Absence of Cynical Optimists
When a good friend visited Barbara and
me in early October 2025, in the course of our conversation he remarked upon my
optimistic spirit. The comment was interesting because my part in the
conversation had included some very dire observations about current life in the
USA and, inevitably, especially, the state of public education broadly and with
regard to my well-studied case of the Minneapolis Public Schools in
particular.
I would
indeed not be likely to write a scathing analysis or generate a bleak fictional
tale without providing possibility for a favorable outcome. And so
was this view clearly presented in Nativity 2025, written by this
cynical optimist.
Folks
seemed to have appreciated my direct stare into the moral morass but relieved
and even uplifted with the ultimate clear reason for hope.
Reviewing
the events of my life, and especially the work that has been my great
commitment, this is the spirit in which all endeavors have ensued.
...........................................................................
Tuesday (6
January 2025) was a day in which the spirit of note was at work in overdrive.
The event
was the scheduled 5:00 to 6:00 PM annual organizational meeting of the
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education, in which the Board elects
officers, decides on committee assignments, sets the calendar for the new year,
and votes on a few typically routine resolutions.
Current
officers of the MPS Board of Education include
>>>>> Collin
Beachy (At-Large), Chair
>>>>> Kim
Ellison, (At-Large), Vice-Chair
>>>>> Lori
Norvell, (District 5 [South Minneapolis]), Clerk
>>>>> Abdul
Abdi, (District 1 [Northeast Minneapolis], Treasurer.
Other
members of the Board include
>>>>> Joyner
Emerick (At-Large)
>>>>> Sharon
El-Amin (District 2 [North Minneapolis])
>>>>> Lisa
Skjefte, (District 3 [Cedar Riverside])
>>>>> Adriana
Cerrillo (District 4 [Bryn Mawr and Uptown])
>>>>> Greta
Callahan, (District 6 [Southwest Minneapolis]).
I had
maintained some hope that the Board would oust Norvell and Beachy.
Norvell,
as clerk, keeps time (actually calls time; Communications Executive
Director Donnie Belcher watches the clock) on what putatively are Public
Comments limited to two minutes. But Norvell inevitably cuts me off
when I typically make an unfavorable comment about Superintendent Lisa
Sayles-Adams in my waning five seconds--- but with great regularity
also gives others as much as twice the allotted time. Once,
tellingly, for a member of the public favorable toward the Board, Norvell
invited the commenter to take an extra spot, in place of a friend of like
favorable views who had registered but not shown up.
Beachy is
a miserable chair, overseeing the activity of a Board that demonstrates no
interest in proficiency rates as measure by the Minnesota Comprehensive
Assessments (MCAs); has failed to address the issue of building
usage (empty spaces at sites wherein low enrollment by comparison to capacity
abides); and has created a Board room aura that is dictatorial and
lifeless, with diminishing attendance and for the first time in my eleven-year
period of intensive investigation into the inner workings of the district
featured fewer than the allotted number of 25 public commentators (recently, as
few as two and on more than one occasion only eight). Beachy urges
other Board members to be brief in their remarks but then presides over a
meeting that sometimes does not reach 8:00 PM (official scheduled closing time
is 9:30 PM, but in days of yore there were lively meetings that went to 10:00
PM, 11:00 PM, and on at least one memorable occasion past 12:00 midnight.
Kim
Ellison is a perennially (she has now been on the Board for 14 years) weak
member, but she does little harm as vice-chair.
Abdul Abdi
is fine as treasurer.
But
Norvell and Beachy needed to go.
Who would
take their place did raise questions, but no one could be worse.
Sharon
El-Amin had a very mixed legacy during her year as chair, and she was even less
knowledgeable of Roberts’s Rules of Order than Beachy (who has a weak grasp).
Callahan
could probably do a serviceable job but apparently could not or did not attempt
to garner the votes.
Abdi would
be an excellent chair on the basis of ability but has some limitations as to
fluid English.
Skjefte is
frequently absent and is taciturn.
Cerrillo
is absent even more and often makes embarrassingly ill-informed remarks.
Ellison
has chaired before and is highly decent at the mechanics of the
post.
But any of
these people would have been preferable to Norvell and Beachy.
When time
came to make nominations, though, Callahan recommended the current
slate. Beachy, Ellison, Norvell, and Abdi were reappointed on a
unanimous (7-0; Cerrillo was absent yet again, as was [atypically
and a bit mysteriously Abdi]) vote.
That such
a vote should occur to include the reappointment of Beachy and Norvell signals
now the heightened truth of my, “No Hope!” exclamation.
The
meeting was an astonishingly short twelve (12) minutes in duration, with all
other votes also proceeding quickly (including assignment to committees, which
in the past have at times been contended and even contentious).
And yet,
in Gary Marvin Davison fashion, I maintain hope for the future, either in a
near-miraculous overhaul of the current Board and the jettisoning of
Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams; or over the longer term at that
temporal juncture at which the second edition my Understanding the
Minneapolis Public Schools: Current Condition, Future Prospect schlocks,
docks, and rocks enough members of the public, especially under conditions in
which the very existence of public education is sufficiently threatened to
awaken an inert and mostly ignorant public.
Viva
cynical optimism!!!!!
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