The Course of Action That We Must Pursue in the K-12 Revolution in the Course of the Next Seven Months >>>>> Preparation for the Ouster of Current School Board Members--- Most Especially Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellison, and Nelson Inz--- and Continued Cleaning House at the Davis Center

Right now the established order at the Davis Center of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is reeling, and the time is prime for pressing forward with the K-12 Revolution.

To his great credit, Superintendent Ed Graff has done a great deal of house cleaning in the MPS central bureaucracy at the Davis Center (1250 West Broadway), ousting Chief Academic Officer Susanne Griffin, Teaching and Learning Executive Director Macarre Traynham, Director of Family and Partnerships Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson, and Communications Director Tonya Tennessen;  and dismantling the departments of Teaching and Learning, Communications, and Student, Family, and Community Partnerships.

More cleaning needs to be done and may indeed have occurred.   I endeavor to follow such events closely, but Graff has acted so quickly that staying current is difficult.  And the MPS website is little help.  Gone for three months in the case of Griffin, she and the others mentioned above are still listed in their former positions;  my information comes from direct inquiries and observations at meetings involving central office personnel.

After the current cleaning is complete at the Davis Center, then Ed Graff needs to astutely rebuild his staff:  smartly, leanly, with highly focused attention as to the functions truly vital at the central office level.  He needs to hire a curriculum director who grasps the importance of knowledge intensity and moves to implement a program implementing grade by grade subject area topics for students at grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12---  and who embarks on an ambitious teacher training program to produce a teaching staff capable of imparting such a curriculum.

Graff also needs to develop an approach to skill remediation that quickly moves academically languishing students to grade level.  And he must assemble a department for family outreach that offers direct services and referral for the provision of other needs to families struggling with problems of finances and functionality.

Thus, focus on excellence of staff and the provision of a truly excellent education must ensue, with Graff continuing his surprisingly astute course.

But at some point there will be pushback on the overhaul superintended by Graff from a Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education membership bought and paid for, except in the case of Don Samuels, by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT).  Activists should monitor the performance of Samuels, who has been disappointing as to philosophical clarity, courage, and effectiveness.  We should encourage Jenny Arneson to distance herself from her MFT connections and do the same for Ira Jourdain;  these two have more potential to grow and to support Graff in doing what is needed for students than other board members, with the exception of Siad Ali, who is open to discussion and a reasonably capable representative of the Somali and English Language Learner communities.

In time, we should work to oust KerryJo Felder (North Minneapolis) and Bob Walser (Bryn Mawr and parts of South Minneapolis);  Felder is an ill-focused member given to grandstanding statements that reveal little understanding of the most important issues vexing the district;  Walser is the silliest, flimsiest school board member I have ever witnessed on any school board and a willing tool of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.

But prioritized for ousting should be current board chair Rebecca Gagnon, Kim Ellision, and Nelson Inz, who as MFT toadies did the education establishment’s bidding in working to defeat the two most change-oriented school board members---  Josh Reimnitz and Tracine Asberry---  in the November 2016 elections.

Ed Graff is pursuing a surprising course of positive action and revealing himself to be better than his previous record as a central office administrator in Anchorage, Alaska, would have predicted.

He is going to need the support of activists when the pushback comes from Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and their flunkies on the MPS Board of Education.

We must be ready.

We must be very active in the course of these next seven months, so that by spring 2018 our iteration of the locally centralized school district is positioned to provide an education of excellence to all of our precious children, of all demographic descriptors.