Article #9 on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education >>>>> At-Large Member Josh Pauly >>>>> Surprising Potential on a Board for Which Slim Hope Must Be Considered

Josh Pauly is one of the At-Large representatives on the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education, along with Kim Caprini and Kim Ellison.  He and Caprini won their seats in the election of November 2018 and took their positions formally in January 2019.

 

Pauly student taught at Southwest High School, substituted for a while at Lucy Laney and Bethune, and then taught socials studies and AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination---  a minimally effective college preparatory program) at Sanford Middle School.  He now works in social and community service while living in South Minneapolis.  Pauly holds one of those easily obtained and insubstantial masters of education degrees.

 

In the election of November 2018, Josh Pauly ran a four-way candidate race for two open positions.  The other candidates were Caprini, Rebecca Gagnon, and Sharon El-Amin.  Gagnon had out-connived herself and run afoul of the Minneapolis Federation of Teacher (MFT) /Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL) cohort.  Gagnon ran essentially even with El-Amin, who has great respect and name recognition for her longtime North Minneapolis residency and business ownership, and for her marriage to the imam of Masjid An-Nur mosque, Makram El-Amin.  Caprini also has longtime residency and parental involvement on the Northside, and she benefited enormously from MFT-DFT backing in the citywide race.

 

But Pauly was a nonentity whom El-Amin would have defeated handily on the strength of name recognition and length of community service.  Pauly benefited most decisively from the phone calls made, campaign literature, and door-knocking of his MFT supporters.

 

During the campaign, I did not find Pauly to offer much in the way of vision or program for change needed in view of the degradation that is the district of the Minneapolis Public Schools.  His MFT/DFL backing did nothing to endear him to me.  He seemed to have the green and inexperience of youth with little compensating vigor;  and rather than offer youthful impetus toward change, he entered his position tainted by association with the MFT/DFL cohort.

 

There is much about Pauly that remains unimpressive:

 

He reads anything of substance that he wants to convey before important votes or in making reports to other board members;  he has little spontaneity or ability to express himself off-script, in the moment.

 

Pauly is tentative on matters of curriculum, teacher quality, or other items pertinent to the academic  program at the core of the locally centralized school district’s reason for being.

 

And yet three observations give me very limited hope that Pauly has some potential to be some degree of a positive force on the MPS Board of Education  >>>>>

 

>>>>>    Pauly has not done any direct harm or said anything so outrageously stupid as have Arneson, Ellison, Caprini, or Inz;  and certainly has uttered none of the insipid, offensive verbiage of Walser.

 

>>>>>    He has a sense of when discussion is tending toward seemingly interminable banter and has been known to call the question or use other devices to move matters forward;  he often seems particularly irritated with the propensity toward scattered verbosity of Felder or the baroque rhetoric of Walser.

                           

>>>>>    And most importantly, Pauly demonstrates a considered skepticism at the academic proposals in the emerging MPS Comprehensive District Design, notably asking Department of Teaching and Learning Executive Director Amy Fearing and Chief of Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability Eric Moore at a recent Committee of the Whole meeting how we  can be sure there is anything new in this plan that will improve achievement or in any way be better than what we have had for lo these many years.

 

By committing no grave offenses and by being properly skeptical, Pauly joins the two others (Ira Jourdain and Siad Ali) who could evolve into an approximation of a decent member of the MPS Board of Education.

 

These are slim reeds---  but better slim reeds than the degraded  wood symbolizing the sad hexagonal formulation of Arneson, Ellison, Felder, Caprini, Inz, and Walser.