Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education
The current composition of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education is the worst that I have witnessed, of many terrible iterations, in the course of my eleven years of intensive investigation into the inner workings of the district.
Below, I provide the descriptions that each Board member has provided at the MPS Board of Education portal of the district website, followed by my own brief description of each as a Board participant.
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Collin Beachy, Chair
At-Large Member
612-668-0447
Collin.Beachy@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2023-2027
Collin has been a public school educator and coach for twenty of the past 25 years. Born into a family of educators, Collin is passionate about public education. Collin became a special education teacher to change lives. His most recent position was as a special education teacher and equity lead at Transition Plus in Minneapolis Public Schools.
Collin grew up Staples, Minnesota and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education & Coaching from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He has a Master of Arts in Autism Spectrum Disorder from Concordia University in St. Paul. He lives with his partner Mark and their dog Hijinx.
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Kim Ellison, Vice-Chair
At-Large Member
612-668-0445
Kim.Ellison@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2025-2029
Kim Ellison brings a wealth of experience to the school board working for organizations that serve students and families and a background informed by 12 years of teaching. She has served on the LearningWorks at Blake advisory board and the Parents United for Public Schools Board for nine years.
Kim is passionate about addressing the achievement gap and is a firm believer that building relationships with students is key to their success. She asserts that it is necessary to take a well-rounded approach to educating students. Nutrition, health care, after-school programs, and enrichment opportunities all support academic achievement.
She was first appointed to the Minneapolis Board of Education in January 2012 to fill a vacancy after Lydia Lee resigned and began her first elected term in January 2013, representing the northwest side of Minneapolis in District 2. Kim was re-elected in 2016 to serve as a citywide board member.
In her free time, Kim enjoys spending time with her four children, reading, swimming and bike riding.
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Lori Norvell, Clerk
District 5 Member
612-919-8136
Lori.Norvell@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2023-2027
Lori Norvell represents District 5, which is southeast Minneapolis. Lori is a former Minneapolis Public Schools educator, and has had experience as a substitute teacher, Special Education Assistant, and the majority of her time as a middle school math teacher. She has taught at Nellie Stone Johnson Community School and Anthony Middle School. With other 20 years of teaching experience (8 years in MPS) in 6 different states, Lori brings to the school board knowledge of the day-to-day work by educators in schools and classrooms.
Lori has 3 children: two graduates of Washburn and a current Washburn student. In her free time, Lori enjoys biking, walking/running, cooking, and hanging out with her family.
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Abdul Abdi, Treasurer
District 1 Member
612-668-0447
Abdul.Abdi@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2023-2027
Abdul Abdi is the Minneapolis School Board's District 1 representative for the northeast and southeast Minneapolis communities. He received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Metropolitan State University in 2002. He also has a range of business, IT, and leadership certifications. Abdul has over 20 years of professional experience in various roles. He has a track record of successfully leading diverse technical teams to address complex business and process challenges.
In addition to his professional achievements, Abdul is also a community organizer and skilled problem-solver. He and his family have lived in Northeast Minneapolis for the past 16 years, and his children have attended several schools in the area, including Waite Park Elementary, Pillsbury Elementary, Northeast Middle, and Edison High School.
Abdul is passionate about children's education. He firmly believes that all students deserve to receive a high-quality education. In the past, he actively participated in the District Parent Advisory Council, where he worked collaboratively with parents, teachers, school administrators, and the district to build trust and strengthen relationships within the school community.
In his free time, Abdul enjoys spending quality time with his family, engaging in activities such as reading, watching documentaries, and going for walks in parks.
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Sharon El-Amin
District 2 Member
612-986-3281
Sharon.El-Amin@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2025-2029
Sharon El-Amin represents District 2-Northside Minneapolis area. Sharon has lived, worked and worshipped in North Mpls for over two decades. She brings over 15 years of business experience managing budget, making tough decisions, hiring and working with staff to service the needs of the community. Sharon is the founder of P.A.R.O.S (Parents Alliance Reclaiming Our Schools) founded in 2019. PAROS was started and continues to work with parents to elevate the voices, inform the parents and increase community connectedness within North Mpls and MPS.
Sharon has 3 children, two which have graduated from MPS and has been married for 28 years. Sharon has one grandson that currently attends MPS middle school and continues to be actively involved in the fight for quality education for all children. Sharon brings ACTION and urgency for students, parents, educators and the community to rebuild trust and working relationships with families and education by working together!
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Lucie Skjefte
District 3 Member
612-814-7761
Lucie.Skjefte@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: November 2024-2027
Lucie Skjefte brings over a decade of experience in impactful design and community advocacy, deeply informed by her Anishinaabe heritage and commitment to empowering American Indian voices. As an appointed member of the Minneapolis School Board representing District 3, Lucie takes a community-centered approach to leadership, prioritizing active listening and inclusive decision-making to create an educational environment where every student feels seen, valued, and equipped to succeed.
Lucie is an accomplished Indigenous designer with over 12 years of experience in design, marketing, and storytelling, all dedicated to raising awareness and supporting the American Indian community. As Director of Operations at Mni Sota Fund, she blends her design expertise with a commitment to community empowerment. Her role emphasizes collaboration, education, and inclusivity—qualities she brings to her work on the Minneapolis School Board. Mni Sota Fund is a Native CDFI dedicated to advancing the economic empowerment of American Indian communities.
Her community engagement, strategic planning, and resource management background enables her to make informed decisions that serve students effectively. Lucie's dedication to empowering Indigenous communities aligns with her commitment to ensuring equity and inclusivity in education. Her leadership skills, rooted in collaboration and advocacy, strengthen her mission to enhance educational experiences for all Minneapolis students.
Lucie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and dual honors degrees in Graphic and Web Media from Minneapolis College.
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Adriana Cerrillo
District 4 Member
612-986-1613
Adriana.Cerrillo@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2025-2029
For the past 13 years, she has been a community activist and organizer advocating for policies to protect and include marginalized communities. In 2007, she entered the world of community organizing while in college, after learning that authorities were threatening to deport a young, undocumented mother in urgent need of medical attention. Adriana fundraised enough money for the woman’s care and founded the Juliana Mateo Foundation for Disabled Farmworkers.
As a Florida resident, she taught at UnidosNow.org and established the Future Leaders Academy for Youth. Adriana stood alongside Manatee County teachers as they rallied for better pay and she worked collaboratively with non-profits statewide to successfully stop Florida from passing its own version of SB-1070. Three years later, Adriana received the NAACP’s 2013 Unsung Heroine Award for her community activism.
Since moving to Minneapolis in 2013, Adriana’s efforts include successfully working to fire a cop guilty of racial profiling in Chaska, collaboratively giving Know Your Rights presentations to communities and teaching an American Basic Civics Program to involve youth in political processes. In 2017, she introduced the Sanctuary Now platform before Minneapolis City Council to protect immigrant and refugee rights. For the last two and a half years, Adriana has actively organized alongside parents at Emerson and other district schools, while working as a family advocate.
Aside from her passionate career in activism and advocacy, Adriana is a mother, grandmother, guardian and business owner.
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Greta Callahan
District 6 Member
612-668-0049
Greta.Callahan@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2025-2029
Greta Callahan is a lifelong resident of District 6, grew up attending Minneapolis Public Schools, and her son graduated from Southwest High School in 2024. Greta taught kindergarten in North Minneapolis from 2011-2020 and was a finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2017. She is a graduate of the Midwest Labor Leadership Initiative, has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Augsburg University, was the Executive Vice President of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and sat on the Governing Board of Education Minnesota and the General Board of the Minnesota AFLCIO. Greta was the President of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Local 59 from 2020-2024.
Greta began her career in a charter school, which is why she has dedicated her life to fighting for strong public schools.
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Joyner Emerick
At-Large Member
612-472-6074
Joyner.Emerick@mpls.k12.mn.us
Term: 2023-2027
Joyner Emerick (any pronouns) is a Minneapolis Public Schools graduate, a lifelong Minneapolis resident, and a parent of an MPS student with complex disabilities. Joyner’s educational advocacy is rooted in their experience navigating Special Education—a system meant to ensure that every child has equal access to education but which fails to address systemic barriers and gaps in opportunity for many students. Joyner uses these personal experiences as a framework to stand up for all underserved kids in our district. As a disabled person, Joyner brings needed lived experience subject matter expertise in the areas of disability justice and equity in MPS.
Joyner believes fiercely that all students are engaged, motivated and skilled learners, and that it is the job of educational leadership to remove barriers. Joyner is passionate about frameworks and practices that honor all student strengths, needs, and identities as valuable and enriching characteristics of our learning communities. Joyner is committed to elevating student voice and developing our future leaders by giving our children opportunities to successfully lead today.
“The first step to building power in a community is building trust. Nobody should trust you when the first words out of your mouth layer on more shame and criticism. Nobody should trust you if you operate like you're only here for the ‘good ones.’ Nobody should trust you if you operate like you fundamentally don't need them in the work of transformation.” —Aaron Scott
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Student Representatives
Lyn Ampey
Student.Representative@mpsedu.org
Term: February 2025-December 2025
Lyn Ampey is a junior at Southwest High School where she is dedicated to increasing opportunities for marginalized students both inside and outside of school. When Lyn started school at Southwest, she had a passion for medicine but noticed there were no clubs focused on this topic. That did not last for long as, during her sophomore year, Lyn started a club dedicated to teaching students about the medical field and post-high school careers paths in medicine. In addition to being a member of NHS and the Black Student Union, Lyn is also a member of Southwest’s Site Council in which Dr. Bennett describes her as a tremendous student that is “wise beyond her years.”
Peers and adults alike describe her as a respected, caring, and dedicated advocate for voices that often go unheard. Lyn’s mindset of the Student Board Representative role is well-suited as she states, “No single person can 100% authentically represent a group that they are not a part of because they haven’t lived and experienced the millions of ways that someone’s identity impacts them. But what people can do is be dedicated and faith allies to those communities by listening to their voices and internalizing what you learn from them.
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The Student Representatives provide an important perspective and give voice to those at the heart of the district’s work: MPS students. The Board of Education has appointed a student representative since 2015, and beginning in 2022, the addition of a second student representative was made with the goal of expanding student view and opinion.
Ampey, along with the other 2024 student representative, Isiah Martin, will take turns being the primary speaker at Board meetings but will still be responsible for keeping up on what's happening by reviewing materials and watching meeting videos when not in attendance. Additionally, the two will meet regularly together with board staff to prepare for meetings and coordinate other duties.
Isaiah Martin
Student.Representative@mpsedu.org
Term: February 2025-December 2025
Isiah Martin is a junior at Camden High School and active student leader in his school community. Being a part of the Camden Beacons Leadership Team (BLT), Good Trouble, and Student Council, Isiah consistently advocates for his peers and has a significant presence, not only within the Camden school community, but also across the northside in general. He has been a part of the final conversations and transition of the “Change the Name” movement and looks forward to being a part of developing the new mascot for future Camden generations. Through his work as a Teen Tech agent at a Hennepin County Library and giving testimony at our Capitol, Isiah continues to demonstrate a commitment to not only being informed about the fuller MPS student experience, but also advocating for those marginalized voices at a higher level. His peers describe him as a fantastic listener, a thoughtful critical thinker, and strong advocate for authentic youth voice and perspective on topics and issues facing our young people today. An adult supporter wrote that Isiah is “extremely kind in a world that often lacks kindness”.
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The Student Representatives provide an important perspective and give voice to those at the heart of the district’s work: MPS students. The Board of Education has appointed a student representative since 2015, and beginning in 2022, the addition of a second student representative was made with the goal of expanding student view and opinion.
Martin, along with the other 2025 student representative, Lyn Ampey, will take turns being the primary speaker at Board meetings but will still be responsible for keeping up on what's happening by reviewing materials and watching meeting videos when not in attendance. Additionally, the two will meet regularly together with board staff to prepare for meetings and coordinate other duties.
Gary Marvin Davison Comment on Each Member of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education
Collin Beachy, Chair
Beachy grasps Robert’s Rules of Order better than did Sharon El-Amin during her year as chair of the Board, but he still occasionally needs Administrator to the Board Ryan Strack to assist him in moving an evening’s agenda forward.
Beachy is fair in his treatment of his fellow Board members, acknowledging each according to the order in which they have hit a button indicating desire to speak and for the most part allowing each to take ample time to ask questions to those who make presentations before the Board.
But, led by Beachy, this is the most authoritarian Board that I have witnessed as to limiting the type of comments that the public is allowed to make, both during the official time for making Public Comments prior to proceeding with each business meeting. Beach and the Board have also established a physical barrier that keeps the audience at Board meetings at a distance.
In terms of initiatives that should have taken place in the academic program and defining and moving the Transformation process forward, very much including the clear need to close or repurpose many MPS buildings, Beachy has chaired a Board with a stark lack of accomplishments.
Beachy has strong ties to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and demonstrates a reluctance to oversee any programmatic changes opposed by the union.
Kim Ellison, Vice-Chair
Ellison has been on the Board since 2012, gaining appointment after the death of a Board member; she has won three elections, largely on the strength of high name recognition as the ex-wife of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
In terms of academic progress for the Minneapolis Public Schools, Ellison has no significant accomplishments to show for her thirteen years on the Board. She is wedded to formalistic processes followed by school boards throughout Minnesota and the USA, with no creative ideas as to how to achieve the needed overhaul of this iteration of the locally centralized school board.
Lori Norvell, Clerk
Norvell is strongly backed by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. She demonstrated considerable resistance to the unprecedented initiatives during the July 2022 though January 2024 tenure of Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox and has not offered any leadership as to the matters of academic progress and the long-looming but ever delayed Transformation process.
Abdul Abdi, Treasurer
Abdi has moments of thoughtfulness and shows an interest in improving the academic program, but he has not been anymore in practical terms than the other Board members. With a great deal of help from Collin Beachy and, especially, Assistant to the Superintendent to the Board Ryan Strack, Abdi oversees efficient Finance Committee meetings.
But, as Treasurer and head of the Finance Committee, Abdi undermined the quality of Fiscal Year 2026 Budget by not pushing for the closing and repurposing of schools and ignoring information that I provided as to questionable claims of staff cuts in the central administration at the Davis Center.
Sharon El-Amin
El-Amin, despite having a weak grasp of Robert’s Rule of Order, served ably as chair from January 2022 though January 2023. She facilitated an extended contract for Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox that allowed the latter to move forward the innovative academic initiatives of online ACT tutoring, online high-dosage tutoring, Basic Skill Intervention Triads and, more subtly, a move toward greater knowledge intensity in curriculum.
But, disastrously, El-Amin seems to have maneuvered to bring Lisa Sayles-Adams to the district as superintendent and, although expressing the need to improve academics and to evaluate building usage, has been no more effective with regard to those needs than have other Board members.
Lucie Skjefte
Skjefte was appointed to her seat on the Board in November 2024, upon the resignation of Fathia Feerayarre. Of Anishinaabe heritage, Skjefte is an advocate for Native American students, but she has authored no initiatives that would likely improve academic performance for American Indians attending the district schools. Further, Skjefte has been just as ineffective as to matters of overhaul academic progress, Transformation, and building usage.
Adriana Cerrillo
Cerrillo came to the Board as a reformer and advocate for Latine/Hispanic students; only the latter now applies. She was instrumental in the district establishing an Office of Latine Achievement, an unfortunate bureaucratic response to a definite academic need. But she has embraced all of the establishment organizations that undergird school boards and connect these ineffective entities to one another. Cerrillo came to the Board as the head of an unremunerative organization she dubbed Radical Solutions; one of the reasons that Cerrillo has so readily been coopted by the school board establishment is that the $20,000 paid to members is surely a major supplement to her meager income.
Greta Callahan
Callahan is a former head of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and maintains the resistance to standardized tests, efforts to improve teacher quality, and an overemphasis on small class sizes as booster of academic success that one would expect from an MFT stalwart.
And in the aftermath of a studiously well researched report by professional demographer Hazel Reinhardt concerning the decline of the school age population, Callahan argued irrationally that marketing and other nonacademic strategic maneuvers can bring students back to the district in such numbers as to counter the demographic reality.
Joyner Emerick
Emerick is an advocate for special education students who has an overly sanguine view as to how thoroughly high-needs students can be mainstreamed.
Emerick does, along with Sharon El-Amin, realize that buildings need to be evaluated for closing and repurposing, and they (Emerick accepts all pronouns), correctly questions curriculum and pedagogy in the district (to the great irritation of Lori Norvell) --- but Emerick has an errant view of curriculum and pedagogy that they apparently do not realize has roots to anti-knowledge ideology that emerged at Teachers College/Columbia University from the 1920s that eventually gained prominence in the 1970s and has academically haunted our students ever since.
Student Representatives
Lyn Ampey
Isaiah Martin
Student representatives are chronically ineffective, and these representatives are no exception.
Lyn Ampey’s attendance in erratic and her comments spare in the extreme.
Martin is more voluble, but his comments, while usually pertinent to the topic under consideration do not go to the core vexations of the Minneapolis Public Schools and other iterations of the locally centralized school district as to curriculum and teacher quality.
