Cookies and issues get a neighborly crunching

DEERWOOD -- Eight gallons of coffee and 20 dozen cookies were set up in the Deerwood Auditorium's kitchen Monday night, but those attending the Crosby-Ironton School Board's first open meeting since the Feb. 9 teachers' strike began were more interested in crunching salary numbers.

Dwayne Johnson, owner of the Trolley Diner and Drive-in, supplied the refreshments in a bit of neighborliness that was appreciated by many in the crowd, which Deerwood Police Chief Harry Gottsch estimated at between 500 and 550.

Johnson said he wants to see teachers awarded a fair raise but maintained the district is broke.

He knows there are teachers who disagree with his views because "right now they're not coming in" to the 79-foot-long, 9 1/2-foot-wide restaurant that's been a fixture in the community for about 50 years.

"If I'm going to be a part of the community I have to take a stand," he said. "If it hurts my business a bit, then so be it."

Claude Sand, who billed himself as Johnson's kitchen helper, said teachers should be classified as essential employees and not be allowed to strike. He's against the teachers' strike.

"Our teachers need to realize our school board doesn't have the money," Sand said. "There's no more blood left in this turnip."

Outside the 1936 auditorium two 1998 Crosby-Ironton High School graduates sported union buttons and held their homemade signs supporting the teachers before the meeting started.

The educators had given up pay raise after pay raise over the years, according to Crystal Huff. She was thankful for the efforts of her teachers, noting they saw problems she was having which eventually led to a medical diagnosis of diabetes.

"It helped save my life," she said.

Natalie Eberhart, the daughter of a teacher, voiced similar support for the striking teachers and noted divisions were becoming more evident in community churches, families and businesses.

"We grew up with these people" she said of the teachers.

About 10 feet away members of a group called "Students First" held their signs calling for the classification of teachers as essential employees and for binding arbitration to settle the strike.

Jeff Lashyro said the district must be run like a business. He expressed dismay that the senior year of this year's 12th-graders had been ruined by the strike and expressed support for the school board.

"Our neighbors are teachers," Lashyro said. "We're not going to be the best of friends after this."

Lashyro has two daughters who have already gone through the school district but felt strongly that it wasn't right to strike when children would be adversely affected.

"No community should have to go through this," he said.

There was no taunting or name-calling between the opposing sides. Many people amiably chatted with each other in the relatively warm night air while they waited for the 7 p.m. meeting to start.

A sign on the door informed dancers that the Just For Kix Hip-Hop class would be conducted at Cuyuna Range Elementary School next Monday so the school board could meet at the auditorium -- a neutral site.

Looking on the bright side, Mike Aulie of Deerwood said after the school board meeting that the old auditorium probably had seen more use in the last several weeks than it had in the last 10 years. He joked that boxer Tony Bonsante might even be coaxed to return to the Cuyuna Range for a fund-raising boxing match at the auditorium.

While Aulie said it could take years to heal the divisions of the strike, he was optimistic the community could rise to the challenge and not carry the bitterness between opponents for generations.

He said he was glad his father, Berger Aulie, a 1938 C-I graduate and a district English teacher for 31 years, didn't live to see the rift that's formed in the district.

"It's really split the community," Aulie said.

He said he was hopeful the teachers and school board would negotiate like responsible adults, noting that a person can't judge someone else unless they walk in their shoes.

MIKE O'ROURKE, associate editor, can be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.