Moving
left to right across the lineup seated on the raised platform at meetings of
the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education during academic year
2019-2020 one will find eleven people who regularly deny to our children the
education of excellence that is due to students of all demographic
descriptors.
At
far left is KerryJo Felder, who represents MPS District #2 covering
North Minneapolis. Her concerns are focused on building and athletic
field conditions, equitable distribution of resources, Full-Service Community
Schools, and securing a vocational center for location at or near North High
School. She has no understanding of
knowledge-intensive education and is ever hampered by her ties to the
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT)/ Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL)
cohort. Felder will be a member of the board until the election of 2020,
at which time we must have a candidate in place to replace her.
Next,
moving left to right next to Felder is Bob Walser, the silliest and most
trivial school board member I have witnessed during my five years of following
developments at the Minnepolis Board of Education and, further, in my
half-century of viewing similar spectacles in public education. Walser represents District #4, including Bryn
Mawr, toney Lowry Hill, and the communities around Uptown. He hails from the
Walser auto-dealer family and is a total tool of the MFT/ DFL. He often
spouts the education professor jargon that I detail especially in part Three,
Philosophy. Walser is a hippy-dippy white liberal type who is clueless as
to the academic aspirations of students and especially the needs of students
from families facing dilemmas of poverty and functionality. He frequently
references Deborah Meyer, who along with such folk as Alfie Kohn, Ted Sizer,
and Jonathon Kozol appropriates the name “progressive” and mumbles the education
professor speak dating to John Dewey, William Heard Kilpatrick, and Harold Rugg
in the 1920s. This is the doctrine that has inflicted such knowledge-poor
education on our students for at least forty years. Walser’s seat is up
for reelection in 2020; he must be defeated.
Next
you’ll observe Kim Caprini.
Caprini grew up on the Northside but mostly attended schools other than
those of the Minneapolis Public Schools, inclduing Ascension and Benilde-St.
Margaret. Her two children, though, did
attend MPS schools, and for many years Caprini has been a participant in
various parent involvement activities.
But her comments as a member have been a disappointment. She shows every sign of being the lackey of
the MFT-DFL cohort that characterizes this iteration of the Minneapolis Public
Schools Board of Education.
Next
moving left to right school board attendees will see Nelson Inz who most
abhorrently of all had no opposition for a seat that was up for reelection in
2018. Inz represents District #5, east of I-35 in South
Minneapolis); he is the third most objectionable member of the MPS Board
of Education, for which he serves as chair, having ironically defeated the
second most objectionable member (Rebecca Gagnon) for that position last
January 2018, and having endorsed the very most objectionable member (Bob
Walser) in the latter’s defeat of incumbent Josh Reimnitz in the November 2016
election. Inz is a Montessori-trained former bartender who now teaches in
a Montessori charter middle school. Inz has a habit of inflicting silly
banter on his audience and gives every indication of being bought and paid for
by the MFT/DFL.
Seated
moving left to right from Inz one will observe MPS Superintendent Ed Graff.
Graff came from over fifteen years in Anchorage, Alaska, where he was a
teacher, administrator, and superintendent. His record there was
academically abysmal, even as he touted the same Social and Emotional Learning
formula that has served as one of his major initiatives at the Minneapolis
Public Schools. Three and one-half years into his tenure at MPS, there has been
no improvement in the academic program; any potential for improvement
will come from his masterful slimming and rationalization of the Davis Center
(MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) bureaucracy and some unexpected
epiphany regarding the need for knowledge-intensive curriculum and thorough
teacher retraining for the delivery of such a curriculum. Such an
epiphany is not clear in the MPS Comprehensive District Design that he now
touts.
Next to Graff, moving left to right, one will see Kim
Ellison, a former vice-chair and current clerk of the board; as clerk,
Ellison heads the Policy Committee and keeps time limiting Public Comments
speakers to three minutes (or to two minutes on those nights when numerous
people have registered to make comments). Ellison is a former alternative
school teacher (at Plymouth [Christian] Youth Center]) and was formerly married
to Keith Ellison, the Vice-Chair of the national Democratic Party and the
winner in the 6 November contest for Attorney General. Kim Ellison mostly
listens, speaking (in a very soft voice) only to make a point that she deems
germane. But her comments never go to the core of any of the central
dilemmas preventing officials and teachers at the Minneapolis Public Schools
from imparting an excellent education to students of all demographic
descriptors. Ellison does not seem to grasp the problems pertinent to
curriculum and teacher quality, forever impeded in the latter by her firm ties
to the MFT/ DFL establishment. Her seat will be up for reelection in
2020; we must work toward her defeat.
Next one sees student representative Janaan Ahmed, whose
term began in January 2019 and will end in December 2019. Ahmed brought an impressive record of
achievement and participation to her role but has not been discerning in her
comments. She gives impression of being
in synch with this terrible assemblage of board members, either as a matter of
deference or agreement. Either way,
Aamed has made little contribution to board meetings, failing conspicuously to
address low student academic proficiency rates, knowledge and skill deficient
curriculum, and poor teacher quality.
Seated
to the right of Ahmed is Jenny Arneson, the current treasurer who
presides over finance committee meetings.
Arneson has abundant mastery of detail pertinent to finance and many
other matters of the system as it is in the Minneapolis Public Schools; she also grew up in Northeast Minneapolis,
attended MPS schools, and has copious knowledge of her community. But, as with all adult, voting members of
this iteration of the board, Arneson has close ties to the MFT-DFL cohort that
prevents her from addressing the ills that plague the district.
Finally,
at the end of the row moving left to right the attendee will see Ira
Jourdain (representing District #6), the first American Indian to serve on
the school board. Jourdain seems to have a more elevated ability to
process adverse commentary than do most other board members, but he gives many
indications of being impeded by his MFT/ DFT association.
………………………………………………………………………………..
Among the agenda items specific to the particular meeting
of 14 January 2020 will be the election of new officers. A new president and vice-president of the MPS
Board of Education Board will be elected and members will indicate preferences
for committee assignments. Nelson Inz, who
has served two one-year terms as president, is not running again. Look for Kim Ellison to become the new
president of the board and for Jenny Arneson to become vice-president. Kim Caprini, who has served for one one-year
term as vice-president will most likely gain appointment as Chair of the
Finance Committee.
Other agenda items for the meeting will include
seating of new student representative to replace Janaan Ahmed (who has served
the regular one-year term for the position), a review and vote on Policy 4026,
annual financial authorizations, consideration of the 2020 Legislative Agenda, a
vote on a 2020 Census Resolution, review of the 2020-2021 Capital Plan, and approval
of an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation
Board.
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