Reflections on the Saturday 13 September Gathering at Butter Bakery with Three Minneapolis Public Schools Board Members and a Very Few Others

 >>>>>   Last Saturday’s (13 September) gathering at Butter Bakery turned out to include just Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education members Greta Callahan, Kim Ellison, and Collin Beachy;  Kristi Mayne (tentative spelling;  I only got the oral rendering), an elementary school librarian/media specialist;  Lara Bergman (for whom I worked in the November 2024 MPS Board of Education election;  she ran for the District 6 [Southwest Minneapolis] seat against the ultimately victorious Callahan);  a friend of Lara’s (I have not yet lodged her name in my mental file) who attends many events with Lara;  and very briefly (he had to leave very early) an administrator from South High School---  in addition to myself.  Thus, there were eight of us who attended, and just three of us who are not officially associate with MPS;  and, while Lara and her friend do have children in MPS schools, all three of us in the latter category have an interest in the district far beyond the typical parent or citizen.

 

Callahan largely presided at the meeting;  Ellison and Beachy arrived late.  Callahan was much more cordial than I expected and, along with the others, seemed genuinely interested in my copious knowledge of the Minneapolis Public Schools, as I provided factual data that no one else knew, including (tellingly) the Board members themselves:  current total staffing at the Davis Center (574), number (four) and names of associate superintendents, and various observations on the history of the district.  I also, again highly tellingly, was the only one present who seemed to know that the MPS Data Report Card portal (giving student academic proficiency rates, graduation rates and data on discipline (suspension rates and such) has been unresponsive for two years.  

 

My main purpose in attending this meeting at Butter Bakery was to apply pressure with my presence, especially given the opportunity to bring the authoritarian Board Chair Beachy down from his throne.  And, not surprisingly, my main item learned was how much the others did not know.  I did, though, learn that six teachers at South High School resigned over the summer and that there is considerable discontent among school site staff with directives from the central office that lack (in the view of school site staff) clarity and proper support (training and technology).

 

And I learned that Callahan and I may have some foundation for productive interaction.  She certainly is a far better listener and not such a control-freak as Beachy.  And, since my ideas for retraining teachers would always involve union agreement or acceptance (at whatever necessary level of coercion) Callahan’s status as a former Minneapolis Federation of Educators president with close ties to current president Marcia Howard (with whom I have interacted a bit) provides some hope for communicating my views on the necessary upgrading of teaching staff.