6:00 to 8:00 PM at New Creation Church in north Minneapolis. All 8 candidates
were invited to participate. The lead organizer offered to communicate written
responses to 5 moderated questions to the audience, either having the answers
read aloud or distributed in writing.
Sponsors ISAIAH, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, and Minneapolis Rising
Below is the text of an email to the forum organizer, with courtesy copies to
the other candidates, with light editing. I will pass on the updated version to
the organizer:
Written answers to moderated questions from Doug Mann, who will not attend the
forum
Oct. 26, 2016 MPS Candidate Forum Moderated Questions (up to 2 minutes per
answer):
β’ Democratic Governance: How can MPS ensure that the voices of
students, staff, families and the community get heard and respected in
decision-making, both within the actual school sites and at the District level?
What will you do on the MPS Board to create better interaction, inclusion and
connection with students, staff, families, community in Board work and
decision-making?
We need schools that work for everyone, not just the privileged few.
What we need is governance based on equitable principles. The district has long
maintained a large pool of newly hired teachers, to save money, and this has a
disparate impact on students of color. This is recognized as a violation of
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Where their is an injury, there must
be a remedy. The district must take the steps necessary to shrink its pool of
newly hired teachers, reduce exposure of students to inexperienced teachers and
bring teacher turnover rates to low levels in all schools.
β’ School Resource Officers: The discourse around police in schools is
becoming increasingly more public as the broader movement for police
accountability grows exponentially in our nation. Considering the thoughts and
experiences of students, families, and staff across racial identities, do you
support SROs as a component of ensuring a positive and safe school climate?
Why/Why not?
Police should not be embedded in the schools. They must be called in to
the schools to deal with crimes against folks on school property. Other than
that, police should not have any thing to do with enforcement of disciplinary
policy. The district has policies that marginalize and criminalize students
without amplifying that effect with harsh disciplinary policies. [For example]
The district has failed to evaluate ability grouping practice as required under
Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]. The district has segregated
students labeled as having emotional behavorial disorders into EBD rooms and
into detention facilities within the district.
β’ Student Support Staff: Budgetary analysis shows that students with
physical, emotional, and cultural barriers to learning get very low levels of
professional support in Minneapolis and throughout the state relative to
similar schools across the nation. In addition, high turnover for support
staff in some of our most challenging learning environments makes it impossible
to provide a stable and nurturing environment for students with the highest
needs. Do you believe we should change our approach to providing adequate and
stable support staff in Minneapolis Public Schools and, if so, how?
Yes. How? I need to know what is driving the high turnover among support
staff. I need to see data about separation of employment: firings before and
after probation, quits, layoffs. Based on testimony from employees at school
board meetings, I get the impression that the district often violates due
process rights. I question whether employees can challenge an unfair
evaluation. There are work evaluations that are unfair on their face, e.g., not
constructive. Do support staff in the more challenging learning environments
get enough support? Is high exposure of students to newly hired and less
experienced, less qualified teachers making the job tougher in those tough
schools environment.
β’ Special Education / Disciplinary Practice: Given the
disproportionately high number of non-white students in special education, what
changes would you make to ensure that we remove racial bias from the process of
identifying special education needs? Once students are so labeled, many end up
on a track toward being excluded and eventually dropping out. Many end up in
the criminal justice system. What additional resources and learning
opportunities could MPS provide to help these students discover their potential
brilliance?
To the greatest extent possible, Special Ed students should be
assigned to mainstream classrooms, with appropriate services and in-classroom
support. Special Ed is too often used as a dumping ground for students who are
overexposed to inexperienced teachers and watered-down curriculum. That
[adversely] affects self-esteem, motivation to learn, and conduct. We need more
support staff to help integrate students identified with Emotional-Behavioral
Disorder into mainstream classrooms.
β’ Teacher Diversity: 16% of teachers in Minneapolis are teachers of
color, while students of color represent 67% of the student body.
Unfortunately, this racial disparity can result in implicit bias, limited
curriculum choice, punitive discipline, and distrustful relationships between
students and teachers. What specific commitments and/or policies would you
propose to diversify the teaching force in MPS as well as make our district a
model in equitable practices? What can be done to promote teacher diversity
either at a district- or state-level?
Why the lack of diversity? Too little hiring and / or poor retention? I
can only speculate, though I have studied the issue long enough to make some
educated guesses I want data from the Human Resources / Personnel Department
which it should be collecting and braking down for the district's affirmative
action plan. Is the district attracting a diverse pool of applicants, and is
there evidence of racial bias in the hiring process (e.g., a larger share of
white applicants getting job offers, or getting job offers earlier in the
hiring season). Are teachers of color more often assigned to schools with
adverse working conditions that could motivate them to quit, along with a
greater risk of getting "laid off" or fired.
-Doug Mann, Folwell