Conlon says he's leaving "with a heavy heart."
By EMILY JOHNS, Star Tribune
Last update: May 21, 2009 - 10:39 PM
As of July 6, there will be no more elected Republicans in St. Paul.
School Board Member Tom Conlon, the lone elected Republican, announced Thursday that he will be resigning this summer because he has bought an historic inn in Asheville, N.C., and is moving there to be the innkeeper.
"I'm leaving the school board with a heavy heart," said Conlon, who will keep his home in the Macalester-Groveland area of St. Paul. "It's a professional decision only. I'm really going to miss the school board, I've loved it. Unfortunately, I can't do both."
St. Paul Republicans have had a rough time in recent years, including the never-ending 2008 U.S. Senate race, in which Norm Coleman won only one precinct in the city he used to preside over as mayor. But Scott Walker, chairman of the St. Paul Republicans, thinks they can hold onto Conlon's seat.
"The fundamentals of education are usurped by political agendas," he said, "and I think Tom Conlon was one of the very few people that focused on student achievement rather than the political atmosphere of the day."
Conlon was elected in 1991, and is the board's longest serving member, an honor that will now belong to Anne Carroll.
Conlon is a self-employed photographer, and he will soon be awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in work and human resource education. He also teaches in the College of Management at Metropolitan State University.
Conlon's seat will be filled by special election, during the November election when three of his fellow board members are up for reelection.
"It has always been a seat that the DFL could never pick up, even when they field four good candidates in that cycle," Darren Tobolt, chairman of the St. Paul DFL, said Thursday. "It's going to be interesting to see if people just want one Republican on the board, or if Tom is just that popular."
Conlon graduated from Highland Park Senior High in 1978, and went to college at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He says that's where he created his ties to North Carolina and to Asheville, a tourism center in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Conlon said the Cedar Crest Inn is a 15-room, Queen Anne Victorian-style inn that is a half-mile from the Vanderbilt family's famous Biltmore House. It was built in 1891.
"He'll definitely be missed," said Kazoua Kong-Thao, school board chairwoman. She said that despite the political differences, the vast majority of the board's decisions have been unanimous. "He has a wealth of knowledge; 18 years is a real commitment. I applaud anybody that does this kind of work, under the heat, under the lights, for so long."
Of his time on the board, Conlon said he is proud of how well he has worked with his constituents, and believes that he has influenced the board's policies. The school board is now moving toward a neighborhood model of assigning students to schools, something Conlon says he has pushed for a long time.
Earlier this week, Conlon was the only dissenting vote when the board voted to change the name of Webster Magnet Elementary to "Barack and Michelle Obama Service Learning Elementary," a change the school community voted on to reflect a new focus on service learning.
Conlon is hosting two goodbye receptions that will be open to the public. They will be from 3 to 6 p.m. June 8 and from 5 to 8 p.m. June 14 at Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 1849 Marshall Av., St. Paul.
Emily Johns • 612-673-7460
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