An Open Letter to Kimberly Haynes (Minneapolis Public Schools Data Privacy Director), with copies to Senior Human Resources Officer Alicia Miller, Human Resources Executive Director Scott Weber, Senior Finance Officer Ibrahima Diop, Administrator to the Superintendent and Board Ryan Strack, and General Counsel Jamie Jonassen

16 June 2025  >>>>>  Still seeking overdue, straightforward responses to Data Request #25-116 and Data Request #25-125

June 16, 2025

Kimberly---  

May this note find you off to a good start in the new work week.

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Thirty-one days have now passed since I issued Data Request #25-116, with twenty days having ensued since I issued Data Request #25-125.

Our spectacular annual New Salem Educational Initiative banquet will occur at midweek, so that no later than next week I will have even more ample time than usual for my 18-hour expenditure of activist energies to devote to this increasingly bizarre episode;  I'll be bringing governmental and, as necessary in the course of the summer, litigatory attention to requests that should have taken a competent administration only a day, two, or three to respond with the provision of four basic items of data.  

In the course of my eleven years of intensive investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools, I have usually held to the position that the departments within the Academic Division were disastrously ineffective, while the Human Resources Division and, especially, the Finance Division demonstrated a high degree of professional competence;  similarly, those in General Counsel and others responding to Data Requests have operated with clarity and responsiveness.  But under the current administration, these latter divisions and bureaucratic entities have become suspect, as well, thus likely to gain additional analytical examination in the second addition of Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect.

Please make every effort to secure clear responses to Data Request #25-116 and Data Request #25-125, giving just the numerical figures for the total of four very simple questions posed.

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Data Request #25-116 (16 May 2025)

According to your response to my Data Request #25-113, “Barring any further changes to the budget plan, there will be 585.3092 FTE assigned to Davis Center as of July 1, 2025.”

 

Given the above response, the essence of this 16 May 2025 Data Request, is as follows  >>>>>

 

>>>>>   Please answer the following question:  

 

Of the 585.3092 FTE that will be assigned to the Davis Center barring any further changes to the budget plan, how many will be filled by employees?

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Data Request #25-125 (27 May 2025)

 

Please provide clear answers to the following questions  >>>>>

 

>>>>>   How many staff members were working at the Davis Center as of 14 April 2025?

 

>>>>>   How many staff members were working at the Davis Center as of 13 May 2025?

 

>>>>>   How many staff members will be working at the Davis Center when FY26 Budget is finalized?

 

 

Note  >>>>>  Please answer the above questions directly and simply, not with reference to FTEs or with extraneous information, but as posed: 

 

Please give the number of staff members, as in people who were or would be working at the Davis Center on the given dates and when FY26 Budget is finalized if all staff members were present at the three given junctures.

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With best regards--- 

 

Gary 

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph.D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

2507 Bryant Ave North

Minneapolis    MN     55411

http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com

 

 

Author,

 

Understanding the Minneapolis Public Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect (New Salem Educational Initiative, second edition, 2025

Foundations of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education (New Salem Educational Initiative, 2022

A Concise History of African America (Seaburn, 2004)

The State of African Americans in Minnesota 2004 (Minneapolis Urban League, 2008)

The State of African Americans in Minnesota 2008 (Minneapolis Urban League, 2004) 

Tales from the Taiwanese (Libraries Unlimited, 2004)

A Short History of Taiwan:  The Case for Independence (Praeger, 2003

Culture and Customs of Taiwan ([with Barbara E. Reed] (Greenwood, 1998)

Agricultural Development and the Fate of Farmers in Taiwan, 1945-1990 (Minneapolis, Minnesota:  Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1993)

A World History:  Links Across Time and Place ([with six other authors] (McDougal Littell, 1988)