As we begin New Year 2020, the following staff
at the Davis Center (Minneapolis Public Schools [MPS] central offices, 1250
West Broadway) should be put on notice that their employment will be terminated
or their job descriptions altered dramatically within one month:
Associate Superintendents
Shawn Harris-Berry
LaShawn Ray
Ron Wagner
Brian Zambreno
Department of Teaching and
Learning
Aimee Fearing, Executive Director
Ashley Kohn, K-12 Library Media Information
DPF
Christen Lish, K-8 AVID Coordinator
Christina Ramsey, K-8 Talent Development and
Advanced Academics
Chris Wernimont, 6-12 Math DPF
Donell Shinder, Science Materials Handler
Hibaq Muhamed, 6-12 Literacy DPF
Jeanne Lacy, Executive Assistant
Jeff C. Carlson, Materials Coordinator
Jennifer Rose, K-12 Science DPF
Julie Tangeman, K-5 Literacy, Science DPF,
Davis Center
Katie MacDonald, Materials Handler
Kelley McQuillan, 9-12 Talent Development and
Advanced Academics
Lisa Purcell, K-12 Social Studies DPF
Marium Toure, K-5 Math DPF, Davis Center
Mark Berg, Science Materials Handler
Nora Schull, K-12 Arts DPF
Paula Kilian, 6-12 AVID Coordinator
Sara Naeglie, K-5 Literacy DPF, Network
Sara Loch, K-12 Health/Physical Education DPF
Tara Newhouse, Senior Handler of Living
Organisms
Timothy Lilla, Senior Materials Handler
Tommie Casey, AVID Program Manager
Office of Black Male Achievement
Michael Walker, Director of the Office of Black Male Achievement
Andria Daniel, Family and
Community Inclusion Specialist
Cierra Burnaugh, Office
Specialist, Senior
Richard Magembe, Teacher, Social Studies
Jamil Jackson, Community Expert Classroom Coach
Department of Indian Education
Staff, September 2019
1.
Jennifer Simon, Director
(Cheyenne River Lake)
2.
Diane Leskey, Office Senior Specialist
3.
Jodi Burke, Counselor on Special Assignment
4.
TBD, Counselor on Special Assignment
5.
Tracy Burke, Counselor on Special Assignment
6.
Alicia Garcia, Social Worker
(Taos Pueblo)
7.
Braden Canfield, Social Worker
8.
TBD, TOSA, Special Education
9.
Anjanette Parisien, District Program Facilitator
(Turtle Mountain)
10. Gary Lussier, District Program Facilitator
(Red Lake)
11. TBD, District Program Facilitator
12. Shane Thompson, School Success Program
Assistant
(Seneca)
13. Christine Wilson, Family Engagement
Specialist
(White Earth)
14. Miskwa Mukwa Desjarlait, Youth Engagement
Specialist
(Red Lake)
In the case of staff
members in the Office of Black Male Achievement and the Department of Indian
Education, many of these have skills that can be utilized in the new Department
of Resource Provision and Referral. But
their ineptitude as academic decision-makers may be xeen by reviewing the
following proficiency rates for academic years ending in 2014 through 2019:
MPS Academic Proficiency Rates for 2014, 2015,
2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019
Math
2014
2015 2016
2017 2018
2019
African 23%
19%
19% 16% 17%
18%
American
Reading
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019
African 22%
21%
21% 21% 21%
23%
American
Science 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018 2019
African 11%
15%
13% 11% 10%
11%
American
MPS Academic Proficiency Rates for 2014, 2015,
2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019
Math
2014
2015 2016
2017 2018
2019
American
23%
19%
19% 16%
17%
18%
Indian
Reading
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019
American
21% 20%
21% 22%
23% 25%
Indian
Science 2014
2015
2016 2017 2018 2019
American
14% 16%
13% 16%
13% 17%
Indian
Given the training that will be
provided to produce a professionalized teacher corps, the Department of
Teaching and Learning will be jettisoned.
Four-year colleges and universities have little use for any such
department, since professorial scholars have the curriculum in their fields
embedded in their brains. This will be
true now of the professionalized teacher corps with legitimate master’s degrees
acquired in subject area disciplines rather than education; moreover, pedagogical excellence will have
been demonstrated over the academic year that each candidate for a teaching position
in the Minneapolis Public Schools will now spend in an internship.
Superintendent Ed Graff must also
recognize his deficiencies as an academic decision-maker and bring in college,
university, or independent scholars to redesign curriculum and provide teacher
training. If he does not do this, public
pressure will mount for him to count his successes in matters of finance and
bureaucratic rationalization and then resign in favor of an academically
inclined superintendent. Such a
candidate will be hard to find but an unprecedented, seminal search for a new
type of superintendent will be among those features that will make the
Minneapolis Public Schools a national model for the locally centralized school
district.
Remember as you scroll on down this
blog that the five-point program identified in the articles immediately
following includes
1
>>>>> curriculum overhaul for knowledge-intensity
2
>>>>> training to secure knowledgeable,
pedagogically adept teachers
3
>>>>> new Department of Resource Provision and
Referral
4
>>>>> highly intentional skill acquisition for
student languishing below grade level
5
>>>>> overhaul of the Davis Center (central office)
bureaucracy, with the jettisoning of the
Associate Superintendent positions, the
Department of Teaching and Learning, and
the Office of Black Male Achievement; and the redesign of the legislated mandated
Department of Indian Education; with
possible reassignment of staff in the latter two
corners of the bureaucracy to positions
in the Department of Resource Provision and
Referral.
All efforts made within the
Minneapolis Public Schools will henceforth embody seriousness about knowledge
and skill acquisition. The five
programmatic features above should guide reworking of the academic portion of
the MPS Comprehensive District Design.
Design and provision of an academic
curriculum is the core mission of any locally centralized school district, with
knowledge and skill sets conveyed in grade by grade sequence across the preK-12
years in the liberal, technological, and vocational arts.
Major changes in staffing at the
Minneapolis Public Schools will be necessary to realize the district’s core
mission.
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