Revealing Exchanges with Sharon El-Amin (Chair of the MPS Board of Education During the Superintendent Search) and Lori Norvell (MPS Board of Education Clerk and Chair of the Superintendent Search Task Force)
Below
I provide a contentious email interaction that I had with Sharon El-Amin, who
during the months of the superintendent search was Chair of the Minneapolis
Public Schools Board of Education
El-Amin
was responding to the letter that I sent to the whole Minneapolis Public
Schools Board of Education on 26 November, urging the Board to reclaim control
of the process from the Task Force and move forward in a way likely to result
in the selection of Rochelle Cox as long-term superintendent of the district.
>>>>>
From Sharon El-Amin, 1 December 2023
>>>><
Good
afternoon Gary,
Thank
you for your continued attention and dedication to MPS and our students. I
have always offered you the respect of listening to and considering your
perspective, a courtesy I will again extend by reviewing the information you
have sent.
I
know you are aware that neither board members nor Search Task Force members are
allowed to disclose or discuss anything about who may or may not have been an
applicant, beyond those that were selected for an interview. Therefore, I do
not expect that others will respond on that portion of your message. Rather,
like me, I imagine they will review the information you provided on the two
finalists and incorporate that into their decision.
As chair I have strived to
collaboratively lead with integrity throughout this search process over the
past year. The Board has voted to affirm the process and its specific steps at
several junctures during that time. At length, we carefully deliberated and
voted unanimously to delegate the selection of finalists to the Search Task
Force. My focus is now on seeing through the final stages of this process with
fidelity and we have two strong finalist candidates, both of whom I believe
would be an excellent leader for MPS.
Without making comment on
her status as an applicant for the position or not, my respect and gratitude
for Interim Superintendent Cox is unparalleled. She has provided much needed
leadership and stability for MPS and to me personally, and I am forever thankful.
I am excited to see her continue the work for MPS in her next capacity.
Thank you for your
research and for reaching out.
Sincerely,
Chair El-Amin
Sharon El-Amin
Board of Education,
District 2 Director|Chair
Sharon.El-Amin@mpls.k12.mn.us |
612.986-3281
…………………………………………
Reply
from Gary Marvin Davison
December
1, 2023
Sharon:
This
communication is the promised concluding statement on the matter of selecting
the next Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent, personalized as a
note sent particularly to you.
I read your own framing
of the process with care; there is little surprise that you and I have
very different views of that process and the various possible scenarios at this
evening’s (1 December 2023) 4:00-6:00 PM meeting.
Hence, before proceeding
to my comment on the responsibility that you bear for the superintendent
process, be reminded that my key points remain as follows >>>>>
>>>>>
The MPS Board of Education has bungled the search for the next long-term
superintendent badly.
>>>>>
The Board should have taken much firmer control in selecting the next MPS
superintendent, in the spirit of A. J. Crabill’s advice, and looked first for
an internal candidate, of which there were and are several good
prospects; Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox was clearly the best, a
circumstance that she had proven as Interim Superintendent.
>>>>>
I have observed superintendents ranging from Richard Green in the 1980s through
Ed Graff during 2016-2022. Because of the terrible training that
superintendents receive in education programs, and the academically lightweight
nature of their background, there is little surprise that superintendents of
the Minneapolis Public Schools and other districts typically fail to address
the chronic substandard academic proficiency of students, particularly those
facing the challenges of familial poverty at the urban core.
>>>>>
Therefore, the fact that Rochelle Cox is a keen reader of books and has
interests across the mathematic, scientific, and liberal arts is highly
unusual. Following from that keen academic interest and her intense love
of children and adolescents, Cox in the months stretching from July 2022
through the present (as November turns into November 2023) has relentlessly
presented to the Board at each monthly business meeting and each Committee of
the Whole an abundance of long-needed mathematics and reading development and
knowledge-intensive academic programs, closely faithful to the goals of
Strategic Plan (academic achievement, student well-being, effective staff and a
school climate of equity).
>>>>>
I sat for years observing Board members and was ever stunned that so little
discussion of academics took place. The various initiatives that Cox and
staff have authored and articulated, and those into which they have injected
new energy--- the intervention triads, online ACT training, much more
vigorous implementation of Groves, PRESS, and LETRs, the assemblage of an
outstanding group on the Anti-Racist, Anti-Bias (ABARS) for addressing the
concerns and the retention of BIPOC staff, the uniform implementation of math
and reading curriculum, and the current pursuit of a reading curriculum that
provides background knowledge and sophisticated vocabulary development---
represent an unprecedented program for addressing the academic of students of
all demographic descriptors, most especially the needs of students whose
fundamental skills have languished far below grade level.
>>>>>
The Board should have long ago offered Rochelle Cox the position of long-term
Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
>>>>>
To depend on an MPS Superintendent Task Force, in which 14 of the 17 members
are not elected officials and lack suitable qualifications, to recommend
two or three candidates from which the Board is to select one to be the new MPS
Superintendent, is an abominable neglect of the Board’s duty to take full
responsibility for all aspects of the selection process.
>>>>>
Those two candidates put forward should be regarded only as
recommendations. Rochelle Cox’s name should be put forward as a third
option. As detailed in my previous communication, Sonia Stewart has
disturbing red flags in her professional history and is the typical mediocrity
from superintendent candidate pools; Lisa Sayles-Adams, again as detailed
in the previous communication, is also a mediocrity.
>>>>>
There are various scenarios that could ensue this evening (1 December 2023),
including putting Cox’s name forward among the three for consideration.
>>>>>
If the process unfolds as you foresee, and either Stewart or Sayles-Adams is
selected, then I will be monitoring the continuation of the promising
initiatives of Cox and staff, with the expectation that those initiatives move
forward with current first-rate staff.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
I am deeply disappointed
in your own role in the MPS Superintendent Search process, Sharon.
I will continue to
investigate the details of that process and report that process, as the full
range of facts become clear, as I complete the second edition of my book, Understanding
the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect and
write a bevy of new articles for my blog, which currently receives
approximately 55,000 views per month, nationally and across the globe.
Be
proud, therefore, of whatever happens this evening and in the days and months
to come---
With
best regards---
Gary
Gary
Marvin Davison, Ph.D.
Director,
New Salem Educational Initiative
2507
Bryant Ave North
Minneapolis
MN 55411
http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com
Author,
Understanding
the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Gary Condition,
Future Prospect (New Salem Educational Initiative, second edition,
2023)
Foundations
of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education (New Salem
Educational Initiative, 2022)
A
Concise History of African America (Seaburn, 2004)
The
State of African Americans in Minnesota 2004 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2004)
The
State of African Americans in Minnesota 2008 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2008)
A
Short History of Taiwan: The Case for Independence (Praeger,
2003)
Tales
from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited,
2004)
Culture
and Customs of Taiwan ([with Barbara E. Reed]
Greenwood, 1998)
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Below
I provide a contentious email interaction that I had with Lori Norvell, who
during the months of the superintendent search was Chair of the Minneapolis
Public Schools Board of Education
Norvell,
as was the case with El-amin, was responding to the letter that I sent to the
whole Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education on 26 November, urging the
Board to reclaim control of the process from the Task Force and move forward in
a way likely to result in the selection of Rochelle Cox as long-term
superintendent of the district.
Revealing Exchange with Lori Norvelle
Lori Norvelle, 1 December 2023
>>>>>>
Hi
Gary,
Thank
you for sharing your thoughts and perspective with me. Interim Superintendent
Cox stepped into this role and was the right person for our District at that
time. I appreciate her, her work, and commitment to MPS. I am very happy
with the work of the Superintendent Task Force as well as the process for the
Superintendent search. And I am very excited to begin this very important work
with Dr. Sayles-Adams.
Best,
Lori
Lori
Norvell, Director | she/her
Minneapolis
Public Schools | District 5
612-919-8136
………………………………………………………………………..
Reply from Gary Marvin Davison, 2 December 2023
December
2, 2023
Lori---
Thanks
much for your reply.
................................................................
The
ineptitude, intellectual corruption, and low information bases that I have
witnessed among the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of
Education are stunning.
I
am now sorting through the facts to determine whether, as I have queried with
reference to other education establishment figures, you and the others
are
1)
ignorant (abysmal information bases);
2)
in denial (staring straight into the truth but rejecting facts);
or
3)
outright corrupt.
In
any case, as I once told Eric Moore, my former home-dude, when it comes to my
babies, the only friend I have is the Truth.
And
now my readers across the city, state, nation, and world are receiving the
truth and monitoring what you have done.
Lisa
Sayles-Adams does have a chance to succeed if she embraces the initiatives of
Rochelle and her staff. If she does not, I will induce her
resignation, as I did in conjunction with others, in the case of Ed Graff---
Be
well---
With
best regards---
Gary
Gary
Marvin Davison, Ph.D.
Director,
New Salem Educational Initiative
2507
Bryant Ave North
Minneapolis MN 55411
(Cell)
507-301-9902
http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com
Author,
Understanding
the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect (New
Salem Educational Initiative, second edition, 2023)
Foundations
of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education (New Salem
Educational Initiative, 2022)
A
Concise History of African America (Seaburn, 2004)
The
State of African Americans in Minnesota 2004 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2008)
The
State of African Americans in Minnesota 2008 (Minneapolis
Urban League, 2004)
Tales
from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited,
2004)
A
Short History of Taiwan: The Case for Independence (Praeger,
2003)
Culture
and Customs of Taiwan ([with Barbara E. Reed]
(Greenwood, 1998)
A World
History: Links Across Time and Place ([with
six other authors] (McDougal Littell, 1988)
<<<<<
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