Editorial: Arlington School Board appears caught in a vise

Watching the April 25 Arlington school board meeting was akin to a 20-car pileup on the final lap of the Indianapolis 500: extremely frustrating. . . but you just couldn’t turn away.

The meeting indeed represented the start of the final stage of the Arlington Career Center project, which has been on a winding path of delays and controversy for 20 years.

And just when (to mix sports metaphors) the end zone was in sight, the problem becomes entangled in one final roadblock.

Union activists want the school board to add additional provisions to the negotiated contract, as part of their push for the school system to adopt new labor requirements for all future capital projects.

It’s a discussion worth having, but as the pained expressions of school board members made clear, it cannot happen now unless we are prepared to see further delays in what is the most expensive school project ever completed in Arlington.

It’s quite the pretzel establishment bosses who have contorted themselves. They don’t want to alienate the unions, but they don’t want to jeopardize this project either.

This should make for a terribly interesting meeting on May 9, during which the construction contract should be approved.