Article #3 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< Volume XI, Number Five, November 2024

Information from the Website of Lara Bergman (Candidate for District 6 Seat)

 

Lara Bergman’s Website

 

Hi! I’m Lara Bergman and I’m an early childhood educator, MPS parent, and proud MPS alum.

District Six is home to me. I grew up in the Kingfield neighborhood while attending Audubon (now Lake Harriet Lower) and moved to the Windom neighborhood where I attended 3rd-8th grade before attending South High. My two children now attend Armatage.

 

My unique set of skills, passion and experience has prepared me to be the kind of leader our community needs right now. I’ve been an educator for over 15 years and have in-depth experience with education policy, board governance, and working with an equity lens.

I’m honest, transparent, and committed to building bridges within our district to ensure a strong and thriving future for Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

I have a demonstrated history as a champion for education and our city.

 

·       Master of Arts in Education, St. Catherine University

·       Early Childhood Montessori Teaching Credential, American Montessori Society

·       Over 15 years of experience in early childhood environments, including Head Start

·       Adjunct faculty, St. Catherine University

·       Vice President and Equity Committee Chair, Armatage PTA

·       Armatage Neighborhood Association, board member and volunteer

·       Cathedral Hill Montessori Board Chair

·       Early Childhood Policy Certificate, Humphrey School for Public Affairs

·       Equity and Diversity Certificate, University of Minnesota

·       Embracing Equity Leadership Residency

·       BUILD Initiative Early Childhood Workforce Fellow, Department of Human Services

·       School Board Finance Certificate, Georgetown University

·       Organized MPS families advocating for historic funding from the legislature during the 2023 session

 

My time as the chair of the board at CHMS gave me in-depth experience with effective board governance. Under my leadership, we engaged in strategic planning, the hiring of a new school leader, and challenging financial decisions at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Every milestone demonstrated that having clear values and a commitment to our shared vision were essential in navigating these challenges as one board, and one community.

 

My time on the neighborhood board showed me that persistence, collaboration and community engagement are key to getting things done. By engaging with leaders from the neighborhood, City, County & Park Board, I garnered enough support for the upcoming installation of a crosswalk in our neighborhood making access to our school and park safer for everyone.

 

I’m running for school board so I can hold our public school system accountable to its stated goal of providing a high quality, anti-racist, culturally responsive education for every Minneapolis student.

My name is Lara Bergman. I’m an early childhood educator, MPS parent and proud MPS alum.

 

I grew up in Minneapolis.

 

I grew up in the Kingfield neighborhood while attending Audubon (now Lake Harriet Lower) and moved to the Windom neighborhood where I attended 3rd-8th grade before attending South High. Ask me about sledding at Lyndale-Farmstead Park, eating ice cream at Sebastian Joe’s in Linden Hills or what color the Lake Harriet Bandshell should be and I will tell you. I will also tell you that I am proud to be a product of public school. I had great experiences and great teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools I attended. I developed my sense of compassion and a deep acceptance for difference because of experiences at Windom. I developed lifelong friendships through band, cross country running and theater at South. When I reflect on who I am today, I am grateful for the education I got both in and outside the classroom.

 

I’m raising my kids in District Six.

 

When my husband and I were deciding where to put down roots, we knew we wanted to stay in Minneapolis. We moved into the Armatage neighborhood when my oldest was four months old and on the first night in our house I remember hearing the clink ring through our windows of baseballs on aluminum bats from the park across the street. We were home. Our kids are spending their formative years developing a strong sense of place in some of the same spaces I did. I love getting to recreate childhood memories with my own children. Ten years later and our kids are now in 2nd and 4th grade at Armatage. I know that ALL families in Minneapolis want great schools, opportunities for enriching extracurriculuar activities and a safe place to play.

 

I’ve dedicated my life to children.

 

I’ve loved working with kids for as long as I can remember. Ask my sister and she will tell you how we spent countless hours playing “school” in our upstairs hallway growing up. It wasn’t until I become an Americorps member serving as an early literacy tutor in college that I knew I had found my calling. I went on to receive my Montessori teaching credential in 2011 and Master's in Education in 2014 from St. Catherine University in St Paul. For over 15 years I worked in early childhood classrooms as a teacher (with the exception of one year when I taught at an International Montessori school in Thailand) and what I’ve found is that in supportive environments all children can thrive and reveal their brilliance. This is why children will always be at the center of what I do.

 

As a CARE Fellow during Minnesota’s 2023 legislative session I organized efforts to advocate for historic investment for both early childhood and public education. It was after that experience that I felt the call to have a bigger impact on the systems impacting children and families, so I left the classroom for a job at the state. My work at the Department of Human Services focused on building relationships with communities to inform how Minnesota is building an equitable early childhood system and addressing compensation for the early childhood workforce. Through it all, I feel lucky to do what I love and that the work I get to do has a real impact on children and their futures.

As an educator, I’ve also experienced the challenges of systems that undervalue the critical work we do. I understand the need for systemic changes to funding for education, accountability to the children and families we serve, and the importance of community coming together so that our students have what they need both in and outside the classroom.

 

Equity is embedded into everything I do.

 

When I began teaching full-time for a Head Start program in Iowa City after college, I saw firsthand the challenges facing children and families experiencing poverty. After returning to Minneapolis a couple years later, I worked in a Montessori school near the University of Minnesota campus and realized certain educational opportunities are only available to certain kinds of families. That’s not okay. Now as a parent of school-aged children, I see the same inequities playing out in our public schools. Right now race and zip code can too often be used to determine a child’s experiences, opportunities and success in school.

 

What I’ve come to understand in my lifelong journey of interrogating systems that perpetuate these inequities is that disrupting them and ultimately working to dismantle them benefits EVERYONE. As a trained racial equity facilitator, I have led honest conversations about equity as part of the Armatage PTA, Armatage Neighborhood Association Board, and chair of a nonprofit Montessori preschool in St. Paul. I also organized a network of over 100 Montessori educators in early 2020 dedicated to anti-biased and anti-racist practices in schools. Always committed to learning, I am currently participating in an Embracing Equity Leadership Residency that equips leaders in Minnesota to build equity into organizational climate, culture, systems and structures.

 

 

What I’m Running For

Collectively, we’ve been through a lot in recent years: a global pandemic, a national reckoning with racism, redistricted school boundaries and a historic teacher’s strike. Trust needs to be rebuilt between our families, teachers and the district with earnest efforts to repair the hurt and harm that has been caused. I commit to doing this through proactive and responsive communication, a commitment to strong governance, equitable decision-making and academic excellence.

Strong Governance

 

I’m clear on the role of a school board director: a) we partner with our superintendent to ensure our policies are implemented with fidelity so our strategic goals for student outcomes are met, and b) we monitor and plan for the financial health of our district. An effective school board member understands their role to be one that listens to diverse constituent voices and considers the impact of decisions on the children we serve. As a board director, you can always count on me to be honest, transparent and act with integrity while working to build consensus across the board and district when faced with hard decisions.

 

Sustainable Future

 

Looking at a $110 million deficit, MPS made devastating cuts across our district for the upcoming school year with no clear plan for the long-term sustainability of our schools. There's no doubt that school district finances are complex, but the reason we got here is because there has been a lack of leadership willing to make hard decisions that account for the reality that we have been spreading our resources too thin for too long. I know that in order to have a system of well-resourced schools where all kids are getting what they need, MPS needs to immediately reduce our spending to be financially sound. Asking the state to close the funding cross subsidies is an important long-term strategy, but we have to be able to demonstrate we are smart with the funding we have now.

Safe Schools

 

Every student’s physical and mental well-being is an integral part of their education. Our schools need to be places where they feel safe showing up as who they are. Our neighborhoods need to be places our children can thrive outside of the school day. I will build bridges with partners at the state, county and city level to ensure we’re all focused on the holistic needs of our students and their families and listen deeply to the community voices advocating for what they need.

 

Excellent Instruction

 

Schools should be places where children go to be curious and find their passions while receiving excellent instruction in core curriculum areas. My number one priority when elected to the board will be to advocate that resources be directed to urgently address reading achievement in MPS, aiming to drastically increase the proficiency levels for BIPOC students. Access to high-quality, evidence-based instruction that teaches kids how to read by 3rd grade is critical if we expect them to be successful later in school and in life. We also need equitable access to advanced coursework, STEM, Arts and CTE experiences because every student’s brilliance is uniquely their own. Integral to this vision are teachers that are supported, respected and empowered to do their best work. At the end of the day, we all need to be held accountable for the outcomes of our students.

 

Children are creative, wise and hopeful. As the adults in the room, we have to lead with the same kind of hope that a better future is possible because the children are counting on us. I believe that we can come together as a community to address our budget crisis, establish innovative long-term solutions, and support our students and teachers to create a culture of joy and abundance in every school.