"Listening Sessions" Conducted by Sub-Mediocre Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams: Sham-ful and Shameful

The “Listening Sessions” conducted by the sub-mediocre Lisa Sayles-Adams continue to be sham-ful and shameful.

 

My assessment of humanity continues on a downward trek.  Sayles-Adams can say hardly anything without reading from script.  The questions posed are farcical as to what they reveal about the author’s aversion to negative comment, and thus disinclination to admit any of the many changes that must be made in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) so as to provide something even approaching an acceptable education.

 

To a person, Davis staff members who have attended these staged events have been willing to obey the dictates of their new master. 

 

Among the culprits are Meghan Hickey (Student Support Services Executive Director), Donnie Belcher (Executive Director of Communications and Marketing),Tyrize Cox (Executive Director of Engagement and External Relations), Derek Francis (Executive Director of Equity and School Climate), Justin Hennes (Senior Officer of Information Technology), Aimee Fearing (Senior Officer of Academics), Shawn Harris-Berry (Senior Officer of Schools), Ibrahima Diop (Senior Officer of Finance and Operations, Sarah Hunter (Strategic Initiatives Executive Director), Ryan Strack (Assistant to the Superintendent and Board) and Associate Superintendents Yusuf Abdullah, Laura Cavender, and---  yes---  Rochelle Cox. 

 

Notably, neither Associate Superintendent Michael Walker nor Senior Office of Human Resources Alicia Miller have been in attendance.  Walker would seem to have expectation of attending, and I would think that if Finance and Information Technology leaders must attend, so would the leader of Human Resources (Miller).  I’d like to think that these two are refusing to attend, but my observation of the near-universal cowardice of humankind tells me that this is not the reason.

 

Answers to the questions on the part of most community member participants are of the most stolid, expected sort (with much in the way of “transparency,” “accountability,” “establishment of trust”), and a surfeit of glib misrepresentation or outright ignorance (“welcoming staff,” “excellent teachers,” “great education”)  >>>>>

 

1) Ignorance;  2) denial;  or 3) corruption everywhere I turn.

 

 

……………………………………………………………………………………………

 

In grand recognition of the perfidy of Davis Center Staff, I have wrapped up my 10-poem series with these most recent five offerings  >>>>>

 

Ethical Vacation for Davis Center Staff Operating Under Putative MPS Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams

 

Children's futures

neglected, 

familial pleas

rejected,

morality

invisible,

collusion

indivisible:

an abominable

sight,

Davis souls in 

flight,

fleeing

shame,

shunning

blame,

and yet

just know:

You have 

nowhere

to go,

with Omnipotence

discerning 

your selfish

motivation,

for morality 

languishing 

on ethical 

vacation.

 

 

No Defense for Davis Staff Doing the Bidding of Lisa Sayles-Adams

 

Moral

obtusion?

Ethical

confusion?

Or clear case

of corrupt

collusion?

Whatever the

case,

Davis staff

cannot

erase,

lacking moral

defense,

the abominable

consequence

of morality 

on hold, 

children's 

futures sold.

 

Davis Center Staff Pecuniary Sycophancy:  Reprehensibly Obscene

 

150

170

200

K,

already enough

to cause dismay,

when one assesses

the actual ability,

the functional futility

of most MPS

cabinet members

and remembers

that they have 

such little to

offer, 

yet are 

so costly 

to the coffer---

and now are

so mired

in such

obsequious

action,

former stances

taken now

in full 

retraction,

all for that 

excessive

green,

makes their

sycophancy

despicably,

reprehensibly,

unforgivably

obscene.

 

 

The "Listening Session" at Bethune:  Message Bleated, Children Cheated

 

At Bethune,

reading 

proficiency:

ten

percent;

yet the gilders

gild on,

they never

relent;

math and science

both stalled

disastrously

at five, 

yet the glossers

gloss on,

in full

shuck,

replete

jive:

"Excellent teachers, 

caring staff,"

the mantra

goes,

never mind 

those

chronic academic

woes;

'cause at our

"Listening Sessions"

an upbeat message

must always be

bleated,

never mind all

those graduates 

we've ceaselessly

cheated.

 

 

Davis Center Staff Under Lisa Sayles Adams:  Defining Mutual Resignation

 

Mutual

resignation,

or 

mutual 

resignation?

Perdition

or

contrition?

Depends 

on the

definition:

The fundamental

question,

in the 

Grand Scheme:

Evil Dream

or

Life Supreme?

Do I sustain

the fatal 

status quo,

deepen 

the plunge

of the knife,

or forge a

path to a

New,

Moral,

Ethical,

Soul-Nourishing

Life?

 

 

These poems have all been entered on the blog (with notifying texts sent to the Davis Center culprits), drawing heavy viewership, and will soon be recast as the essence of the May 2024 edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis Minnesota)