Sharon El-Amin Shines in 30 October 2018 Parent-Led School Board Forum That Could Serve as a Foundation for Mass Movement for Change in the Minneapolis Public Schools

Very possibly a mass movement for change in the Minneapolis Public Schools began on 30 October 2018. 

 

And fortuitously, a candidate once again distinguished herself among four contestants vying for one of two At-Large seats up for election on 6 November 2018, igniting a voluble response from those in attendance and demonstrating that she has the vision to be one of the leaders of this potentially transformative popular activism.

 

The event at which the mass movement likely began was the Parent-Led School Board Candidate Forum, held at the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center in North Minneapolis (2100 Plymouth Avenue, across from the Minneapolis Urban League), and sponsored by the following groups:  KWST Behavioral Development Group, Little Earth of United Tribes, STANDUP, Centro Tyrone Guzman, Latino Youth Development Collaborative, UPLIFT-MN, the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ), and Voices for Effective Change.

 

This was an event wholly dissimilar to the first event held at South High School and, especially, the second and third events held respectively at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church (15 October, sponsored by the Isaiah group and others) and at Franklin Middle School (22 October, sponsored by Pollen Midwest in conjunction with the Graves Foundation);  these latter two events were highly controlled affairs that afforded no opportunity for audience participation.

 

How different was the event of 30 October, moderation of which was ably led by a representative of Latino Youth Development Collaborative and by Keary Saffold of KWST Behavioral Development Group.  These two very avidly encouraged participation by members of the audience, who expressed themselves with emoji signs of frowns and smiles, applause, groans, cheers, and questions written down on notecards and posed to the candidates.

 

Salient questions focused on academic achievement levels, school staff insensitivity, and suspension policies for Somali, Latino, Native, and African American students.  Candidates were in their typical modes in addressing these issues:  Rebecca Gagnon (the only incumbent in the race) referred to programs already in place that need more staffing, monetary resources, or emphatic acceleration;  Josh Pauly as a Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) endorsee and former teacher at Sanford Middle School also emphasized programs already established that need to be more fully implemented, such as training for cultural competency;  Kimberly Caprini (the other MFT endorsee) stressed her experience during a decade of involvement as parent and education activist, now energetically charged to bring the advocacy that she exhibited at site-based councils to policy implementation and creation at the level of the school board.

 

But the night belonged as candidate to Sharon El-Amin. 

 

Clearly, this is a leader who has emotional resonance with many different constituencies in North Minneapolis, the Cedar-Riverside area, and an expanding base throughout the city.  The Somali community was out in force at this gathering, clearly listening intently to each statement from El-Amin.   This was true, too, for the sizable Native, Latino, and African American contingents in the audience.

 

El-Amin answers questions honestly, clearly, and from the heart.  She speaks as a parent of two children who attended and graduated from MPS schools, and another who is currently a student at North High School.   When asked those salient questions concerning academic achievement levels, school staff sensitivity, and suspension policies for Somali, Latino, Native, and African American students, her responses came as one whose children have experienced the indignities of responses from school officials, as one who currently leads the North Polar Parent organization, and who does not shy away from exposing the inadequacy of the academic program, school climate, and behavioral policies at North High specifically and the district in general. 

 

And very significantly, the majority of the audience of 75-100 attendees demonstrated that they also chafe at these deficiencies in the Minneapolis Public Schools and are positioned to make themselves heard.

 

The organizers of the forum on 30 October can be very proud.  They got the word out very effectively and motivated diverse constituencies to attend this event.  They gave those constituencies an opportunity to make themselves heard.  In doing these things they did what great leaders of the overlooked and dispossessed always do, animating response from a seemingly inert population of morally abused people, converting the latent energy of resentment into overt demand for change.

 

The 30 October 2018 Parent-Led School Board Forum could serve as a foundation for a mass movement for change in the Minneapolis Public Schools, shaking current district officials and board members to their own rickety foundations.

 

Sharon El-Amin’s emergence as a leader of wisdom and emotional resonance gives great credence to the possibility of popular agitation for fundamental change in the programs and processes of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

And inasmuch as the locally centralized school district must be the focus of the next great advance for social justice in the United States, this forum and this leader may very well have launched a movement of national significance.