Another Example of Ignominy in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams Administration:
The Perfidy of MPS Data Requests Under General Counsel Jamie Jonassen
In a series of exchanges with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Assistant General Counsel Kimberly Haynes and, especially, MPS General Counsel Jamie Jonassen in late October 2026, further evidence of the disrespectful public posture of the deceitful MPS Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams administration became evident.
After twelve years of receiving a bevy of data requests without financial imposition, I received in the course of these message exchanges word from Jonassen that as of June 2026 MPS Data Requests has been charging for all data requests that take five or more minutes to compile.
My most recent data request was for an update of Davis Center (MPS central offices) staff by position and salary, a request such as I have made many times in the course of my dozen years of intensive investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools. Typically, Human Resources staff member Scott Weber has replied to this request within a day of two, at times within five minutes of issuing the request. In the latter cases, Weber must have been stationed at his desk as the request came in, he touched cursor to screen for information readily available, and I had the information requested within five minutes. This raises one of many questions in the current unseemly episode as to why my latest request takes even five minutes to compile.
But the more important issue concerns the change in position during the Sayles-Adams administration from those taken during the MPS administrations of Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson (2010-2015), Interim Superintendent Michael Gore (2015-2016), Superintendent Ed Graff (2016-2022), and Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox. The City of Minneapolis does not charge for data requests that would total $30.00 in staff time; for Hennepin County the figure is $50,00. These seem reasonable stances for governmental entities that present as public servants, so that they charge only for those public data requests that actually do involve elevated staff time. As a further example, I cite the Minnesota Department of Education, which has always responded to my data requests with enormous courtesy and without charge.
Staff members of the Minneapolis Public Schools whose prime responsibility is to respond to data requests make salaries in excess of $100,000; Jonassen, who does have multiple responsibilities as the district’s highest legal official, receives over $200,000 in annual salary. Since the prime official responsibility of Kimberly Haynes and others at MPS Data Requests is to respond to public data requests, if district staff truly considered themselves public servants, charges even for requests involving elevated staff time would be rendered gratis.
But the Minneapolis Public Schools administration under Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams maintains a pretense of transparency and public responsiveness while in various ways acting deceptively and counter to the public good. I have presented the evidence for this disregard for public benefit and lack of the public servant attitude at many places on this blog.
Read now the latest material demonstrating the deception and public neglect that characterizes the Sayles-Adams administration in the articles below from this December 2027 edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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