From the Bloat at the Department of Teaching and Learning to Understaffing at the Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement >>>>> Inept Prioritization is a Major Reason for Voting "No" on the MPS 8 November Referendum

The Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is responsible for connecting with the families and communities of students so as to make those with intense interests in the educational outcomes of the school district feel that they are welcomed and valued.


My five-point program for transforming the Minneapolis Public Schools into a locally centralized school district of K-12 excellence, as detailed in the May 2016 edition of my Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Articles from Minneapolis, Minnesota and discussed in other articles on this blog, focuses on


1) the articulation and implementation of a knowledge-intensive curriculum across the K-12 years;


 2) the training of teachers capable of delivering such a curriculum;


 3) the design and implementation of a cohesive and highly intentional program of skill acquisition for students struggling below grade level;


 4) outreach to economically and functionally challenged families right where they live; and


5) paring of the bloated MPS central bureaucracy at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway).


The Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement is the department at MPS that under the present organizational framework would bear responsibility for the fulfillment of point #4 above.


But this office is far smaller than the bloated MPS Department of Teaching and Learning and, by the standards of the over-elevated salaries at this school district, remuneration to staff members of the Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement is low; the director earns over $100,000, but in a district wherein many departments and offices feature multiple salaries at $100,000 and above, most other members of the Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement earn in the range of $50,000-$67,000 .


Members of the Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement are given as follows:


Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement 2016-2017


1. Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson, Director, Family and Partnerships


2. Patti Peterson, Account Specialist


3. Briana McPhee, Cultural Liaison, Latino Community and Families


4. Damon Gunn, CPEO Coordinator


5. Deqa Sayed, MPS Family and School Advocate


6. Ahmed Jeynan, Family Inclusion Specialist


7. Desean Smedley, Parent Academy Facilitator


8. Elisa Iha, Community Partnerships Manager


9. Jason Bucklin, Out 4Good Coordinator


10. Kaylie Burns-Gahagan, Volunteer MPS Coordinator


11. Mitchell Roldan, Parent Academy Facilitator


>>>>>  Thus do we have an office of only eleven (11) members that has very few people capable of and comfortable with becoming presences in the homes of struggling students and families.


>>>>>   Advocacy for troubled students is weak, as is family inclusion.


>>>>>   Volunteer and community partnership programs are polyglot and ill-articulated.


>>>>>   The Out4Good program, which seeks to bring students back into the fold who are in danger of dropping out short of graduation, has an admirable goal; but graduation rates under 50% for the most challenged student populations indicate that this program is short-staffed and far from the achievement of an acceptable level of effectiveness.


The design and implementation of cohesive and highly intentional programs of skill acquisition for students struggling below grade level and of outreach to economically and functionally challenged families right where they live are critical to the educational outcomes and therefore futures of struggling students.


The failure of the Minneapolis Public Schools to implement viable programs of tutoring and family outreach joins the mounting case for voting "No" on the 8 November 2016 referendum issue of the Minneapolis Public Schools.