May 31, 2023

Article #1 >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume IX, No. 11, May 2023

 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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