Jul 3, 2024

Article #1 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume X, Number Twelve, June 2024

Article #1

 

Brief Comment on Each Member of the Current Particularly Intellectually Challenged Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education

 

The current membership of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education is a particularly inept and intellectually challenged group, the worst that I have witnessed in my ten years of intensively investigating this school district.

 

Before this iteration of the Board took office in January 2023, I thought that I had witnessed the worst assemblage of Board members in the previous contingent, with such status quo members as Kim Caprini, Nelson Inz, and Jenny Arneson (with whom current member Kim Ellison was closely linked).  And the assemblage just prior to the latter iteration included the most objectionable individual members whom I have witnessed, KeriJo Felder (for her egocentric claims to represent North Minneapolis views, despite a relatively short tenure on the Northside;  and ill-focused advocacy and erratic views on major issues) and Bob Walser (the silliest, most trivial member of all of those I have witnessed).

 

But this Board had a chance to be a pathbreaking contingent:

 

Sharon El-Amin and Adriana Cerrillo came to the Board with election wins in November 2020;  Joyner (then going by the name, Sonya) Emerick followed in 2022.  Each of these candidates accomplished the difficult task of winning, despite not having Minneapolis Federation of Teachers/Education Support Professionals (MFT/ESP) endorsement.  El-Amin and Cerrillo seemed to know that the status quo must be jettisoned, as did Emerick, the latter a particularly keen advocate for LGBTQ and special needs students.

 

But Sharon El-Amin, serving as chair during the 2022-2023 academic year, oversaw a very routine and corrupt process that led to the lamentable selection of sub-mediocre Lisa Sayles-Adams as superintendent;  Cerrillo and Emerick showed absolutely no courage or powers of discernment in succumbing to the degraded process that led the Board to opt for monotonic mediocrity Sayles-Adams.

 

Faheema (known at first as Fathia) Feerayarre, Abdul Abdi, Collin Beachy, and Lori Norvell also won election in 2022.  All four were endorsed by the MFT/ESP cohort, with Beachy and Norvell having particularly close ties.  They never seemed to offer the promise that did El-Amin, Cerrillo, and Emerick, although in time Abdi emerged as the best of an otherwise lamentable contingent of Board members.

 

In many articles over the last few months, I have analyzed the corrupt superintendent selection process and the individual shortcomings of each Board member.  Below I give very brief assessments of the individuals in this particularly intellectually challenged group of MPS Board of Education members.

 

 

District 1  >>>>>     Abdul Abdi

 

Abdi has a background in business and finance, an expertise he brings to the MPS Board of Education as finance committee chair.  He seems to understand the importance of upgrading academics at MPS better than the others.  But Abdi served on the corruptly conducted MPS Superintendent Selection Task Force and, while seeming to be a supporter of superlative Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox, he showed no courage in opposing the corrupt process that led to the selection of Lisa Sayles-Adams. 

 

District 2  >>>>>     Sharon El-Amin

 

El-Amin served as Board chair during the 2022=2023 academic year.  She was an embarrassment in conducting meetings, never mastering Robert’s Rules of Order, but worse, she was the chief conniver whose machinations positioned Lisa Sayles-Adams to gain appointment as superintendent.

 

District 3  >>>>>     Faheema Feerayarre

 

Feerayarre is the laziest and most technically inept member of this lamentable assemblage of Board members.

 

District 4  >>>>>     Adriana Cerrillo

 

Cerrillo has a self-image as a radical but she has been an ineffective Board member who served on the corrupt Task Force and demonstrated no courage in opposition to the manipulations of El-Amin or the corrupt processes that led to the selection of Sayles-Adams;  Cerrillo gives evidence of succumbing to status quo processes and enjoying the perquisites of Board membership, giving the lie to her self-image as a radical.

 

District 5  >>>>>     Lori Norvell

 

Norvell led the corrupt Task Force, which became so boisterous and contentious that staff of BWP & Associates had to be brought in to mediate when Task Force members, reportedly Titilayo Bediako and Nekima Levy-Armstrong, precipitated a voluble argument.  Norvell has strong ties to the MFT/ESP and is an agent of the status quo establishment.

 

District 6  >>>>>     Ira Jourdain

 

Jourdain saw into the corruption of the superintendent selection process better than the others and was the most enthusiastic supporter of Rochelle Cox;  but his courage withered as the selection of Sayles-Adams went forward.

 

At-Large   >>>>>     Joyner Emerick

 

Emerick is an eloquent advocate for LGBTQ and special needs students with a general inclination toward needed change;  but they/she/he also succumbed to the lamentable superintendent selection process.

 

At-Large   >>>>>     Collin Beachy

 

Beachy attended the spring 2023 Annual New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet and for many months seemed poised to become a promising member of the MPS Board of Education.  But he succumbed to and may have even agreed with the process that led to the unfortunate selection of Sayle-Adams, and as chair since January 2024 Beachy as been the most autocratic, controlling force in opposition to free speech comments from the public that I have witnessed over ten years of intensively investigating the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

At-Large   >>>>>     Kim Ellison

 

Ellison has now been an ineffective member of the MPS Board of Education for twelve years.  She was a supporter of Rochelle Cox and seemed to be poised to redeem her undistinguished tenure on the Board, but her courage and discernment withered as the corrupt selection process ensued. 

 

……………………………………………………………………………..

 

Student representatives have served on the MPS Board of Education since 2015, and in 2020 an additional representative was added to the original single student representative for each academic year.  These students by definition provide a student perspective, but they never make any substantive difference in matters of policy that pertain to academic improvement. 

 

The current student representatives are as follows:

 

Student Representative   >>>>>     Elliston Rounds (North High School)

 

Student Representative   >>>>>     Leo Peralta (Roosevelt High School)

 

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