Article #2
Being
Stuck with Ira Jourdain, Nelson Inz, Kim Caprini, Jenny Arneson, Siad Ali, and
Josh Pauly Makes Voting for New Leadership All the More Important
Below is an analysis provided so that
readers may understand the politically corrupt,
intellectually barren nature of the MPS Board of Education members with
whom we are stuck for at least two more years--- making the election of El-Amin, Cerrillos,
and Dueñes all the more important.
Ira
Jourdain
District #6
Member Ira Jourdain Is Error-Prone, Philosophically Bereft, and Politically
Tainted--- But He Faces No Opposition,
So We’re Stuck with Him
Ira Jourdain was suspect from the beginning
of his tenure on the Minneapolis Public Schools(MPS) Board of Education for running against
Tracine Asberry in November 2016. Asberry
was the best participant that I have witnessed on this or any other school
board. She did not have a clearly
expressed dedication to the knowledge-intensive preK-12 education that I
advocate, but she did manifestly care about fundamental skills in mathematics
and reading. Whenever Chief of Research,
Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability Eric Moore would deliver the latest
round of bad news regarding MPS student academic performance, Asberry would ask
detailed questions pertinent to plans for improvement. When Moore or others would offer double talk
or pleasing promises, Asberry would ask why we inevitably get the same vows for
future progress that we’ve gotten before but little of substance to warrant
confidence.
Asberry made a nuisance of herself by not
walking the party line of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers
(MFT)/Democrat-Farmer-Labor (DFL), calling failure as she did by that name, and
implying that better instruction was needed.
As detailed above, board members Kim Ellison, Rebecca Gagnon, and Nelson Inz acted at the
behest of the MFT/DFL cohort to recruit opponents to run against Asberry and
Josh Reimnitz. Inz endorsed Bob Walser
against Reimnitz; Gagnon endorsed Ira
Jourdain against Asberry. Both endorsees
won narrowly.
Thus Jourdain is politically tainted.
He also is philosophically bereft, giving
no evidence of any knowledge of the history of education or any coherent views
of his own.
As a matter of particularly great
irritation to me, Jourdain has stated that he signed waiver forms for his
children (he has two, one in elementary and one in middle school, enrolled in
the Minneapolis Public Schools) to opt out of taking the Minnesota
Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs);
moreover, when he did this at a regular meeting of the MPS Board of
Education, Jourdain looked out at the audience and advocated letting other
parents know that they had the right to allow their children to opt out.
The MCAs are linked to the Minnesota State
Academic Standards and are the most objective way of assessing student mastery
of the standards. When students opt out
in significant numbers, as they have done at Henry, South, and Southwest high
schools, this vitiates the pool of students assessed and skews the accuracy of
the results. Allowing and encouraging
students to opt out is irresponsible.
Jourdain bears the political taint of
MFT/DFL backing, he is philosophically bereft, and he is error-prone. Urging students to opt of the MCAs went
beyond error to indication of political taint (the MFT rails against
standardized testing) and philosophical waywardness.
Jourdain voted with a 5-4 majority led by
Rebecca Gagnon to restore $6.4 million dollars in funding that had been cut in
a well-crafted budget emanating from Chief Ibrahima Diop’s Finance Division in
spring 2018. Gagnon was putting herself
in the service of her affluent constituency in Southwest Minneapolis (she
occupied an At-Large position but counted voters in that area as key
supporters); Jourdain voted with the
slim majority roused by his campaign endorser and mentor Gagnon.
Lamentably, Jourdain is unopposed for the
District 6 seat in the 3 November 2020 election; this makes even more paramount that we defeat
Kim Ellison and KerryJo Felder, whose seats are contested; and that we elect Adriana Cerrillo for the
seat that Walser mercifully abdicated.
Nelson
Inz
District #5
Member Saliently Represents the Political Hack as School Board Member
Nelson Inz was elected to the Minneapolis
Public Schools Board of Education in November 2014 and reelected without
opposition in November 2018. Lack of
opposition to call Inz on his corrupt ineptitude demonstrates public
disinterest in, and misunderstanding of, the chronic deficiencies of preK-12
education.
Inz is a former bartender turned teacher
who has located professionally in several different school systems during his
five years on the MPS Board of Education.
After Rebecca Gagnon quickly offended enough of her fellow offenders to
turn the majority on the board against her as chair, Inz began his stint as
chair in January 2017.
By that time, Inz had joined Kim Ellison
and Rebecca Gagnon in recruiting Ira Jourdain and Bob Walser to run against
Tracine Asberry and Josh Reimnitz for the District 6 and District 4 seats
respectively. Asberry was a particularly
effective advocate for academic progress who would closely question Research,
Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability Chief Eric Moore when he would
deliver the latest bad news on student academic achievement; Reimnitz, a former Teach for America
participant, was also an independent voice.
Jourdain and Walser were recruited to do the bidding of the Minneapolis
Federation of Teachers (MFT). Gagnon
specifically endorsed Jourdain; Inz
endorsed Walser.
Endorsement of Walser, the silliest, most
offensive school board member I have ever witnessed on this or any other board,
conveys much about Inz’s personal judgment.
He is a political hack who harbors the same ambitions as do Ellison and
Gagnon, neither of whom has been able to realize goals for exalted political
futures. Inz describes his endorsement
of Walser over Reimnitz as the action of a “team player.” There were many of those in the regimes of
Hitler and Stalin; they abide in the
administration of Donald Trump today.
Before the Public Comments phase of every
meeting of the MPS Board of Education during his stint as chair, Inz read the
following protocol:
>>>>>
The
MPS Board of Education values public comment
and
input at board meetings to inform our decision
making
and provide information and insight into
what
is happening throughout the district.
If
you did not sign-up ahead of time, there are sign
up
sheets on the table where you entered, near the
meeting
agendas. We will close sign-ups 15 minutes
after
public comment begins. Each person wishing to
address
the board will be given 3 minutes and the
clerk
will let you know when your time has expired.
Individuals
will be called up in the order in which they
signed
up to speak. Please approach the podium, if
able,
and state your name, area of the city you live in,
and
connection to Minneapolis Public Schools.
To
ensure we are modeling constructive public
engagement
for our students, we ask that if you wish
to
address the board, you observe the following:
Address your comments
to the Board Chair
and not to individual
Board directors, staff,
or the audience.
Refrain from personal
attacks, swearing,
abusive or threatening
language, or other
disruptive behavior.
Respect those around
you and do not hold
up signs that block the
view of others—
please do not bring
signage to the podium.
Do not discuss employee
or employment
related issues, as
public comment is not the
appropriate venue to
raise such issues.
Refrain from referring
to a person by name
or position.
Making accusations and
derogatory
statements about
employees is not
appropriate.
This
is a time for the Board to listen so we will not be
responding
to comments or questions posed. If you
have
a question that requires a response, please
submit
it to the Board’s Executive Assistant in the
back
of the room. Thank you.
<<<<<
This protocol was appropriately read by the
political hack that Inz is but was not of his authorship. The protocol was written by Ed Graff and
Rebecca Gagnon (when the latter was briefly chair), because I was regularly
citing specific Davis Center (MPS central offices, 1250 West Broadway) staff
members who were not doing their jobs and also taking to task particular board
members. The protocol is written as a
shield from criticism of central office bureaucrats and MPS Board of Education
members and makes mockery of the opening
claim to value public comment. Board
members now know that I have so many venues for issuing my views that the Graff-Gagnon ploy was an
exercise in futility; but the protocol
does have an inhibiting effect on some speakers.
The current iteration of the MPS Board of
Education is composed of politicos heavily indebted to the MFT for electoral
backing.
These corrupt board members are cowards who
hide behind metaphorical embankments that they have devised to shield them from
criticism.
That they have opted for Nelson Inz as Hack
in Chief is telling.
If Inz should search within himself and
find a soul, Nelson Inz should resign immediately from the MPS Board of
Education.
Jenny
Arneson
Astoundingly
Stupid Statements and Multi-Year Ineffectiveness
District 1 (Northeast and Southeast
Minneapolis Jenny Arneson is an enigma:
Arneson is the hardest working of the
members on the current Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education.
Arneson is a masterful accumulator of
factual detail on many aspects of the inner working of the district, notably
information pertinent to her Northeast Minneapolis stomping grounds and items
relevant to current district finances. She also was an adept chair during her term
of service in that position, a knowledgeable manager of meetings per Robert’s
Rules of Order, a skill that stood her in good stead during fall 2020, when she
was chair of the finance committee.
But Arneson has no philosophy of education,
she is beholden to the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, and she is capable
of astoundingly stupid statements:
>>>>> At an MPS Board of Education meeting in
late spring 2019, Jenny Arneson noted, as part of her final report at a meeting
of the MPS Board of Education (of the sort with which board members conclude
each of their meetings) that her son had been accepted by his first choice for
college attendance, Grinnell College in Iowa.
She then opined that “This proves that every student at MPS is College
and Career Ready.”
That statement was astonishingly stupid,
given that fewer than thirty percent (30%) of students on Free and Reduced
Price Lunch and those of several ethnicities who tend to fall in the
Free/Reduced category are not proficient in mathematics, reading, or
science; and that one-third (33%) of MPS
students who matriculate on college and university campuses need remedial
courses.
>>>>> At the Committee of the Whole meeting of
Tuesday, 22 October, Arneson conveyed the essence of a conversation that she
had had with a student who liked the idea of ethnic studies courses offered as
alternatives to a United States history course, because the high school course
is just a repetition of what students learned in a course focused on the same
subject in grade seven. Arneson accepted
the student’s view uncritically, thereby revealing appalling ignorance for a
graduate of St. Olaf College, albeit in the academically undemanding field of
social work.
The pertinent truth is two-fold >>>>>
1)
The grade 7 course is typically taught via videos and through packets
that students fill out in the absence of teacher-imparted information or
comment and without class discussion.
And unless students take Advanced Placement (AP) United States History
in high school, the mode of teacher disinterested, unengaging instruction
evident at grade 7 abides also in the high school course--- and lamentably even in some AP courses,
taught as they often are by knowledge-deficient teachers.
2)
Limiting the number of United States history or any other courses in
core subject areas should be determined only as a practical matter, since the
number of such courses would be multiple if the amount of information to be
conveyed were the determinant. The
problem is not repetition but rather that students learn nothing of great
substance in either course because of the approach to curriculum and pedagogy; and on the basis of amount of information
important for conveyance, even
multiple courses could not impart all that
there is to learn concerning American and United States history--- so that the decision as to how many courses
to offer is a matter of temporal practicality:
Repetition except as a matter of review as foundation for new learning
is a matter of teacher inadequacy, not intrinsic to the abundant knowledge sets
for mastery of American and United States history.
…………………………………………………………………………………….
Kim
Caprini
At-Large
Member Is a Corrupt and ignorant Board Member in Deep Denial
Caprini ran against Felder for the District
2 (North Minneapolis) seat in 2016, losing narrowly; she then ran successfully for an At-Large
seat, with heavy Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) backing, in 2018.
Caprini grew up in North Minneapolis but
mostly attended non-MPS schools, graduating from high school at Benilde/St.
Margaret’s. She has taken scattered
post-secondary courses but does not hold a college degree; she has a background in culinary arts but now
works in social service. Caprini has two
daughters who have attended Henry High School.
Caprini has proven herself to be a corrupt
politico that most typically describes members on this iteration of the MPS
Board of Education, and she frequently betrays a woeful knowledge base,
generally and particularly pertaining to the history and philosophy of
education. But her most frequent mode
gives appearance of a person in deep denial.
She has proclaimed that her daughters got a
“first-rate education” at Henry, by factual counterpoint demonstrating that she
has no understanding of the constituents of an excellent education.
At board meetings during November
2019-January 2020, a contingent of Hispanic parents have cited woeful
conditions at what they describe as “low-performing” schools attended by their
children, calling for “priority enrollment” that would give their children
better educations at “higher performing” schools. Public commentators have voiced other
complaints, such as the turmoil frequently witnessed at and outside Harrison
school attended by students with severe emotional disorders.
Board members by protocol do not respond in
the moment to Public Comments but have ample opportunity to do so in the course
of regular and Committee of the Whole meetings.
Caprini’s response is impulsively reactive: She reflexively defends schools where
wretched academic quality is most obvious, and she is in seemingly deep denial
over conditions at Harrison. Concerning
Harrison, Caprini correctly countered criticism with citations of good
programs, such as those pertaining to
culinary arts and music; but Caprini never concerns herself with the
palpable and chronic turmoil at
Harrison, and she has never addressed the
abundant deficiencies in curriculum and teacher quality that describe not only
“low-performing” schools but the classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools
as a whole.
At-Large member Kim Caprini is a political
hack and gravely ignorant as to the history and philosophy of preK-12
education.
Her most prevalent and manifest mode is
that of the MFT sycophant in deep denial.
She should be shown the Davis Center door,
following closely behind Bob Walser, Nelson Inz, Kim Ellison, and Jenny
Arneson.
Siad
Ali
District #3
Member, Hail Fellow, Well Met Needs to Develop Diligence and Philosophy While
Stiffening His Spine
Siad Ali represents Minneapolis Public
Schools (MPS) Board of Education District #3.
Ali is originally from Somalia, studied in India (where he obtained a
master’s degree in business), and speaks Hindi, as well as Somali and English,
at a high level of fluency. Ali gained
election to the board in 2014 and was reelected without opposition in 2018. In his successful run, Ali replaced fellow
Somali Mohamud Noor, who had gained controversial appointment when the previous
District #3 representative died in office.
District #3 is centered on the Cedar-Riverside area wherein a large
Somali population resides. The district
will for the foreseeable future most likely be represented by a member of the
Somali community, with much discussion therein as to who will run for the
position.
As is the case with all members of the
current iteration of the MPS Board of Education, Ali has firm ties to the
Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT)/Democrat-Farmer-Labor cohort that
determines most elections to school boards in Minnesota. Ali in fact works for Amy Klobuchar. He gives no evidence as yet of finding fault
with either group in the cohort. Like so
many, he appreciates the greater propensity of DFL politicians to provide
generous funding for education, by comparison with Republicans, and to assume
that more funding in the absence of meaningful change is a good thing. He does not understand or does not want to
think about the deleterious effect that DFL administrations (e. g., Mark Dayton
with his Minnesota Department of Education [MDE] Commissioner Brenda
Cassellius; Tim Walz with his MDE
Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker) have on enforcement of state academic
standards and objective measurement via the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
(MCAs).
Thus, Siad Ali bears the same taint of
political corruption that is true of all members of this board. And he gives no indication of having any more
knowledge of the history and philosophy of education in the United States than
do the others. But he is an amicable,
proverbial “Hail Fellow, Well Met” who professes love for everybody and seems
to mean it. He does not do his homework
very well to
apprise himself of policy details, but
neither does he make clearly lamentable judgements. In support of the work of Ed Graff and
especially Chief of Finance Ibrahima Diop, Ali voted with the minority to
uphold the budget as presented in spring 2018, losing in the 5-4 vote to the
contingent led by Rebecca Gagnon to restore $6.4 million that upon budget
trimming had engendered opposition by affluent parents whose students’ high
schools had been affected.
Although he has as yet to take meaningful
action, Ali listens more empathetically than do most other board members to
public commentators such as the Hispanic parents who have appealed for
“priority enrollment” giving their children the option of attending schools
perceived as “higher performing.” He
also listens to my Public Comments and is the only member of the MPS Board of
Education who still approaches me personally (and only one of two whose
approach I would welcome). But in
private conversation, Ali is a terrible listener who, despite understanding the
main thrust of my advocacy for a knowledge-intensive curriculum and the
paramount importance of academics, cannot get far enough beyond the MFT/DFL
party line to digest cognitively my comments.
Ali must do more homework, read tracts on
the history and philosophy of education in the United States, stiffen his
spine, and lend a more careful ear in assessing words of dissent and
advocacy.
Josh
Pauly
At-Large
Member Has Some 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 2020.
Pauly student taught at Southwest High
School, substituted for a while at Lucy Laney and Bethune, and then taught
social 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 in 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 Annur mosque, Makram
El-Amin. Caprini also has longtime
residency and parental involvement on the Northside, and she benefitted
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
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.
Pauly reads from a script 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 Amy Fearing (then Department
of Teaching and Learning Executive Director) and Chief of Research, Evaluation,
Assessment, and Accountability Eric Moore (at a fall semester, academic year
2019-2020 Committee of the Whole meeting) how we can be sure there is anything
new in this plan that will improve achievement or is in any way be better than
what we have had for lo these many years.
Pauly is a mediocrity, just
as tied to the MFT/DFL cohort as the other eight members of the MPS Board of
Education. That his few admirable traits
make him the best of this paltry lot is a scathing comment on the quality of
the current membership.
