Article #4 >>>>> Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume IX, No. 11, May 2023

Article #4

A Great Day for the K-12 Revolution  >>>>> 

Sharon El-Amin and Adriana Cerrillo Win Their Races for MPS Board of Education

 

For many years the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT)/Democratic-Farmer Labor (DFL) Party cohort has controlled the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education.  That control was severely reduced with the victories of Sharon El-Amin over MFT sycophant KerryJo Felder in District 2 (North Minneapolis) and Adriana Cerrillo over DFL-endorsed Christa Mims in District 4 (Bryn Mawr, Uptown, and surrounding areas).  

Here are the results of the November 2020 MPS Board of Education contests, with 100% of districts reporting >>>>>

Hennepin County

District: Minneapolis District 4 (SSD #1)

Candidate

Adriana Cerrillo

Votes

15,604  (49.9%)

Christina Mims

Votes

15,378  (49.2%)

100% of precincts reporting

………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Hennepin County

District: Minneapolis District 2 (SSD #1)

 

CANDIDATE

Sharon El-Amin

Votes

13,777  (54.9%)

Votes

Kerry Jo Felder  (44.5%)

Thus, on 3 November 2020 Adriana Cerrillos was elected to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education for District 4 and Sharon El-Amin was elected for District 2.  The election of these independent voices for the best interests of students was of enormous importance.

District 2

Sharon El-Amin has served as head of the North Polar (North High School) parent group and 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.  In the 2018 campaign for an At-Large seat, Sharon El-Amin went up against a canny and seasoned political rival in Rebecca Gagnon and two endorsees (Kim Caprini and Josh Pauly) 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.  Caprini and Pauly emerged with narrow victories for the two available At-Large seats in 2018.  Now a seasoned political campaigner and with Northside affiliations much more deeply rooted that KerryJo Felder, El-Amin is poised to oust Felder from the District 2 seat.

 

District 4

Adriana Cerrillo has her own consulting business, “Radical Solutions,” and has made many appearances at the state capitol in St. Paul as an advocate for immigrants’ rights.  She is guardian for her 11-year-old nephew, who attends Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center in the Loring Park neighborhood, where Cerrillo is on the site council and has agitated for improved quality.

Cerrillos’s advocacy for undocumented immigrants led her to a position on the Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission.  Her activism moved her to seek the firing of a Chaska police officer accused of racial profiling;  to help over 100 families — mostly families of color — navigate the local education system;  and to family advocacy with the nonprofit Minnesota Comeback, now called Great Minnesota Schools, during 2018-2020.

On school policy, Cerrillos seeks “solutions” instead of suspensions;  equality in funding, with diversity of  curricula and staff;  and therapists, health professionals, and all resources  necessary for closing achievement gaps in all schools.

Cerrillo opposed the Comprehensive District Design (CDD) restructuring plan, which passed on a 6-3 vote in May 2020, asserting that the plan was more about reducing transportation costs than addressing inequitable outcomes.

Electing Sharon El-Amin and Adriana Cerrillos have decidedly abetted the prospects for overhaul of curriculum and teacher quality at the Minneapolis Public Schools.