Updated at: 11/04/2009 10:53 PM

District Reacts to Election Results

The Duluth Public School's school board election was one of the city's most anticipated. And at the center of it all was the red plan. That's no surprise to Dr. Keith Dixon, the district's superintendent.

"Obviously there's been a lot of emotion created around the long range plan, and I think last night was an opportunity for people to hopefully get some of that emotion out," Dixon said.

The project has no doubt divided the community but Dixon said remains one he continues to stand by. "I still today would say the journey we've been on for five years has been an important one and a good one," he said.

With a total of four school board seats on the ballot, two incumbents were re-elected... Mary Cameron and Ann wasson. They beat out candidates and red plan foes Maureen Booth and Marcia Stromgren. Meanwhile Nancy Nilsen and Laura Condon were replaced by two other red plan critics, Tom Kasper and Art Johnston.

According to Dixon, that turnover isn't exactly a surprise. He says board members are constantly having to make tough decisions that aren't always favored by everyone in the community.

"You're not going to go through this plan without having people opposed to it-- that's reasonable," Dixon said. "But at the same time there's still support for moving forward."

Moving forward from this point, Dixon admits, requires some healing at both the school board and the community levels.