In the run-up to the election, I wrote this article endorsing El-Amin’s candidacy:
Sharon El-Amin is the longtime owner of El-Amin’s Fish House, which she managed so astutely as to earn numerous awards and recognitions, including the Start Up Business of the Year 2002, 2010 Small Business of the Year, 2010 Longevity & Sustained Impact Award, and the 2010 Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained Nominee at Women Venture. Located for many years on West Broadway near Penn Avenue North, the business continues as a catering enterprise run along with El-Amin’s many philanthropic endeavors as Social Coordinator in behalf of Masjid An’Nur. El-Amin’s husband of 26 years, Makram El-Amin, is imam of this important community of faith, at the mosque located on Lyndale Avenue North just across from Cub Foods.
El-Amin is a towering presence in North Minneapolis,
well-known to those who, like her, are ever endeavoring to make the Northside
as economically and academically successful as it is culturally vibrant.
On the second and fourth Saturday of every month, El-Amin cooks and prepares
100 hot meals for families in need. El-Amin is currently the President
of Minneapolis North Polar Parent organization and a member of North High
School Site Council, positions similar to those in which she has served at
other school attended by her three children. Two of her children are
graduates of Minneapolis Public Schools; the other currently attends
North High School .
El-Amin has lived in Minneapolis for 27 years; for a
quarter of a century she has dedicated her life in that city to the pursuits of
small business ownership, keenly focused and loving parenthood, involvement in
the public schools, and active participation in the quest for community
betterment. The social service agency Emerge is a salient example of her
many associations for the good of the Northside community and all Minneapolis.
Having known of Sharon El-Amin’s multiple community
commitments, I sat with her on the evening of Sunday, 7 October, to discuss an
array of issues pertinent to the Minneapolis Pubic Schools. We found
resonance on a multitude of issues, including my own passions for
knowledge-intensive curriculum, training and support for teachers capable of
imparting such a curriculum, highly intentional tutoring for students
languishing below grade level, and expanded outreach to families struggling
with dilemmas of poverty and functionality. As a candidate and future
member of the MPS Board of Education, El-Amin emphasizes advocacy for greater
accountability on the part of Minneapolis Public Schools officials and board
members for the success of all students; greatly expanded community
engagement; and absolute transparency in all aspects pertinent to
administration, finances, and programming in the district.
I am not easy to convince. I have seen many
personages come and go, make big promises, then move on with much work left to
be done. Sharon El-Amin has stayed and committed her considerable
energies for the betterment of all people in Minneapolis for a quarter of a
century. She has convinced me that her priority will be the precious
young people for whom she and I have worked for a comparably extended period of
time, which in association with the Minneapolis Public Schools means the
provision of an academic program of excellence.
Sharon El-Amin is a loving, caring person, with a heart
that wishes the best for all people and a vision for the unity of humanity in
our cultural diversity. She will be what an At-Large member of the MPS
Board of Education should be: a representative for the entire city’s
students and their families.
With great enthusiasm, I urge you to vote on Tuesday, 6
November 2018, for Sharon El-Amin as candidate for one of the two At-Large
seats on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
……………………………………………….
A bit later than the foregoing endorsement, I wrote second
article, emphasizing my support for Sharon El-Amin’s candidacy and adding my
endorsement for the candidacy of Kimberly Caprini, who was running for the
other At-Large seat up for election to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of
Education on 6 November 2018. That dual
endorsement went as follows:
For four years now, I have been conducting an
investigation into the people and processes that determine policies and
programming in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). During that time I
have been first up for Public Comments at every monthly meeting of the MPS
Board of Education and have attended most subsidiary meetings pertinent to committees
of the whole, finance, superintendent search, superintendent evaluation,
collaboration with the Minneapolis Park Board, school board retreats,
Comprehensive Districtwide Assessment and Design, North Star Accountability
System, and candidate forums. I have convened with all major staff
members, including all cabinet chiefs who advise Superintendent Ed Graff at the
Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway). And I have
accumulated exhaustive data for presentation on my blog, which I am now assembling
in the final draft of a book, Understanding the Minneapolis Public
Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect.
Hence, there is a bevy of research and
observation that goes into this hearty endorsement for Sharon El-Amin and
Kimberly Caprini for election to the two At-Large seats up for voter decision
on 6 November 2018.
I am especially enthusiastic about the
candidacy of Sharon El-Amin:
El-Amin has lived in Minneapolis for over a
quarter of a century, carefully parenting three children along with her husband
of 26 years. As the longtime owner of El-Amin’s Fish House, she earned
numerous awards and recognitions for her astute management. El-Amin is a
towering presence in North Minneapolis, well-known for her efforts to make the
community as economically and academically successful as it is culturally
vibrant.
Twice a month, El-Amin cooks and prepares 100
hot meals for families in need and hosts them at Masjid An’nur mosque on
Lyndale Avenue North. She is currently the President of Minneapolis North
Polar parent organization and a member of North High School Site Council;
two of her children are MPS graduates and the other currently attends North
High School.
I am not easy to convince. I have seen
many personaages come and go, make big promises, then move on with much
work left to be done. Sharon El-Amin's commitment has been
continuous and tireless. In my discussions with her, she and I have found
resonance on a multitude of issues, including my own passions for
knowledge-intensive curriculum, training and support for teachers capable of
imparting such a curriculum, highly intentional tutoring for students
languishing below grade level, and expanded outreach to families struggling
with dilemmas of poverty and functionality. As a candidate, El-Amin
emphasizes advocacy for greater accountability, greatly expanded community
engagement, and absolute transparency pertinent to administration, finances,
and programming in the district.
Kimberly Caprini is another well-known parent
activist in Minneapolis, the mother of two children, one an MPS graduate, the
other a current MPS high school student. She appears often at meetings
and forums of the school district. She is both a forceful speaker and a
good listener. I have interacted with her often and listened carefully
both in my personal meetings with her and at the candidate forums in which she
has participated during this campaign season. Like El-Amin, Caprini has
been a dedicated advocate for her own children in the Minneapolis Public
Schools; she now expresses a clear and convincing desire to be an
advocate of that dedication and quality for all students of the district.
The current members of the MPS Board of
Education have bungled superintendent searches, watched as district finances
went awry, and demonstrated themselves to be insufficiently concerned about the
wretched academic performance of the district’s students. Rebecca Gagnon
has been on the board for eight years now and is deeply implicated in those
failures. Josh Pauly is neither mature enough in his community
commitments nor independent enough to resist pressure from the Minneapolis
Federation of Teachers (MFT) on key votes, as will the more politically savvy
Caprini, who, like Pauly, is endorsed by the MFT.
Sharon El-Amin will be a particularly
refreshing presence on a school board desperately in need of her
perspective. The election of her, along with Caprini, could signal a
decided shift toward more student-focused decision-making that will be in sync
with the best inclinations of Superintendent Ed Graff and the highly skilled
members of his cabinet.
Please vote for a new direction for the public
schools of Minneapolis by casting your votes for Sharon El-Amin and Kimberly
Caprini for the two At-Large seats on the MPS Board of Education up for
election on 6 November.
………………………………………………………………………
The other four articles in this edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, give powerful demonstration of the importance of Sharon El-Amin's candidacy, indicative of a movement for dramatic change in public education at the level of the locally centralized school district.
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