Education Day - Leadership Twin Cities

Education Day

March 8, 2018

Patrick Henry High School

Yusuf Abdaullah, principal of Patrick Henry High School in North Minneapolis, welcomed the group to his school. He stressed the importance of being involved in the community he serves and partnering with the families of his students, referred to as scholars. He mentioned that a lot of times the adults have just as many crises as the scholars which require him to be active in problem-solving. A week before our visit, the school was involved in a “Code Red” threat when a person with a weapon entered the high school while being pursued by the police. Fortunately, the incident resolved itself with no injuries, but it disrupted the day of the entire school, its scholars, and families.

Michelle Walker, Executive Director of Generation Next, spoke about Minnesota’s achievement gap. Minnesota leads the nation in the disparity of school success rates by white students and students of color. She said there are a lot of educational organizations in Minneapolis and her organization is trying to convene and connect them while analyzing and applying their efforts. One area of controversy is school choice as it is causing pockets of self-segregated schools. Walker stated, “the achievement gap is a product of institutional racism,” and summed up, she said Generation Next is supporting the education system.

Josh Downham, Director of Government Relations at Minneapolis Public Schools, talked about school funding. He lobbies on behalf of the district which receives $6,200 per student annually. He said under 60% of students receive free or reduced lunch for the first time in decades as fewer parents are submitting information in fear of repercussions around the uncertainty with the DACA program nationally. Additionally, many students choose to leave MPS for suburban school districts under the open-enrollment option. Downham also believes the minimum wage law will negatively affect the district around transportation, already a major school expense, when salaries rise, causing the price of transportation services to rise.

Superintendents Ed Graff, Minneapolis Public Schools, and Joe Gothard, St. Paul Public Schools, presented together about the state of the districts. Earlier in the week, they had to make a decision to shut down the school for a potentially major snowstorm that did not materialize as expected and they opened the presentation walking the audience through the process of receiving a text message on Sunday morning to making the final call to cancel school. This is in the context that earlier this school year, schools were not let out during a storm that caused some students to be stuck on school buses late into the evening. Both superintendents explained how the school systems have strong traditions but are in major need of an academic overhaul as some standards have not changed since the 1950’s. Funding is always a source of contention as the needs of students change, especially in the area of special education.

Betrand Weber, self-described “Minneapolis head lunch lady,” delivered an impactful presentation on the state of food in the school system. He described his experience of being a parent of a student with type 1 diabetes at a local school district. One day he went with his son to lunch to help him pick the right foods to eat. He became a “pissed off parent” after he saw the district feeding its children sugar and refined carbohydrates as the base of every meal. Weber left his job in hospitality and after working at another school district now heads up Minneapolis Public School’s culinary department. In his time on the job, he has transformed the organization into an organization serving pre-packaged food to making food from scratch with quality and nutritious ingredients. He has accomplished this transformation while still serving meals on a budget of $1.20 by getting very creative about sourcing and partnering with new suppliers. Weber is an inspirational leader who has worked within the restraints of his role and figured out a way to achieve his vision through grit and creativity.

In the afternoon, a panel on perspectives in education was moderated by Dane Smith of Growth & Justice. Dan Sellers of EdAllies talked about addressing the lack of diversity in teachers and the discipline/suspension disparity among white students and students of color which are primarily based on subjective measures, rather than objective measures. Sellers also explained how he and his organization ask the question, “where are the dollars going?” referring to education funding. Holly Kragthrope of Educators for Excellence said currently many students and families are in fear and are hiding because the uncertainty of DACA is top of mind. She commented that there is a school to prison pipeline and union leadership is run by a few people without a lot of outreach to its membership. Maria Le of Central Park Elementary in Roseville said, “we need to change the narrative around public education.” She said there are hidden things to put down communities of color and that decisions are being made for educators without their input. Paul Winkelaar of Education Minnesota, said “we drastically need more funding.” He would like to move education policy from capitals to schools and budgeting based on real local needs.

To end the afternoon, a panel of Patrick Henry High School scholars answered questions and gave insights on their perspective. PHHS has 1,100 students, 50% are African American, 30% are Hmong, 10% are white and they have a growing Latino and Somali population. They shared some myths they believe are being shared about their school. “We’re not all violent, students don’t carry guns.” “We’re not lazy, most students are active in organizations and activities.” “We’re not dumb, our school is second in the district for graduation rate.” Then they told the group some of the things they would like to see in the education system. “We want life skills like how to cook, how to do my taxes, how to sew.” “We want smaller class sizes.” “We need more support, rather than just being punished.”