The New Richmond Letter

The following is a letter I received in the mail the other day urging voters in the New Richmond school district to vote for Andy Lieffort and Deanna Cook-Shannon. The letter included a separate page with very negative comments taken from the www.ontheborderline.net by anonymously posted by a "Jack Bauer." Regular readers of this blog will be no stranger to the slanderous hypocrisy of the OTBL site and the caustic, anonymous comments of Jack Bauer. My experience with the OTBL bloggers is that they would make better waiters than customers -- they can dish it out, but they can't take it.

The letter is signed by Tim O'Brien, Mike Montello and Adam Swanda. I've know Mike since I moved to New Richmond nearly 20 years ago and have known Tim for more than a decade. I don't personally know Adam, but I've seen him around town. I know these men to be concerned, dedicated members of the New Richmond community who understand the importance of having quality education infrastructure in place and staffing the education system with dedicated, caring teachers, administrators and staff who focus on the future. I share these sentiments and am proud to publish this letter on this blog site.

The post below this contains most of the comments taken from the OTBL blog site that were included in the separate page sent with this letter. As someone who has been kicked off the OTBL three times under three different names (dratsum, husker and lazlo) I can vouch for the mean spirited, one-sided closed mindedness that dominates business as usual on that blog. My experience participating on that blog quickly taught me that they are free to question everyone else, but don't dare question them. Likewise, they are free to post any piece of anti-public education, anti-community information they see fit -- regardless how slanderous, false and groundless -- and label it as the facts. Yet, never would they post anything I submitted that was favorable toward public education nor will they every post anything favorable to public education.

James P. Nelson
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We are members of this community who feel the upcoming School Board election will prove pivotal for the future direction of the New Richmond School District. Our School District has come under attack by outside interests, encouraged by persons from within our own district. These Hudson-area residents attempted to disrupt the Community Forum held at WITC. They have tried to intimidate our School Board members by showing up with cameras at Board meetings, and by attempting to enter closed meetings. These individuals use as their primary form of communication an internet blogsite, where they have engaged in personal attacks against community members, school administrators, Board members and teachers. We have enclosed with this letter quotes from persons associated with this website. Read them, and ask yourself: Is this what we want our District to become?

In the midst of the negative tactics, we should not ignore the very real recent accomplishments of our School Board. These include:
- Fiscal responsibility: our bond rating is now in the top 20% in the State;
- Saved $600,000 on bus transportation costs over the next five years;
- Solved the early retirement issue, and brought labor peace to the District;
- Completed studies on future facilities needs, and alternate uses of the Middle School;
- Involved the community through surveys, public meetings, and focus groups, in the search for a new superintendent and the future direction of the District;
- Recruited and retained solid, dynamic principals at each of the schools;

We must also acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead:
- Recruiting and hiring a new superintendent;
- Facilities needs due to continued growth in the community;
- Maintaining manageable student to teacher ratios;
- Health issues at West Elementary;

We believe most District residents would like to see a unified effort in dealing with these challenges. United, in this case, does not necessarily mean of the same opinion. It means working together to find the best solutions. While our School Board and the process is not perfect, we feel that the majority of the time its members are caring, hard-working, dedicated individuals, who give their time and talent to lead our District into the future, keeping the best interests of the students and the community as their guiding principles.

We do not doubt that candidates Rick Hinz and Bob Sievert have chosen to run for School Board because they care about the future of our District. However, they have chosen not to distance themselves from those who brought the “bloggers” into our community. This is reason enough for us to support the candidacies of Andy Lieffort and Deanna Cook-Shannon. We also feel that Andy and Deanna have the best qualifications to lead the Board into the future. For more information about those qualifications, visit www.electandyanddeanna.com. We think you will agree they will restore our District’s reputation as the model others try to imitate. Please vote on April 4th. Thank you.

Mike Montello
Tim O’Brien
Adam Swanda