Article #3
Lisa Sayles-Adams’s Mediocrity Was Clearly on
Display at the Tuesday, 13 February 2024, Meeting of the Minneapolis Public
Schools Board of Education--- As Was the
Intellectual Corruption of Board Chair Collin Beachy and the Embarrassing
Buffoonery of Education Consultant Betty Webb
The monthly meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools
(MPS) Board of Education was this past Tuesday (13 February), the first at
which Lisa Sayles-Adams took occupancy as MPS Superintendent.
A number of African American women who do not often
in some cases (e.g., activist gadfly Nekima Levy-Armstrong) and not every time
in others (e.g., We Win Program leader Titilayo Bediako) show up at Board
meetings attended this time to demonstrate support for Sayles-Adams. A full slate of the possible 25 commentators
made Public Comments, some of them a representation of the aforementioned
African American women supporters; others
speaking to issues at certain schools;
and, among other issues, some there to express concern about
anti-Semitism in schools and other public venues, in Minneapolis and in the
context of the broader national phenomenon.
Before I spoke there was a slight pro-Sayles-Adams
vibe to the evening, even if Davis Center staff members seemed possessed of
limited enthusiasm.
Then I changed the mood >>>>>
I began by conveying aspects of my heavyweight
scholarly preparation in conducting doctoral research in route to my Ph. D. in
Taiwanese history: high-level fluency in
Mandarin Chinese, reading skill in Japanese, some acquisition of the local
Minnan dialect, village-based research, interviews in Mandarin with university
professors and government figures, construction of surveys in Chinese
administered to farmer association officials, and meticulous combination of anthropological
and oral history techniques with copious reading of the English and Chinese
literature.
I then conveyed that while such scholarly seriousness
typically accompanies pursuit of the Ph. D., the Ph.D. is not be confused with
the Ed.D. (Education Doctorate). I said,
Education professors are campus embarrassments.
No one who holds the Ed.D. would ever be selected
as a college or university president. The Twin Cities
metro has a number of cash cow degree mills---
University of Minnesota, Augsburg University,
University of St. Thomas among them---
that bestow such degrees. At Minnesota State
University/Mankato, of 89 dissertations written
between 2016 and 2022, only one, a gossamer 134-page
whisp of a document, has been embargoed. This is a
dissertation for the Ed. D. written by Lisa
Sayles-Adams.
At this point, Board Chair Collin Beachy interrupted
me, saying, “That’s character assassination,” and seemed poised to continue
interrupting and possibly cut the mike.
So I stepped away from the podium and walked right in front of the Board
members and Sayles-Adams and continued,
The evidence strongly suggests that Sayles-Adams
is even worse than the typical mediocrity,
nevertheless
selected by (as I gestured with my right hand in a
semicircle
enveloping each Board member and Sayles-Adams) these
inept members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board
of Education.
I actually got some scattered applause but mostly
received angry looks for the Sayles-Adams supporters and solicited startled
expressions from MPS staff members and many others. I got an angry retort from erstwhile Board
consultant, the buffoonish Betty Webb.
When at the 10-minute break between Public Comments, a member (African
American female) member of the Robbinsdale Board of Education engaged me in a
spirited conversation, Webb (holder of the Ed.D.) approached us as if to break
into our conversation, saying to me,
“I’m just as smart as you are--- if not smarter.”
“You’re trying to justify yourself to me,” I
replied. “Please go away,” a request
that the Robbinsdale Board member reinforced by urging Webb (whom the Board
member knows) not to interrupt our conversation, which was lively and
constructive.
After the meeting, Webb touched me gently on the arm
as if to make amends.
I told her, “Do not touch me.”
She touched my arm again.
I then very loudly shouted, ”I said do not touch
me!!!. I do not want to talk to
you!!!!!”
Remember that Betty Webb is the buffoon who wasted my
time and that of the Board (at the invitation of Sharon El-Amin) at a
six-hour--- that would be 360 minutes---
retreat and a couple of follow-up sessions. My disgust was registered to many people and
now has been implicitly conveyed to Webb herself.
…………………………………………………
The meeting then consisted primarily of Sayles-Adams
giving a monotonic, jargon-infested presentation of her plans for her first
hundred days as MPS Superintendent. She
brought forward no staff members during this presentation. She read from a script. In numerous ways my pain was amplified in
enduring this presentation by the contrast with Interim Superintendent Rochelle
Cox’s presentations at business and Committee of the Whole meetings with lively
focus on academics, mainly, and otherwise student support services and school
environment issues--- always with staff
(variously teachers, principals, and Davis Center leaders) well-represented.
I stared in disgust throughout this inept
presentation.
Follow-up communications with Davis Center staff have
been interesting. Despite their
variously tacit or explicit agreement with me as to Sayles-Adams as the typical
mediocrity or worse, I have the sense that spines are softening and
accommodation is occurring, faster and involving more staff members than I had
predicted. There are only so many
situations in which many Davis Center staff could ever gain $150,000 per annum
remuneration.
Much will come into my consciousness in the days
ahead that will be assessed on my blog, in the second edition of Understanding
the Minneapolis Public Schools: Current
Condition, Future Prospect, and at an ongoing series of Public Comments.
The document that accompanied Sayles-Adams’s
presentation, which she mostly read in verbatim monotone, can be found at the
School Board portal of the MPS Board of Education website.
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