We Need a New School Board, Whether That Entails an Attitudinal or Corporal Shift

After a half-year of attending every regular meeting (second Tuesday of every month) of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education, I have now come to the very definite view that we need a new school board, whether that entails a shift in attitude or composition. Current school board members either need to sharpen and shift their way of thinking about K-12 education, or we need to work to get better candidates in place for future elections.


Here is a brief presentation of the salient features associated with each of the current members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. I will move left to right, according to the district members one sees sitting upon entrance to the school board meeting room at 1250 West Broadway. At the conclusion of this article, I will discuss which of these members have the most potential to become more effective proponents of a truly excellent education.




Rebecca Gagnon


Rebecca Gagnon is an at-large member of the school board whose children attend schools in the well-heeled southwestern section of Minneapolis. She is a highly intelligent, diligent, factually informed person who is especially astute on matters of finance. She also has keen political instincts and shows herself responsive to a diversity of community interests, many divergent and at odds with one another. She is well-connected to Lynn Nordgren and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, but she has shown a capacity for independent thinking that suggests that she is not intractably tied to teacher union positions.


Despite these mostly positive characteristics, Ms. Gagnon demonstrates no consistent philosophy of education, and what can be gleaned in this regard from her voting record is not favorable. She voted to reduce health and physical education requirements at the high school level in a measure that also failed to institute a world languages requirement. She seems overly enamored with the role of contract alternative schools (to which students of the Minneapolis Public Schools go when their schools of attendance have failed them). She leans in favor of Community Partnership Schools (four proposed pseudo-charter schools [reinvention of four presently existing schools] that will be given some autonomy to pursue promising academic strategies under thematic banners such as International Baccalaureate and Fine Arts). Without questioning the academic effectiveness of such putatively college preparatory programs as AVID, Ms. Gagnon sits enamored with presentations in favor of such programs, grasping data-bound detail while failing properly to analyze the figures and cut through the rhetoric. She also errantly voted against an amendment formulated by District Member Tracine Asberry that would have added a clear school board accountability statement to a resolution countering an effort by certain members of the Minnesota Legislature to divide the Minneapolis Public Schools into six separate school districts.




Siad Ali


Siad Ali is an affable new member of the board, having taken his seat in January 2015. He represents the Somali community and a district close to the University of Minnesota, in a role that will be a fixture for many years. He replaced Mohamud Noor, who had performed the same role. Mr. Ali will be fairly effective in his role but thus far has shown little grasp of education policy or philosophy. He has been on the wrong side of all major votes taken thus far in 2015.




Carla Bates


Carla Bates is given to refreshingly pungent comments and seems to care a great deal about equity. But she operates from no compelling educational philosophy and seems overly enamored with technology as a remedy for the ills of education, failing to grasp that technology is a tool rather than a solution. She was on the wrong side of the high school credit requirement vote and the amendment to the resolution in answer to the Legislative six-district division proposal. Like Gagnon, she too blithely listened to the presentation in behalf of contract alternative schools and is too ready to accept the Community Partnership School concept before Focused Instruction (consistency of curriculum at each grade level across the school district) has been fully implemented, and without discussion as to whether Focused Instruction will prevail in the Community Partnership Schools. Ms. Bates is an at-large member of the school board who lives in Southeast Minneapolis.




Kim Ellison


Kim Ellison is a sweet, soft spoken member of the school board who had one shining moment when she spoke in favor of a world language requirement and voted against the reduction of high school credits in health, physical education, and social studies. But she too readily praises the Minneapolis Public Schools in glittering general terms and is no better philosophically grounded than the rest of the school board. She represents neighborhoods in North Minneapolis around Nellie Stone Johnson K-8 School. Ellison has ties to the Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT).




Jenny Arneson


Jenny Arneson is the new chair of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. She represents neighborhoods of Northeast Minneapolis. Ms. Arneson is also tied to the DFL and the MFT. She has had little of importance to say in the half-year that I have witnessed the regular school board meetings. She has been wrong on all major votes taken thus far in 2015 but, to her credit, runs the meetings efficiently and skillfully.




Josh Reimnitz


Josh Reimnitz is in his late twenties and often appears in over his head on school board issues. He has a Teach for America background and would seem to offer reformist promise, but he has in that respect been the most disappointing member of the school board. He offers no compelling educational philosophy and is frequently on the wrong side of major votes. He did vote in favor of the Asberry amendment to the resolution offered as defense against the six-district break-up. Mr. Reimnitz represents an area that includes the Bryn Mawr neighborhood. He has potential but needs to calm down, shake off his nervousness, and get focused.



Nelson Inz


Nelson Inz is a new school board member who shows promise as an independent voice. He is a trained Montessori educator, and in that regard can be said to have the firmest educational philosophy on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. Maria Montessori was an interesting figure, an educator with deep concern for equity, having been moved to action in behalf of tenement-dwellers in Italy. She is also fascinating for having spoken the language of so-called “Progressive” education while articulating an approach whereby children are eventually drawn to a substantive base of knowledge and skills by accessing hands-on educational materials for highly particular purposes. Inz demonstrated his independence in speaking forcefully in behalf of the notion that adults should take responsibility for important symbolic stances that affect children’s lives, and on that basis spoke against any measure that would reduce health requirement credits. Inz represents neighborhoods in South Minneapolis. He has been on the wrong side of recent votes but is a new school board member who inspires some hope for educational excellence.




Tracine Asberry


Tracine Asberry is hands-down the best member of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education. She can always be counted on to ask questions that demand factual evidence for generalized statements and plans that sound good but may be as insubstantial as previous incarnations. She voted against the reduction of high school credits in certain areas and had very compelling points to make about giving all students a chance to qualify for university attendance by matching credit requirements to those of the University of Minnesota and other institutions. She was in favor of the resolution that countered the six-district proposal but sought to make a clear statement as to school board accountability to the community for results--- and accordingly offered an amendment in line with that view.


Ms. Asberry seems to operate from a viewpoint that calls for content-rich education and better teachers, but she needs to firm up her educational philosophy. With that caveat, do note that Ms. Asberry is the best that this iteration of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education has to offer. She represents an area that includes neighborhoods of South and Southwest Minneapolis.




Don Samuels


Don Samuels is the erstwhile member of the Minneapolis City Council and husband of Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) chief executive Sondra Samuels.  An at-large member of the school board, Mr. Samuels lives in a neighborhood of North Minneapolis close to the junctions of West Broadway and Penn Avenue. He speaks the language of reform but lacks a driving educational philosophy. He is a proponent of charter schools and has errantly stated that Community Partnership Schools potentially represent the salvation of the Minneapolis Public Schools. Mr. Samuels did, to his credit, vote for District Member Asberry’s amendment to the resolution against the six-district break-up but otherwise has been on the wrong side of all major votes.




CONCLUDING COMMENTS


All members of the current Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education must be monitored for their looming votes and urged to firm up their educational philosophies. For varying reasons, Rebecca Gagnon, Josh Reimnitz, Nelson Inz, and Don Samuels offer the most hope for transformation into advocates for policy that can actually result in an excellent education for all of our precious children. Carla Bates is a loose cannon in need of better aim. Even Tracine Asberry must firm up her educational philosophy so as to be an even more effective advocate for students and families. All of these members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should be monitored for their looming stances and votes, as we determine whether they can transform themselves as necessary or whether we must organize to seek their ouster and replacement with better advocates for excellent education and excellent teachers.