Voters Should Cast Their Ballots for Sonya Emerick, Lisa Skjefte, and Laurelle Myhra in the November 2022 Election for Seats on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

Voters who are attune to the dramatic changes taking place at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) should work vigorously for Sonya Emerick and Lisa Skjefte in their quest for the two open seats on the MPS Board of Education in the November 2022 general election;  and work with like energy for Laurelle Myhra as she seeks the open seat in District 5. 

Understand that, astonishingly, a quiet revolution appears to be in progress at the Minneapolis Public Schools.  In just the first two and a half months of her tenure, Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox has created a substantially new cabinet that includes an entirely new contingent of associate superintendents who have been given a directive carefully to monitor academic programming and results at the specific schools for which each is responsible.  There is a new math curriculum (Bridges/Number Corner) that for the first time in recent memory will be implemented across all grade levels at all schools.  And for reading/language arts, a similar uniformity of implementation will be guided by the primary curriculum (Benchmark Advance), with students facing particular struggles at schools that have confronted such challenges for years receiving highly intentional skill development on the basis of programs known as Groves, PRESS (“Pathways to Reading Excellence”), and LETRS (“Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling”). 

Just as significant, Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing, Deputy Senior Academic Officer Maria Rollinger, and Director of Strategic Initiatives Sarah Hunter are leading an effort to bring subject area substance to grades pre-K through 5, so that student verbal skills will be developed, as they should be, in the context of logically sequenced readings in history, government, geography, multi-cultural literature, and the fine arts;  accordingly, students will develop vocabulary across a multiplicity of subjects that lie at the core of advanced reading development.

If Cox, her administrative staff, and teachers succeed with these highly promising initiatives, students at the Minneapolis Public Schools will be given the knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, logically sequenced subject area education necessary for lives of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.  The district of the Minneapolis Public Schools will become a model for urban school districts across the nation.

Cox and staff need the support of independent thinkers as members of the Minneapolis Board of Education in order to continue their pathbreaking effort to bring excellent education to the city’s young people.  Those candidates are Sonya Emerick and Lisa Skjefte in the race for at-large seats and Laurelle Myhra in District 5. 

I am a leftist activist who typically holds his nose and votes for DFL candidates.  But the DFL (for readers in other nations or states other than Minnesota, know that DFL stands for Democratic-Farmer-Labor and is essentially the Democratic Party in Minnesota) has a close relationship with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which as good unions do advocates effectively for teacher wages and working conditions but opposes changes that would result in improved curriculum and teacher quality. 

Thus, progressives must not think simplistically:

Rather than casting their votes for DFL-endorsed candidates KerryJo Felder and Collin Beachy in the at-large contest, they should vote instead for Sonya Emerick and Lisa Skjefte   Emerick is an MPS parent of a child with special needs and a passionate advocate for academically substantive education for young people of all demographic groups.  Skjefte, vice president of community engagement for the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, has had multiple community involvements and manifests skill in uniting people of varying perspectives for mutually beneficial outcomes. 

And in the contest for District 5, those with truly progressive aspirations to bring knowledge-intensive education to students of all demographic descriptors will decline to vote for DFL-endorsee Lori Norvelle and give their vote instead to Laurelle Myhra, a member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe who holds a doctorate in Family Social Science and Marriage and Family Therapy and has training and personal experiences that give credence to her avowed mission to be an advocate for racial equity.

Sondra Emerick and Lisa Skjefte in the at-large contest and for Laurelle Myhra in the District 5 contest for seats on the MPS Board of Education are best positioned to give Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox and staff the support they need to bring a national model of educational excellence to the long-waiting students of the Minneapolis Public Schools.