An article I wrote in the October 24 edition of “The Sherburne County Citizen” titled “The Power of the Pigskin” has engendered a strongly negative response among members of the community and the staff of the Becker School District, a consequence which was wholly unintended on my part but is a real and totally unnecessary distraction for all concerned in the run-up to an important referendum election.

 

The details, as I perceived them, are as follows:  Last Tuesday, I phoned PTSA President Ann Olson to confirm the 6 p.m. meeting time for an informational session that was being conducted by the school district.  She replied that the 6 p.m. meeting would be held on schedule, as far as she knew. She also stated that she and her fellow PTSA members would not be attending that session, but would be at the football game answering questions and handing out button in support of the referendum.  That is where they were scheduled to be, as they had no role in the meeting being held by the district, having held a question-and-answer session at their regular PTSA meeting that Monday night.

 

I arrived at Becker High School at 6:30 p.m. that evening, intending to take a photo of the meeting before moving on to another assignment at 7 p.m.  On arrival, I found no one at the meeting site, or in the building, and wrongly concluded that they had opted for the football game instead.  District officials had been present earlier, but closed the meeting when no one appeared in the first half-hour.

 

Apparently, my recounting of these events led readers to believe that I thought Ann Olson had in some way attempted to misdirect me away from the district meeting, something which never occurred to me and which I did not believe.  I did find humor in the idea that the whole town would be at the football game, though the use of the phrase referring to having “smelled a rat” was unfortunate, but a common literary device all the same.  I am bewildered as to how anyone could have conflated that into my comparing Ann Olson to a rat, but that is what I have heard via several letters in the past week.

 

Ann’s reputation and her endless hours of volunteer work for her community, her church and the school district are well known, and certainly do not deserve to be tarnished by one off-beat article in the local newspaper.  My intention was to provide a bit of humor in the midst of a very serious situation, and I am deeply distressed to have bungled it so badly.

 

I can only offer my sincere apology to the school district, the community, and most especially to Ann Olson, who has always been forthright and honest in all of our dealings over the years, and who is someone I have considered a friend for all that time.  If she no longer returns that feeling, I quite understand.

 

And sad for me, too, in that, after the hundreds of stories I have written about the Becker schools and the personalities and programs, it will be this last one that many people will choose to remember.