MPS passes equity and redistricting plan despite public outcry
Protestors, including civil rights leader Nekima Levy Armstrong (far right), rallied outside Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters last week before this past Tuesday’s board vote on the Comprehensive District Design. Photos by David Pierini
By David Pierini Staff Reporter
The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) board voted Tuesday to green light a controversial redistricting plan that administrators hope will address longstanding racial disparities and one of the country’s worst achievement gaps.
It’s a foundational first step, supporters say, in a long process that commits MPS to giving every kid in the city a quality education regardless of zip code, ethnicity, or family income.
The Comprehensive District Design (CDD) will shift resources to North Minneapolis and other long neglected parts of the city. The plan implements magnet programming in Bethune and Hall elementary schools and Franklin Middle School. North High School would become a tech center, with career training classes in coding, robotics and engineering.
In a conference call meeting streamed live, the board passed the CDD 6-3 despite fierce opposition and pleas to delay the vote until COVID-19 restrictions ease and public meetings could resume.
The CDD, designed by Superintendent Ed Graff and staff, is on track to be implemented during the 2021-22 school year, though economic uncertainties created by COVID-19 could delay parts of it.
For the second straight month, the MPS Board of Directors met and voted by a conference call streamed live because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I can not in good conscience delay this vote,” Director Kimberly Caprini said. “I have children that attended these schools and lived with the very disparities we are trying to solve. The CDD is the beginning of academic justice for a system that has failed black and brown children.”
Caprini joined Directors Kim Ellison, Jenny Arneson, Josh Pauly, Siad Ali and Nelson Inz in supporting the CDD. Directors Bob Walser, Ira Jourdain and KerryJo Felder cast no votes.
The CDD will attempt to redistribute resources more equitably by moving magnet programs to the center of the city and thus reduce transportation costs by $7 million as the district stares at a looming $20 million budget deficit (projected prior to the pandemic closing schools). Most of the magnet schools are located in the southern half of the city, where many critics of the CDD reside.
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers was against the CDD. MFT President Michelle Wiese said she was disappointed in the six directors who voted “against the desires of most of their constituents, to adopt a plan that fails to meet the urgent needs of the students.”
Wiese said the teachers union will push “to be co-creators at every step moving forward.”
Felder, who represents North Minneapolis, requested an independent equity audit of the plan, one of two motions attempting to delay the vote that failed. She said administrators offered no clarity over what the CCD will look like in each school or how they will come up with the millions of dollars they project will be needed to implement the CDD over the next five years.
Walser said the plan will hurt immigrant families whose children are thriving in their schools and believes the CDD will not deliver on equity. He said the presentation of recorded messages did not represent the amount of opposition to the plan, which he said was roughly 90 percent.
“We can say confidently that there is enormous opposition to the CDD, but what’s the story?” Walzer said. “There are important voices missing from the conversation. The CDD is speaking over and on behalf of the people it's purporting to help. What’s important is who gets to speak and who doesn’t. Some get to do all the talking. Others, not so much.”
Protestors drove by MPS headquarters last week to voice their opposition to the CDD.
One of the most poignant comments came from a board member who has no vote. Student representative Nathaniel Genene appreciated the weight on his fellow board members.
“This is really a conversation about how we can make sure every student gets a well-rounded education,” said Genene, a junior at Washburn High School. “This conversation has been going on long before my lifetime. Tonight we no longer ask when we are going to do something but how. Please engage students every step of the way. Put them at the forefront.”
In addition to structural changes the CDD contains wide ranging plans to bring academic rigor to all schools. It also envisions improvements to school environments, including culturally relevant programing and more support for teachers.
This, the district hopes, will slow the churn of students and teachers out of the district and improve test scores and graduation rates.
Yet many angry parents, predicting the outcome of the vote, said the CDD will speed up the exodus of students leaving the district in search of other schools.