Public Schools, I'm urging a vote today fo*r Dr. Castro, Ms. Kopp and Ms
Allen* for St Paul School Board. Both Castro and Kopp were endorsed by the
Star Tribune.
You can read more about each of them here
<https://www.minnpost.com/education/2019/08/ten-candidates-four-seats-a-preview-of-the-st-paul-school-board-race/>
:
These comments are based on 49 years that include being a St. Paul Public
School educator, advisory committee member at 2 SPPS schools, PTA president
at another SPPS school, *Pioneer Press* columnist from 1989-2004, parent of
3 youngsters who attended and graduated from SPPS, husband of a 33 year
SPPS teacher, researcher, project director of several foundation and
government funded projects with SPPS, SPPS Citizens Budget Committee member
and active DFL'er.
There are many reasons for doing this. The St. Paul Schools facilities
mess is one of them. Here’s a link to a Pioneer Press article about the
just released facilities report
<https://www.twincities.com/2019/10/22/st-paul-to-overhaul-school-construction-plans-after-179m-increase-on-18-projects/>
conducted
by an independent group.
Allen, Castro and Kopp also have a thoughtful approach to public school
choice. They recognize that that SPPS has much to do to find out what
thousands of St. Paul families - mostly low income and students of color,
are selecting charters.
A few points re the facilities fiasco
* The article (as well as my experience) make clear that the board failed
to ask critical questions as costs zoomed more than $179 MILLION above the
original budget for several of the constructio*n* projects.
* The district has retained as facilities director a person who repeatedly
harassed women
https://www.twincities.com/2019/05/03/st-paul-schools-facilities-director-tom-parent-women-complaints/
* Outside evaluators noted numerous mistakes in this huge project,
including failure to include a significant contingency fund, and failure to
include $ for furniture and other items needed as part of the upgrade
* The superintendent declined an offer of free help in reviewing the
facilities mess from the Commissioner of Education, despite a warning from
the Commissioner in Dec 2018 that district action on facilities "...undermines
the approval process and puts the district at risk of not being granted
levy authority for the projects if the Department determines later that
they don’t meet the statutory requirements.”
* The district has failed to follow through on the opportunity to create
more “community schools” (where schools share social service agencies)
which the unions strongly support and which has lots of research support.
Moreover, as I pointed out, the incumbents have not, despite promising to
do so 4 years ago, insisted that the district conduct a survey, using bi or
tri-lingual speakers, to determine why thousands of students have left SPPS
in the last few years. Moreover, state figures show the *vast majority of
the almost 15,000 students living in St Paul who are attending suburban
district or local chartered public schools are low income and students of
color.*
New school board members are not enough. But we need board members who are
more independent, who will insist on more effective performance. I’d be
glad to discuss this with anyone interested.
Thanks
Joe Nathan