Consolidation -A-Drift Without a Rudder

Last year, Ironwood taxpayers were asked to blindly accept a multi-million dollar bond issue to renovate the Ironwood Public Library.  This year the very same individuals from Ironwood  are telling the voters of Bessemer, Marenisco and Wakefield.  to trust them and vote to approve consolidation.

You have to expect a lot of trust to pass this half-a_ _ _d attempt at consolidation.
 

The group of individuals  that put the no plan plan on the November ballot call themselves the " 149 Team"  craftily named after the number of students graduating from the three school districts this  year. Even that number is disputable.

What the group with the cutesy name didn't anticipate was that the vast majority of those attending the meeting were opposed to consolidation.  What the group with the cutesy name never anticipated was that their opponents would come to the meeting more prepared than the "149 Team" .

The pro-consolidation group started off badly by telling the audience that after they (the 149 team) were done with their propaganda, lies and insults, that they would permit the members of the audience 1 minute each for questions. That was the beginning of the end for the pro-consolidation group with the cutesy name. The audience insisted that the subject (consolidation) required serious discussion and that the meeting must go on beyond  the allotted time if until everyone was heard and that was the way the evening would play out.

He gave a power point presentation that drew harsh criticism from the audience who knew enough of the truth to challenge the contrived presentation.

As you might expect the numbers in the presentation were tainted and otherwise contrived to support the pro-consolidation viewpoint. Fortunately  members of the anti-consolidation group were able to point out the fallacy in the presentation's numbers.

At the very first election day (August 2009) a new school board will be elected to replace the interim board. Here then is a major stumbling block in the passage of a consolidation initiative. The members of the new district's school board will be elected "at large" . So it's conceivable that all the members of the school board could be from Ironwood. The proponents of the no plan plan avoided this issue, choosing instead to dance around it.

The audience members were well aware of the probability of domination by the much larger Ironwood School District and the evening's  speakers  said little to nothing to dispel their fears. In fact, the way  the meeting was run  just added to the audience pessimism.

This newest and perhaps the worst attempt at consolidation  faces an uphill battle in spite of the large sums of money being spent by the Ironwood foot soldiers. The group have not only spent the usual sums of money on signs, printing and mailing but also  had a downstate lawyer on the phone, long distance for over an hour. One has to wonder who will be picking up the Thrun Law Firm, P.C.   billing for that hour. For the taxpayers sake let's hope that it was the well heeled members of that group with the cutesy name and not the taxpayers!

Speaking about signs, the pro-consolidation group have paid for a full-size  billboard between Wakefield and Bessemer. The only problem being that the sign violates Michigan Election laws. Obviously an oversight due to the lack of planning that this group is now famous for.

Why are the pro-consolidation forces avoiding a plan all together? 

Simply because a plan, any plan, will invite scrutiny. Scrutiny will reveal the true motives of these people from Ironwood and that is their desire to TAKEOVER the Bessemer and Wakefield-Marenisco school districts, not to consolidate with them.