Article #1
Remembering a Particularly Incompetent and Politically Tainted
Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education:
The Lamentable Board Comprised of KerryJo Felder, Bob Walser, Siad
Ali, Kim Caprini, Nelson Inz, Kim Ellison, Josh Pauly, Jenny Arneson, and Ira
Jourdain
The iteration of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education that prevailed before the elections of 3 November 2020 was the third that I have witnessed since my investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) began in August 2014.
At
that August 2014 initial stage of my investigation, the composition of the
school board was as follows:
District
1 Jenny Arneson
District
2 Kim Ellison
District
3 Mohamud Noor
District
4 Josh Reimnitz
District
5 Alberto Monserrate
District
6 Tracine Asberry
At
Large Richard Mammen
At-Large Carla Bates
At-Large Rebecca Gagnon
Gagnon
and Arneson, while proving to have strong ties to the Minneapolis Federation of
Teachers (MFT) and the Democrat-Farmer Labor (DFL) Party that undermined their
effectiveness and promoted a good bit of dissembling, did impress me for their
grasp of policy detail. Mammen was
affable if given to rambling and frequently self-serving commentary; both Mammen and Monserrate clearly also had
political connections to the MFT-DFL cohort.
Mohamud Noor, who came onto the board after a contentious meeting in
which he was appointed to replace a member who had died in office, was even
more brazenly ambitious politically. Kim
Ellison (still on the board in academic year 2019-2020, as is Arneson) also has
deep ties to the MFT-DFL; she enjoys
high name recognition due to her surname and association with former husband
Keith Ellison.
The
most positive forces for change on that school board were Carla Bates, Josh
Reimnitz, and Tracine Asberry. Bates was
erratic and garrulous but clearly cared about students. Reimnitz, a former Teach for America member,
had pulled off an upset of an MFT-DFL backed candidate. Asberry was the most courageous of the
members of this formulation of the MPS Board of Education; her interaction with Chief (actually, in
those days, Executive Director) of Research, Evaluation, Assessment (REAA), and
Accountability (at that time, more accurately just Research, Evaluation, and
Assessment [REA]) Eric Moore were the best moments I have witnessed in my five
years of observing MPS Board of Education meetings. Asberry would ask close questions, politely
insist on answers, and ask why she was always seeing the same dismal results
year after year.
In
the aftermath of the school board election of November 2014 Nelson Inz
(District 5), Don Samuels (At-Large), and Siad Ali (District 3) replaced
Monserrate, Mammen, and Noor (none of whom ran for reelection)
respectively. These were
improvements. Inz had not yet manifested
his traits as a political hack. Samuels
was very consciously unaffiliated with the MFT and therefore not backed by his
own party, the DFL (which does not endorse outright but does so through its MFT
proxy). Ali was not as baldly political as
Noor, more affable, and more focused on students--- although he, as in the cases of most of the
rest of the board, has strong ties to the MFT-DFL cohort.
In
the election of 2016 Reimnitz and Asberry were narrowly ousted. Reimnitz was replaced by Bob Walser in
District 4 and Tracine Asberry was replaced by Ira Jourdain in District 6. KerryJo Felder also came onto the board to
claim the District 2 seat that Kim Ellison had vacated to run for an At-Large
seat (Bates did not run for reelection).
Then in the aftermath of the election of 2018, Kim Caprini and Josh
Pauly came onto the board; Samuels had
opted not to run again, and Gagnon was defeated.
Composition
of the Board then became as follows:
District
1 Jenny Arneson
District
2 KerryJo Felder
District
3 Siad Ali
District
4 Bob Walser
District
5 Nelson Inz
District
6 Ira Jourdain
At
Large Kim Ellison
At-Large Josh Pauly
At-Large Kim Caprini
………………………………………………………………………
The
elections of November 2016 and November 2018 were disastrous, except for the
favorable development that Gagnon was ousted.
The
loss of Bates (who, remember, did not run for reelection), Reimnitz, and
Asberry in 2016 constituted a turning point during the time that I have spent
observing the board. These were three
independent voices whose votes did not parrot MFT-DFL stances. The departure of Asberry completely changed
the character of those evenings when student academic proficiency was at the
forefront of discussions; no one since
has convincingly demonstrated driving concern over the ongoing failure to move
student academic proficiency rates above 25% for African American, American
Indian, Latino-Latina students and those on free/reduced price lunch.
The
political nature of the school board came into sharp relief during the 2016
election. Nelson Inz specifically
endorsed Walser over Reimnitz. Gagnon
endorsed Jourdain over Asberry. And Inz,
Gagnon, and Ellison all aggressively recruited candidates to run against
Reimnitz and Asberry.
Then
came the 2018 election, with the prospect that the independent candidacy of
Sharon El-Amin, a well-known Northside business owner and involved parent,
might prove winning. In the end, though,
MFT-DFL backing of Caprini and Pauly was too telling. The biggest news from the election was the
ouster of Gagnon, a generally politically astute actor whose calculations had
gone awry:
Candidate
Name
Number of Votes Percentage
Kim
Caprini
86,739
33.84%
Josh
Pauly
73,994
28.87%
Rebecca
Gagnon 48,567
18.95%
Sharon
El-Amin
47,000
18.34%
To
understand the power of El-Amin’s campaign, one must understand the political
dynamics at work in this election for the two At-Large MPS Board of Education
seats:
Caprini
and Pauly were endorsed by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which
in turn is allied with Education Minnesota, the second most powerful political
lobby in Minnesota, capable of spending levels only topped by the National
Rifle Association (NRA). Caprini is a well-known parent and community
activist in North Minneapolis, but Pauly is a largely unknown presence, a
teacher of short tenure at Sanford Middle School who is now a professional in a
South Minneapolis-based non-profit.
Pauly gives indication of caring about issues pertinent to the homeless
and the dispossessed, but he has none of the community involvements of Caprini
and El-Amin, none of the heart and soul understanding of key community issues
in the manner of El-Amin, and none of the political savvy of Gagnon.
Pauly had a slim campaign of his own initiative: His victory was entirely
the result of MFT support, with its member network, phone banks, and enormous
publicity-generating capacity.
The
matter of Gagnon’s political savvy is ironic, given that she committed a number
of fatal political errors in the months leading up to the election of November
2018. In the wake of the 2016 elections, Gagnon’s star was on the
rise. She had gained a good deal of cache for her long chairing of the
MPS Board of Education Finance Committee. She was well-connected to many
school board groups across the state and nation and formally served as member
in many of these. She was conniving but diligent, undergirding her
political maneuvers with a thorough knowledge of the public school establishment
and the issues considered important by that establishment. She was
elected chair of the board, albeit soon offending enough fellow members to lose
a subsequent election to current chair Nelson Inz.
Then
when MPS financial woes became fully apparent, she was implicated in those
miseries via the financial tanking of the district on her watch as finance
committee chair. Next she showed her disrespect for gifted MPS Finance
Chief Ibrahima Diop by taking the lead in restoring $6.4 million dollars to
funding for high schools with the most affluent populations, after
Diop--- one of the very best-trained, consummately well-educated school
district finance chiefs in the nation--- had worked with Superintendent
Ed Graff and the other chiefs over many months to craft a budget that put the
district on a course toward structural balance.
Gagnon
sought Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party endorsement for a legislative seat
and was set to exit the board; but when she did not secure the
endorsement, she retreated to another run for an At-Large seat. But by
this time, Caprini and Pauly had received the endorsement of the MFT/DFL cohort
for which Gagnon had long served as sycophantic go-fer.
The
MFT/DFL political machine went into its powerful motion once perennial
candidate Doug Mann was eliminated in the August 2018 primary and the above
four candidates had progressed to the general election.
Thus,
we have the context for Sharon El-Amin’s strong performance. Those of us
who campaigned for her did so to win. Ms. El-Amin was at that time the
head of the North Polar (North High School) parent group, is a community
activist who twice a month prepares 100 meals for those in need, for many years
ran the successful El-Amin Fish Shop on West Broadway Avenue, and has been
involved in multiple community organizations and issues. Husband Makram
El-Amin is the imam of Masjid An’nur mosque on Lyndale Avenue North; wife
and husband have deep connections to the Muslim community in general and the
Somali contingent specifically. El-Amin’s natural base of support is
expansive and deep; the last of four school board candidate forums in
this 2018 election season brought forward a crowd at the University of
Minnesota community engagement center at 2100 Plymouth Avenue North (across
from the Minneapolis Urban League) that was overwhelmingly and vocally
expressive in support of her candidacy.
Sharon
El-Amin went up against a canny and seasoned political rival in Rebecca Gagnon
and two endorsees of the powerful MFT/DFL machine. She and Gagnon
together received 21,573 more votes than did Josh Pauly. El-Amin ran just
a fraction behind Gagnon; the two ran essentially even, garnering 18.34%
and 18.95% of the vote respectively.
That
Sharon El-Amin ran such a strong campaign is testimony to a level of genuine
public backing unmatched by Pauly, certainly, but also unrivaled by Caprini and
Gagnon.
……………………………………………………………………
Moving left to right across the lineup seated
on the raised platform at meetings of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of
Education during fall semester of academic year 2019-2020 one found eleven
people who regularly denied to our children the education of excellence that is
due to students of all demographic descriptors.
At far left was 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.
Next, moving left to right next to Felder was
Bob Walser, the silliest and most trivial school board member I have
witnessed during my five years of following developments at the Minneapolis
Board of Education and, further, in my half-century of viewing similar
spectacles in public education. Walser
represented District #4, including Bryn Mawr, toney Lowry Hill, and the
communities around Uptown. He hails from the Walser auto-dealer family. As a Board member, Walser was a total tool of
the MFT/ DFL. He often spouted the education professor jargon about which
I have written in many articles and revealed himself to be 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.
Next one
would observe Kim Caprini.
Caprini grew up on the Northside but mostly attended schools other than
those of the Minneapolis Public Schools, including Ascension and Benilde-St.
Margaret. Her two children, though, did
attend MPS schools, and for many years Caprini was been a participant in
various parent involvement activities.
But her comments as a member were a disappointment. She showed every sign of being the lackey of
the MFT-DFL cohort that characterized this iteration of the Minneapolis Public
Schools Board of Education.
Next
moving left to right school board attendees one saw 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 was the third most objectionable member of the MPS Board of Education, for
which he served as chair, ironically replacing the second most objectionable
member (Rebecca Gagnon) for that position after 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 has taught in several schools, many of them charter
schools, each for a short period of time. Inz had a habit of inflicting
silly banter on his audience and gave every indication of being bought and paid
for by the MFT/DFL.
Seated
moving left to right from Inz one peered at 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 had been
no improvement in the academic program and, while the Comprehensive District
Design (CDD) approved by the Board in June 2020 had many admirable features
pertinent to transportation, finance, and location of magnet schools, the CDD
was bereft of any meaningful academically promising initiative.
Next to
Graff, moving left to right, one saw Kim Ellison, a former vice-chair and
current clerk of the board; as clerk, Ellison headed the Policy Committee
and kept 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, former
member of Congress, Vice-Chair of the national Democratic Party, and winner in
the November 2018 and November 2022 contests for Attorney General. Kim
Ellison mostly listened, speaking (in a very soft voice) only to make a point
that she deemed germane. But her comments never went 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 did not, as a member of the worst
iteration of the MPS Board of Education, 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.
Next one saw
student representative Janaan Ahmed, whose term began in January 2019 and ended
in December 2019. Ahmed brought an
impressive record of achievement and participation to her role but has not been
discerning in her comments. She gave
impression of being in synch with this terrible assemblage of board members,
either as a matter of deference or agreement.
Either way, Ahmed 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 was Jenny Arneson,
the treasurer who presided 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 had
close ties to the MFT-DFL cohort that prevented her from addressing the ills
that plagued the district.
Finally,
at the end of the row moving left to right the attendee saw Ira Jourdain
(representing District #6), the first American Indian to serve on the school
board. Jourdain seemed to have a more elevated ability to process adverse
commentary than did most other Board members, but he gave many indications of
being impeded by his MFT/DFL association.
The election of November 2020 loomed as
enormously important, whereby there was a critical need to replace those who were
up for reelection (Felder, Inz, Jourdain, and--- especially---
Walser) with members who were not bought and paid for by the MFT-DFL
cohort. Thus was consistent with the
abiding necessity in the immediately looming and all subsequent elections to
install members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education unafraid
to address the chronically grave issues pertinent to academic quality and ready
to embrace the necessary curricular overhaul, retraining of teachers, and
initiatives to ensure that students who face particular life challenges arrive
at school able to achieve at the high level of which they are capable.
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