Evaluation of the Performance and Quality of Cabinet
Members Listed on the Minneapolis Public Schools Website as of June 2024
The previous article focused on the big changes in
the composition of her cabinet that lackluster, jealous, self-serving new
Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams is on the throes of
making.
I revealed that Sayles-Adams has forced out Rochelle
Cox, the superlative 27-year staff member of the Minneapolis Public
Schools(MPS) who proved herself to be the most effective leader in the history
of the district during her tenure as interim superintendent and that
Sayles-Adams has also overseen the departure of Senior Academic Officer Aimee
Fearing, who implemented Cox’s academic initiatives and became a major advocate
for knowledge-intensive curriculum and the acquisition of subject area
information and vocabulary necessary for comprehending sophisticated reading
material across a range of academic disciplines.
As of the work week of 17 June 2024, though, the MPS
website listed the same membership that has existed for many months. Cox
returned to a position as associate superintendent when Sayles-Adams became
superintendent as of 5 February 2024, but otherwise the cabinet features the
same membership that prevailed during Cox’s tenure.
In this article I evaluate the members of the
cabinet who served during the Cox administration and are still listed officially
on the MPS website, in order of value to the district and in terms of factors
pertinent to the particular position occupied.
Cabinet of Minneapolis Public School
Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams
#1
Rochelle
Cox, Associate Superintendent
(the
position to which Cox returned when Sayles-Adams assumed the position of MPS
superintendent on 5 February 2024)
As
discussed in yesterday’s article, Cox was the most effective leader in the
history of the Minneapolis Public Schools during her tenure as interim
superintendent; she also is the only MPS associate superintendent to
demonstrate any ability to fulfill the position’s purpose of mentoring
principals.
#2
Aimee
Fearing, Senior Academic Officer
Fearing
flourished under Cox’s leadership, implementing the administration’s academic
initiatives and making a very promising start in moving the district toward
knowledge-intensive, skill-replete curriculum.
#3
Ibrahima
Diop, Senior Officer of Finance and Operations
Diop,
who began his tenure as leader of the MPS finance division in autumn 2016, is
one of the two or three best finance officers in the United States;
within three years, he oversaw the construction of the first structurally
balanced budget that the district had articulated in many years. Cox
tapped him to serve concomitantly as operations officer, the duties of which
Diop has performed suitably.
But
Diop has demonstrated little courage in his stance toward the sub-mediocre
Sayles-Adams, attending two of the sham “Listening Sessions” and even reporting
out small-group responses to the skewed questions at one of the sessions.
#4
Ryan
Strack, Assistant to the Superintendent and Board
Strack
is a master of standard school board procedure and consistently saved Sharon
El-Amin from her woeful lack of knowledge of Robert’s Rules of Order when
she served as chair of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
Strack also has good knowledge of the last half-decade in the history of the
Minneapolis Public Schools, but he does not have the comprehensive grasp of the
deeper history of MPS, the city of Minneapolis, or the specific history of
North Minneapolis as do I—and he gives little indication of understanding
matters pertinent to the history and philosophy of education. And Strack,
in training members of the MPS Board of Education, emphasizes standard
procedures and associations, thus lamentably contributing to maintenance of the
status quo. He is very much like a bureaucratic, civil servant
functionary who keeps a system in motion, for good or, too often, for ill.
#5
Justin
Hennes, Senior Officer of Information Technology
Hennes
seems to have been a worthy successor to Fadi Fadhil, overseeing technology
availability and utilization for classrooms and administration. He and
his staff adroitly responded with months of diligent effort to meet the
challenges wrought by hackers during the 2022-2023 academic year.
But
Hennes has proved to be among the many staff members who went into personal
vocational survival mode with the arrival of the sub-mediocre superintendent
Lisa Sayles-Adams, either recording or reporting out small-group responses
induced by the skewed questions in the lamentable “Listening Sessions” of
spring 2024. He has been one of many senior staff who have revealed very
soft backbones and who are mired variously in ignorance, denial, or outright
intellectual and moral corruption in maintaining a wretched system of education
at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
#6
Josh
Downham, Lobbyist
Downham
effectively makes the case for funding the public schools and gets great credit
from Minneapolis Public Schools leaders for doing so. But in moving
forward with a “mo’ money” mantra, Downham either consciously or unconsciously
provides a major assist in maintaining a wretched system of public education
with appeals for funding in the absence of needed change.
#7
Alicia
Miller, Senior Officer of Human Resources
Miller
has risen quickly in Human Resources in the three years of her tenure at the
Minneapolis Public Schools. She quickly restored order and efficiency in
a division that former Human Resources senior officer Candra Bennett had left
in shambles. Miller has also proved adept at negotiation with the
Minneapolis Federation of Teacher (MFT) and Education Support Professionals
(ESPs).
But,
while Miller only participated in one of the sham Listening Sessions, at that
one (held at Anwatin Middle School) she shamefully served the same role noted
above for Hennes and Diop and has shown of indication of being more the
careerist than the servant of student needs at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
#8
Michael
Walker, Associate Superintendent with responsibility mostly for overseeing high
schools
Walker
was an adept dean of students at Roosevelt High School and is skillful in
interactions with students. A failure in his current position and in his
previous role as head of the Office of Black Student Achievement, Walker should
return to a site-based, student-interactive role.
But
inasmuch as Walker has seemed less willing to do the bidding of Sayles-Adams,
his days at the Minneapolis Public Schools are probably numbered.
#9
Laura
Cavender, Associate Superintendent with responsibility for overseeing multiple
elementary schools
Cavender
(an MPS veteran who has served as principal and multiple administrative
positions), though having weak academic training, has shown concern for
improving academics and seemed to be a promising staff member under Rochelle
Cox’s leadership; but she has caved just as readily as others with the
arrival of Sayles-Adams.
#10
Sarah
Hunter, Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives
Under
the leadership of Rochelle Cox, Hunter seemed a highly promising presenter of
objective data, including that which revealed the abysmal academic proficiency
rates of MPS students in key demographic categories, and she worked closely
with Cox and Aimee Fearing in forwarding the move toward knowledge-intense,
skill-replete subject area mastery and improvement of teacher quality.
But
Hunter has emerged as the woeful Sayles-Adams’s righthand senior staff member,
participated in all of the sham Listening Sessions, and shamelessly enacted the
pretension of summarizing the skewed data gathered at these sessions.
Hunter is now among those most culpable for cowardice and obsequious behavior
upon the arrival of the monotonic mediocrity, Sayles-Adams.
#11
Donnie
Belcher, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing
The
essential functions of Communication and Marketing seem to have been adequately
maintained since Belcher took over for Julie Schultz Brown at the end of the
2021-2022 academic year.
But
Belcher shamefully played the loyal servant of Sayles-Adams, attending all of
the Listening Sessions, not playing much of a role except to shine a
sycophantic smile at every shibboleth uttered by her new boss.
#12
Meghan
Hickey, Executive Director of Student Support Services
Hickey
is better than average as compared to past occupants of the position as head of
Student Support Services, but the activities of this office should be better
coordinated with those of
Community
and External Relations and Equity/School Climate.
And
Hickey is guilty of acquiescence to the lamentable meetings overseen by
Sayles-Adams and played much the same obsequious role at the farcical Listening
Sessions as did Belcher.
#13
Tyrize
Cox, Executive Director of and External Relations
Cox
is not effective in her position and is guilty in the manner of Belcher and
Hickey.
#14
Derek
Francis, Executive Director of Equity and School Climate
Francis
is not effective in his position and is guilty in the manner of Belcher,
Hickey, and Tyrize Cox.
#14
Shawn
Harris Berry, Senior Officer of Schools
Harris-Berry
was a failed principal of North High School, elevated according to the Peter
Principle to a office administration. She is an academic mediocrity
who never should have been placed in central office positions with oversight
pertinent to schools.
And
she has been a lamentable toady in the manner of Belcher, Hickey, Tyrize Cox,
and Francis.
#15
Yusuf
Abdullah, Associate Superintendent with responsibility mostly for overseeing
middle schools
Abdullah
was a miserable principal at Patrick Henry (now Camden) High School who
discouraged students to opt out of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
(MCAs), like Harris-Berry elevated according to the Peter Principle to central
office administration. He is an academic mediocrity who never should have
been placed in a central office position with oversight pertinent to schools.
And
he has been a lamentable toady in the manner of Belcher, Hickey, Tyrize Cox,
Francis, and Harris-Berry.
