MPS Dept. of College and Career Readiness Staff, Fate as of August 2018

As late as March 2018, the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Department of College and Career Readiness portal at the MPS website still listed fifteen staff members, as follows:

 

Minneapolis Public Schools Department of College and Career Readiness

 

(March 2018)  >>>>>

 

Staff Member                                    Position

 

1)            Terry Henry                              Executive Director   

2)            Alexandria (Alex) Spirov       WWYB Associate Educator

3)            Coleen Kaibel                           Director of Student Retention

and Recovery   

4)            Heidi Olson                               WWYB Associate Educator                 

5)            James (Jim) Bierma                Distric Q-Comp Counselor  

6)            Jennifer Ennen                         Office Specialist      

7)            Jill Bjorklund                            STEM/ CTE Project Coordinator         

8)            Julie Montgomery-Weiss      District Lead Counselor      

9)            Melissa Butler                          WWYB Associate Educator 

10)          Michael (Mike) Ash                Account Specialist

11)          Paul Klym                                    Career Development Coordinator                  

12)          Quyen Phan                               ALC 9-12 Manager  

13)          Sara Etzel                                    Director, STEM/CTE                               

14)          Tamala Washington-Green      Office Manager  

15)          Vanessa Moe                            JAG Coordinator     

 

By May, 2018 Executive Director Terry Henry was gone but the portal otherwise still listed the same composition.  But in my close examination of a full (all departments) MPS Davis Center staff roster, I only found these four members:

 

Department of College and Career Readiness (May 2018)

 

                (Actually found on Davis Center Staff List)

 

Name                                    Position                               Annual Salary

 

Colleen Kaibel                  Student Retention            $105,552

          and Recovery

Melissa Butler                  WWYB Associate                 $32,004

    Educator

Quyen Phan                       ALC 9-12 Manager               $86,631

 

Sara Etzel                          Director, STEM/     $84,442

                                                                            CTE

 

With this finding, I inquired at MPS Human Resources as to whether MPS Department of College and Career Readiness had actually disappeared as an administrative entity.  Executive Director Terry Henry was gone, and the department did not seem to have a lead administrator.  I was told that seemingly in the offing for academic year 2017-2018 was a plan to have a few people retained for specific functions but to eliminate this department as a stand-alone entity.

 

At present (August 2018), though, there is a Department of College and Career Readiness portal that lists these seven staff members, with no one acting in an overall directorial capacity:

 

MPS College and Career Readiness Staff, March 2018  >>>>>

 

Staff Member                                    Position

 

1)            Coleen Kaibel                           Director of Student Retention

and Recovery   

2)            Heidi Olson                                WWYB Associate Educator                 

3)            James (Jim) Bierma                Distric Q-Comp Counselor  

4)            Jill Bjorklund                            STEM/ CTE Project Coordinat

5)            Melissa Butler                          WWYB Associate Educator 

6)            Paul Klym                                    Career Development Coordinator                                  

7)            Sara Etzel                                    Director, STEM/CTE

 

Thus, the bottom-line result of a reduction process that began in the course of academic year 2017-2018 has resulted in reductions in a department that originally had fifteen members and was headed by a staff member with the title of executive director to only seven members at present.  Apparently, Superintendent Ed Graff and his advisers decided to retain a title and some collective identity for Department of College and Career Readiness staff, but without any staff having directorial responsibility.  The emphasis in this decision-making process seems to have emphasized functionality, with the elimination of unnecessary jobs and a jettisoning of staff members who had not been effective.

 

Savings for this instance of bureaucratic slimming totals approximately $675,000 in salaries and saliently emphasizes the achievement of Ed Graff in greatly reducing the central office bureaucratic burden of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Now the driving concern must be the overhaul or ideological transformation of the staff at Teaching and Learning for the delivery of an excellent K-12 education, the only reason for the existence of public schools or any academic system, and a moral obligation to which all citizens are bound.