Know What You Are Witnessing at the 4 September 2018 Meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>> Understanding the Subtext Beneath Surface Appearances

For those of you in attendance this evening (4 September 2018) at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education meeting, know that the most important scene that you will be witnessing is not the apparent but the real:  the subtext of actions and issues going on beneath the surface of what you are seeing.

Moving left to right across the lineup seated on the raised platform before you are eleven people who regularly deny to our children the education of excellence that is due to students of all demographic descriptors:

At far left is KerryJo Felder, who represents MPS District #2 covering North Minneapolis.  Her concerns are focused on building and athletic field conditions, equitable distribution of resources, and Full-Service Community Schools.  She has no understanding of knowledge-intensive education and would be hampered by her ties to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT)/ Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) cohort if she did.  

Next, moving left to right, is current At-Large member Don Samuels, former Minneapolis City Council member and candidate for mayor.  He casts himself as an advocate for change.  His wife, Sondra Samuels, is head of Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ), which has had disappointingly little impact on student achievement at Nellie Stone Johnson, one of the schools at which NAZ offers services.  Don Samuels is the only member of the MPS Board of Education who is not weighed down with endorsements from the MFT/ DFL lobby, but he is more given to bombastic statements than to dedicated and well-focused action for change.  His efforts as a school board member have not been well-served for his having taken a $90,000 per year job as head of the MicroGrants nonprofit in St. Paul.

Next you will see Siad Ali, who represents District #3, centered on the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis.  Ali works for the DFL party and has close ties to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.  He often shows up to meetings unprepared and therefore often asks irrelevant or inefficient questions.  He is the only current board member, though, who seems to understand the core function of a locally centralized school district to be the impartation of a knowledge-intensive academic program.

Next is Jenny Arneson, who represents District #1 centered on Northeast Minneapolis.  She is by far the best informed and hardest working member of the MPS Board of Education and expresses a concern for equity. She has twin children at Edison High School.  Arneson is constricted, though, by her ties to the MFT/ DFL:  She denies the wretched level of teacher quality in the Minneapolis Public Schools and manifests little understanding of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.   

Next is Nelson Inz (representing District #5, east of I-35 in South Minneapolis), the third most objectionable member of the MPS Board of Education, for which he serves as chair, having ironically defeated the most objectionable member (Rebecca Gagnon) for that position last January 2018, and having endorsed the second most objectionable member (Bob Walser) in the latter’s defeat of incumbent Josh Reimnitz in the November 2016 election.  Inz is a Montessori-trained former bartender who now teaches in a near suburb.  Inz has a habit of inflicting silly banter on his audience and gives every indication of being bought and paid for by the MFT/ DFL.

Seated moving left to right from Inz is MPS Superintendent Ed Graff.  Graff came from over fifteen years in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was a teacher, administrator, and superintendent.  His record there was academically abysmal, even as he touted the same Social and Emotional Learning formula that has served as one of his major initiatives at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  Two years into his tenure at MPS, there has been no improvement in the academic program;  any potential for improvement will come from his masterful slimming and rationalization of the Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Braodway) bureaucracy and some unexpected epiphany regarding the need for knowledge-intensive curriculum and thorough teacher retraining for the delivery of such a curriculum.

Next is Bob Walser, who represents District #4, including Bryn Mawr and mostly toney areas in Lowry Hill and Linden Hills.  He hails from the Walser auto-dealer family and is a total tool of the MFT/ DFL.  He often spouts the jargon that I detailed in my series of articles last spring, “How Not to Talk Like an Education Professor.”  He is the silliest board member that I have ever witnessed, a hippy-dippy white liberal type who is clueless as to the academic aspirations of students and especially the needs of students from families facing dilemmas of poverty and functionality.  He frequently references Deborah Meyer, who along with such folk as Alfie Kohn, Ted Sizer, and Jonathon Kozol appropriates the name “progressive” and mumbles the education professor speak dating to John Dewey, William Heard Kilpatrick, and Harold Rugg in the 1920s.  This is the doctrine that has inflicted such knowledge-poor education on our students for at least forty years.

Next to Walser sits Ben Jaeger, the student representative on the school board.  Highly intelligent and a leader in numerous citywide student activities, Jaeger will graduate this year from Roosevelt High School but will spend his time on college campuses in pursuit of Post-Secondary Options courses.  Jaeger is the most articulate person on the platform that you see before you, and at first (January 2018) he seemed destined to be a real force;  but he has proven himself fuzzy on the issues and has not been effective in any advocacy for change.

Next is Rebecca Gagnon, a politically-motivated MFT/ DFL sycophant who ironically wore out her welcome with that contingent.  She aspired in November 2018 to run for a seat in the Minnesota legislature but when she did not secure the DFL endorsement, she retreated to another school board run for an At-Large position;  but in the August 2018 primary, Gagnon ran essentially even with Sharon Al-Amin and DFL-endorsed Josh Pauly, all of whom ran well behind the other DFL endorsee, Kimberly Caprini.  In the November 2016 election, Gagnon endorsed Ira Jourdain, who narrowly defeated the most perceptive and effective member on the MPS Board of Education, Tracine Asberry, for the District #6 seat covering south Minneapolis west of I-35.  

Finally, at the end of the row moving left to right is Ira Jourdain (representing District #6), the first American Indian to serve on the school board.  Jourdain seems to have a more elevated ability to process adverse commentary than do most other board members, but he gives many indications of being impeded by his MFT/ DFT association.

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Other important players at the Minneapolis Public Schools are seated in the audience or along the walls.  In the audience, you can probably spot Deputy Chief of Academics, Leadership, and Learning Cecilia Saddler;  she is a nice and experienced person with whom I am in discussion concerning the importance of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete education.  Similarly, you can probably find Associate Superintendents Ron Wagner, Carla-Steinbach (-Huther), and Brian Zambreno;  Wagner and Steinbach have long experience at the Minneapolis Public Schools and have some understanding of dilemmas pertinent to curriculum and teacher quality, and Zambreno is a promising presence just in from the Richfield Public Schools---  but all bear the burden of having trained primarily under education professors. 

Greater field-specific, job-specified talent lies elsewhere in the room:  Security Chief Jason Matlock generally sits at a table at the rear of the assembly room;  MPS Board of Education Executive Assistant Jennifer Lindquist either sits near Matlock or near the very able General Counsel Amy Moore.  Also seated near Moore is Chief of Staff Suzanne Kelly, a sensitive and immensely thoughtful person who has a deep concern for students facing severe challenges pertinent to families facing dilemmas of poverty and functionality.

And then along the wall to the right of audience members is a highly distinguished group that forms the cabinet of the superintendent:  Chief of Finance Ibrahima Diop;  Chief of Information Technology Fadi Fadhil;  Chief of Operations Karen DeVet;  Chief of Research and Accountabilty Eric Moore; and Chief of Human Resources Maggie Sullivan.

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Tentative topics for discussion at this evening’s meeting of the MPS Board of Education concern possible adoption of Policy 5395 - Weighted Grades;  possible repealing of Policies 1691 and 6441; and amending of Policies 4000, 4002, and 5000.  Also on the agenda is an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.    

As you observe this meeting, ask yourselves if anything meaningful is being discussed pertinent to student academic achievement.  Try to discern the real motives, political objectives, and personal ideologies of board members.  What does Ed Graff have to say that would have any impact on the attainment of an excellent education?  If the wretched performance of MPS students according to the most recently reported MCA results comes up, what do he and board members have to say?  If the Minneapolis Public Schools Comprehensive Assessment or the new North Star Accountability System gain discussion, what comments are likely to make any difference as to improving educational quality at the Minneapolis Public Schools?

At these meetings of the MPS Board of Education, you must always be aware of the subtext below the surface.  This article should be of great help to you in identifying subtext.  As you scroll down through the immediately next articles on this blog, and deeper into the 728 articles exploring all manner of issues, you will gain even deeper insight into the dilemmas actually vexing this school district, vital for deeper understanding of the subtext.

Any meaningful advance in K-12 education in Minnesota, and throughout the United States, will come at the level of the locally centralized school district.  Thus, your attendance this evening is an act of great citizenship.

You should make it a habit.