Major Unfortunate Consequences but with Prospects for a Favorable Dialectic>>>>> An Analysis of the MPS Board of Education Meeting, 10 April 2018

Events at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education meeting of 10 April 2018 will have an enduring impact on this school district. 

There abides an opportunity to shape the result of the changes to come, but things will never be the same in the aftermath of this momentous meeting.

 

On the official agenda for the meeting were a consideration of forthcoming school calendars, the calendar specific to the Heritage School, time-adjustment allocations pertinent to the budget as thus far presented by Chief Finance Officer Ibrahima Diop (leader on matters of finance for the district and  primary financial adviser to Superintendent Ed Graff), an AchieveMpls MOU, the schedule for MPS Board of Education meetings for the 2018-2019 academic year, a proposed ad hoc Budget Process Advisory Committee, the amending of the legislative agenda that MPS officials will take to the capitol in St. Paul, a discussion on assessments and minimum programming, and approval of the collective bargaining agreement between MPS and MFT.

 

I made my usual first-up Public Comments beginning shortly after the meeting commenced at 5:30 PM, then listened to five others make their comments before departing from 6:10 until 8:55 PM to oversee the New Salem Tuesday Tutoring program. 

 

Public comments for the evening, both those that I was personally able to hear and those that by reports came later, focused heavily on the impact of budget cuts on the district’s high schools, the mainline institutions of which are Edison, North, South, Southwest, Roosevelt, Washburn, and Henry.  Students and faculty members from the latter three schools were especially animated and well represented.   

 

In my own comments preceding those from students and staff at school sites, I focused on the failings of the Minneapolis Public Schools, conveying that although the financial situation is grave the academic performance of the district’s students is graver.  People in many quarters know that I question Superintendent Graff as a leader on matters pertinent to academic programming.  But I asserted that Graff’s strengths are greatest in matters of administration and personnel, citing his inclination to surround himself with talented people and to listen carefully to their advice.  I mentioned that Finance Chief Diop is one of the best in his field.  I suggested strongly that those who showed up this evening to express particularistic concerns should be present at future meetings, with their greater attention trained on matters of curriculum and teacher quality that affect students throughout the district;  and that on this evening all of those assembled should be very careful before making any move to undermine the budget as crafted by Chief Diop.

 

The most critical issues that I heard debated upon my return from New Salem to the assembly room  concerned the time-adjustment budgetary allocations and the proposed ad hoc budget advisory committee.

 

Below I give an account of discussion and action relevant to budgetary adjustments;  and assert the significance of the phase concerning the proposed ad hoc committee. 

 

In both cases, the impact of these proposed agenda items for the future of the Minneapolis Public Schools is of great thematic importance.

 

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The Minneapolis Public Schools faces a projected $33 million deficit for academic year 2018-2019.  Declining enrollment, rising operating costs, and inflation are the chief factors producing the deficit, despite stringent efforts to curtail expenditures to meet the exigencies of a $28 million deficit for the current school year.

 

Given the reality that staff salaries constitute the dominant category of expenditure for the Minneapolis Public Schools, Graff and Diop have pared employees at the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) and in the budget taking shape for academic year 2018-2019 have recommended eliminating at least 350 full-time positions at school sites.  The projected cuts also will mean the reduction of Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate, core course, and elective offerings.

 

In reaction to these cuts, students and teachers showed up at the Tuesday, 10 April, meeting to advocate for teachers and programs affecting their particular schools;  in doing so, they applied enormous pressure on members of the MPS Board of Education to restore funding for lost positions and programs.

 

This advocacy is an important part of a dialectic that should focus attention of MPS decision-makers as they move forward with the district-wide assessment that will be made in the months ahead.

 

But Finance Chief Diop is a highly trained professional who possesses a master’s degree in finance.  He came to the Minneapolis Public Schools from a highly successful tenure in the Omaha (Nebraska) Public Schools, with multiple offers of positions nationwide.  He asks tough questions of department heads at the Davis Center and with three children already enrolled at Minneapolis Public Schools sites (Harriet Lower, Harriet Upper, and Southwest) and another child who is eager to follow siblings into the district, Diop cares deeply about academic quality and the future of the district.  The budgetary cuts that he has recommended come after months of careful consideration, many meetings of Graff with Diop and other key advisers, and much examination of those areas most logical for reduced expenditure.

 

Finance Chief Diop is intently focused on the financial health of the Minneapolis Public Schools under conditions in which reserves over the course of the last seven years have fallen from $122 million to the current $42 million and are projected to be at only $25 million at the end of this academic year 2017-2018.  District guidelines call for a reserve representing 8-15% of overall funds;  currently that percentage is only at 4.5%, putting the district in peril of lowered bond ratings assigned by outside reviewers;  further, should there be a government shutdown, the district would only have enough reserves to cover two weeks, rather than the six weeks covered by responsible operating practice.

 

Under these conditions, Graff and Diop clearly sought affirmation of their carefully crafted budget.  The goal is a structurally balanced budget that will be sustainable, a recommendation of courageous action now with a view toward a thriving school system for the years ahead.

 

In the key vote of the meeting of Tuesday, 10 April, MPS Board of Education members Don Samuels, Jenny Arneson, Nelson Inz, and Kim Ellison held firm in the face of public pressure.

 

Members KerryJo Felder, Siad Ali, Bob Walser, Rebecca Gagnon, and Ira Jourdain caved to the pressure, voting for time-adjusted funding to secondary schools that would restore $6.4 million in expenditures to the projected budget.

 

Graff and Arneson (chair of the MPS Board of Education Finance Committee) were visibly distraught.

Diop, a man of great dignity, for the time maintained a stoic countenance, pending the next terrible moment of the evening.

 

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That stoicism, though, was challenged by that next terrible moment.    

 

Walser read a proposal to establish a committee to review MPS budgetary processes that would be composed of a selection of board members, members of the community, and professionals from the world of private business and finance.

 

Gagnon defended the proposal.

 

In a departure from his usual low-key demeanor, Superintendent Graff gave a very emotional response to the proposal, in essence conveying that it was disrespectful to his staff and the work that Diop and others had done in consultation with other public education finance professionals;  he suggested strongly that the affront was grave enough to increase the likelihood that talented staff would depart the district.

 

Walser profusely apologized for what he said was an unintended affront to Graff and staff.  Gagnon did the same.

 

Jourdain, often joined at the hip with Gagnon, said that he would not be voting for the proposal and looked out toward Diop, saying that Diop might take the proposal as an imputation against his professional judgment and the integrity of the processes he oversees.

 

Diop, ever dignified and calm, nevertheless in this key moment responded:  “Yes, I would.” 

 

Arneson, still reeling from the vote on time-adjusted funding, noted the irony of Jourdain’s comments, given that the vote just taken made those same imputations.

 

The sense then became that Walser and Gagnon would back off advocating for the proposal, which was in any case a new agenda item that would not be up for vote at this meeting.

 

But the damage had been done.

 

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Irony abounded at this meeting.

 

Rebecca Gagnon was MPS Board of Education Finance Committee Chair during the years when the reserve fund was in decline toward crisis levels.

 

Jourdain is the school board member elected in November 2016 with Gagnon’s endorsement under the influence of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) that carries such sway in school board elections and contributes so heavily to the coffers of DFL politicians, who coordinate endorsements with the MFT and other affiliates of Education Minnesota.  Jourdain ousted Tracine Asberry, the most persistent questioner on matters pertinent to academic performance, in a close contest.

 

Walser similarly came on board with an endorsement from Nelson Inz, who was in the manner of Gagnon doing the bidding of the MFT/DFL cohort;  and the member that Walser replaced, Josh Reimnitz, was a former Teach for America participant with reformist inclinations.  The loss of Asberry, Reimnitz, and Carla Bates (who did not run for reelection after 12 years on the MPS Board of Education) was a telling blow to the quality of the board.

 

Inz showed courage on the time-adjusted funding vote, and he shows signs of distancing himself now from endorsee Walser.

 

But Inz’s performance of the duties of a political hack did great disservice to the educational prospects of MPS students.  And he is no more astute as to matters of curriculum and teacher quality than are the members of this school board in general.                                                       

 

In casting their votes on time-allocation funding, Felder, Ali, Walser, Gagnon, and Jourdain not only undermined the stringent professional efforts of Diop, they sent a harmful message to the other chiefs, each one of whom is talented in her or his field.  The message is that if political pressure mounts on matters pertinent to their own fields of expertise, they could come in for the same sort of affront to their professional judgment as did Ibrahima Diop.  The members of this group that serves as cabinet to Graff are Michael Thomas (Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning), Eric Moore (Chief of Research, Innovation, and Accountability), Maggie Sullivan (Chief of Human Resources), Fadi Fahill (Chief Information Officer), and Karen Devet (Chief of Operations).

 

One of the ironies that abided in the scenario that unfolded at the Davis Center on 10 April was that the offending members of the school board were by implication casting aspersions on the work of the supremely talented Ibrahima Diop;  and by extension to other members of the cabinet, who are the highest caliber staff members at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  The problems of this school district that do relate to functions served by these staff members are being effectively addressed.

 

The core problems of the Minneapolis Public Schools pertain to curriculum and teacher quality.  Thomas himself is a talented administrator, but serving under him are staff members in the Department of Teaching and Learning who are unlikely in the extreme to overhaul curriculum and teacher training needed for the attainment of academic excellence.  There are no true scholars at the Minneapolis Public Schools who are well-positioned by training or intellectual inclination to develop and implement knowledge-intensive curriculum.  Academic decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools to a person hold degrees granted by departments, schools, and colleges of education.  With the exception of one person with a degree in sociology, and another with a degree in political science, no decision-makers otherwise possess degrees in any subject area taught in MPS classrooms.  Graduate degrees held by academic decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools have been entirely granted by departments, colleges, and schools of education.

 

The importance of the abiding situation is that the most well-trained staff members for functions performed at the Minneapolis Public Schoolss are those in finance (Diop), statistics (Moore), technology (Fahill), and operations (Devet).  These staff members were the most likely to be repulsed by the actions taken by the school board on 10 April.

 

Meanwhile, the limited talent manifest in the Department of Teaching and Learning gets a tacit stamp of approval by school board members, who are weak on educational philosophy, are not strong supporters of objective measurements of student performance, and who are an impediment to academic advancement that is the core mission of the locally centralized school district.

 

In this unfortunate scenario, one can well imagine the exit of the most highly trained professionals at the Minneapolis Public Schools, leaving in place mediocre staff to make the most important decisions affecting the academic and therefore life prospects of the precious young people whose fates are the sacred responsibility of the public schools.

 

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For reasons implicit above, I make the following assertion, based on comments from no particular individual but rather based on the preponderance of my research and observations focused on the Minneapolis Public Schools:

 

The fallout from the meeting of Tuesday, 10 April 2018, will be severe.  In confluence with other circumstances at the Minneapolis Public Schools, over the course of the next weeks and months we are likely to witness the exit of Ibrahima Diop, Michael Thomas, and Eric Moore.  These will be major losses.

 

We are also likely to see the exit of Graff. 

 

Clearly, there is now a rift between Graff and a number of members of the MPS Board of Education;  and his relationship with the board in the aggregate is strained.  This board will endeavor to keep Graff in place as November referendum issues go before the voters of Minneapolis, but Graff may opt to extract himself from an uncomfortable situation aforetime.  Public school superintendents tend to serve three to five years and then move on;  frequently, acrimonious circumstances impel the exit at an earlier juncture.   Graff will have served for two years at the Minneapolis Public Schools should he still be in that position as of 1 July 2018.

 

The optimistic view in this scenario would include the election of new membership for the MPS Board of Education in November 2018.  Don Samuels and Rebecca Gagnon have indicated that they are not going to run again.  Inz is vulnerable;  we should work toward his defeat.  We should monitor the votes and stances of Siad Ali and Jenny Arneson.  There abides in the November 2018 election an opportunity to bring a majority to the MPS Board of Education that will advocate for and implement the necessary program for academic excellence in the public schools of Minneapolis: 

 

>>>>>     knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum

 

>>>>>     thorough retraining of teachers    

 

>>>>>     academic enrichment, including coherent, comprehensive tutoring for academically lagging students

 

>>>>>     resource provision and referral for struggling families

 

>>>>>     bureaucratic slimming and spending targeted for academic achievement

 

 

This is the scenario that we should seek to produce in the run-up to the elections of November 2018.

 

Our success would not eliminate the pain of losing professional talent as the dialectic put in motion by the fateful meeting of 10 April 2018 transpires.

 

But that dialectical process does have the potential for working to the advantage of students of the Minneapolis Public Schools, who for the first time in their lives would experience the joy of excellent education, propelling them toward lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.