My readers and all of those interested in preK-12 Education should be aware of the League of Women Voters Minneapolis (LWVMpls) forum for Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education candidates that will take place on Saturday, October 15, 2022. This event is co-sponsored by the Advancing Equity Coalition and will be moderated by a League of Women Voters trained moderator who is not a constituent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The event will be held at Urban Research and
Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC), 2001 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN
55411 (located across from the Minneapolis Urban League), beginning at 1:00 pm
and ending at 2:30 pm.
In addition to a live audience, MCN6 will live stream the forum at https://youtu.be/d3LMGXBCM4k. It will also be recorded and available for viewing unedited at LWV Minneapolis (www.lwvmpls.org) website after the event.
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As you listen to and observe the candidates, remember that my very strong recommendations are that on election day Tuesday, 8 November, you cast your votes for Sonya Emerick and Lisa Skjefte in the race for the two at-large seats; and for Laurelle Myrha for the District 5 seat.
The seats for
Districts 1 and 3 will on the ballot and feature candidates not currently
sitting on the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education, but these races
feature only one uncontested candidate each.
Please remember how important these races are at this highly
significant juncture in the history of the Minneapolis Public
Schools >>>>>
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.
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