Sharon El-Amin distinguished herself by the
sincerity of her responses to poignant testimonies offered by four speakers,
who directed pertinent questions to the candidates for the two contested At-Large
Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education seats to be decided by voters on
6 November. The Monday, 15 October, event
was held at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and organized by Greg King and others
of the Isaiah Education Equity group, in association with Simpson Housing
Services, Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, Minnesota Immigrant Movement, and
the Welcome Equity Parent Committee of Hale School (Minneapolis).
That format involved four testimonies that
challenged the candidates to explain how staff at the Minneapolis Public
Schools (MPS) can respond more empathetically and effectively to students and
families in the future.
The first testimony came from a young
single mother who has been in unstable housing but does not meet requirements
for classification as Homeless Highly Mobile (HHM), which provides critical flexible
transportation services to meet the needs of parents with children who are
constantly on the move and could be departing for school from any number of
places at a given time. This parent told
a frightening story of her very young child having to negotiate very confusing bus
routes and schedules with little assistance from school personnel. Simpson Housing Services interceded and life
for this mother and child is now much better, but the experience of her child
being lost and confused in the absence of empathetic and responsive action from
staff at MPS Homeless Highly Mobile lingers in her consciousness.
The second testimony came from a parent (representing
Friendship Academy, a church-run charter school that her youngest child
attends) whose oldest child has had much difficulty within the Minneapolis
Public Schools getting knowledgeable, professional, and empathetic attention in
coping with her narcolepsy. Her tale
conveyed a strong sense of special education staff having very little knowledge
of this condition, little willingness to learn, and of a mother having to take
the lead in educating staff at several schools, drawing upon huge stores of
emotional reserves to summon the energy needed to advocate for her child.
The third testimony came from Valerie
Stevenson of Phyllis Wheatley Community Center;
she told an emotionally wrenching story of a young man with abundant
artistic talent but caught, in the absence of adequate attention at home or
school, in the heavy throes of addiction.
Ms. Stevenson reached out and got some response from Hennepin County social
workers, but the response from Minneapolis Public Schools staff was very
limited, with little follow-up when the young man was absent for prolonged
periods. He ended up dying from causes
stemming from his addiction.
The fourth testimony came from Andrew
Williams, Executive Director of Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs
(HECUA), conveying an account of a principal at an MPS elementary school who
demonstrated little willingness to meet with representatives of the Welcoming
Equity Parent Committee, who lived out-of-state (presumably in Wisconsin), and
seemed very detached from the life of the community the principal served. The parents who sought the meeting were
African American parents whose children attend a school with an overwhelmingly white
student body and an atmosphere of racially insensitivity.
The nature of the responses from the
candidates was notable and unsurprising:
Rebecca Gagnon responded
with apparent empathy but with frequent reference to underfunded programs and the
need for more staffing to meet a range of student needs, with a vow to work for
better funding and more staffing while enhancing relationships with Hennepin County and other
outside providers of services; she was
keen on demonstrating how well she knows the MPS system as it is.
Josh Pauly also tended
to make reference to existing departments and programs, with a vow to make
these work more effectively; less
knowledgeable about the MPS system than the two-term incumbent Gagnon, Pauly
additonally drew from his multiple commitments to community betterment as he
expressed abiding concern for the issues raised by the four giving testimony.
Kimberly Caprini grew up
in North Minneapolis and could speak with genuine compassion for the four people giving
testimony. She made reference to experiences
of people whom she has known or encountered who had similar life stories,
credibly making the case that she would bring her sensitivity to these issues
to make the MPS system more responsive.
But it was Sharon El-Amin
who distinguished herself in her tone of voice, facial expressions, and
sensitivity of responses. She spoke as a
mother whose three children have all attended the Minneapolis Public Schools
(including one who currently attends North High School) and have felt the sting
of racial insensitivity. From El-Amin we
get not reference to a system that needs mere tweaking, to existing departments
that need more funding and staff--- but
to a system that needs a dramatic change of culture, must be infused by human
beings of much elevated sensitivity and skill, with or without greater material
resources, dedicated to the greatest calling imaginable: the education of all of our precious
children.
Rebecca Gagnon knows the system
as it is: She has sustained that
wretched system during her eight years on the MPS Board of Education.
Josh Pauly seems like
a well-meaning enough young man.
Kimberly Caprini can bring a
bevy of community commitment to the school board and should be one of the two
elected to one of the two contested At-Large seats.
But Sharon El-Amin distinguished
herself on Monday, 15 October, as a person who feels the mission of education
and nurturing all of our children deep down to the core of her being. She must be elected, and I am fast making the
rounds in all community forums available to give my enthusiastic support for
her election to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education on 6
November.
……………………………………………………………..
The forum on Monday was
conducted in far from perfect format.
The four stories were compelling, and the emotional depth of Sharon
El-Amin’s responses was very moving. But
not a single question focused on matters of academic quality at the core of a
school system’s reason for being. Not
one.
Hopefully, the Graves
Foundation Forum, “Unbound: A New
Conversation About Public Education in Minneapolis,” to be held at 7:00-8:30 PM
at Franklin Middle School on Monday, 22 October, will provide more opportunity
for audience questions and focus clearly on academics.
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