Oct 18, 2018

Sharon El-Amin Distinguished Herself at the MPS Candidate Forum on Monday, 15 October, for the Depth of Her Empathy


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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