editorial board sat down with Duluth schools Superintendent Keith Dixon this week for what turned out to be a quite-candid, nearly two-hour conversation. We hit him with everything from the red plan and Let Duluth Vote to the sale of Central High School and other soon-to-be-empty school properties.
Below are excerpts straight from the superintendent's mouth.
On the red plan:
"Am I going to have all the people happy? No. We're trying to do the right things." On the start of red plan construction:
"There's a lot of energy and a lot of feeling that we want to get going." On the school district's role in Duluth's economic development efforts:
"The long-term goal is for people to choose Duluth and to choose Duluth public schools." On the suspicions of some in Duluth the district already has a buyer for the Central High School site -- and has for some time:
"I do not have anyone interested in Central at this point." On the Ordean site:
"I think we've done a lot of accommodating for that community that needs to be acknowledged." On the Let Duluth Vote group, whose alternate plan for Duluth schools, Dixon said, summarizing, is an effort to keep all schools open, to fix them up, and then, in 10 years, to put together a blue-ribbon commission to study what needs to be done next.
"It's one thing to criticize someone's development plan; it's another thing to develop your own." On uniting the district:
"We have more in common than we do in difference." On what the eastern high school at the Ordean site may be called:
On the western middle school:
"We'll continue to work with that community. I believe there will be a positive outcome there as well." On the district, from where Dixon said he "someday" will retire:
