I was out of town for a couple days so I haven't had time to catch up on
all the schools posts. But I did
want to pick up on the comments about where my kids go to school.
>
I side with those who think this is a legitimate question to ask a
candidate for office so here's some background on our situation.
>
>My kids are going to a private school, which isn't what my wife and
I planned. We agree with the posters who talk about the benefits of
having kids in the Minneapolis schools, but we ended up with a
series of circumstances that led us to make a choice that didn't
reflect our values.
>
>People are going to have to make their own judgments about whether
this makes me less effective as a Mayor. But I disagree with those
who said my case reflects badly on the district: the circumstances
we faced, both with the lottery system and the school they were at,
have both been fixed, which says a lot about why the district is
getting better.
>
>-------------
>
>When our son was old enough we visited Minneapolis schools and found a lot
that we liked. But that was back when there were no community options and a
complicated lottery system that others have talked about in earlier posts.
We ended up not getting any of our three choices. (Two other schools on our
list we didn't apply to because we were told we couldn't get in.)
>We finally got him into a Minneapolis school that had some good
things going, but during the year he was there it went through some pretty
significant transition. The two programs that brought us to the
school were cut, the principals had changed a few times in the past few
years and now the school was
changing format. We had a great teacher and we were volunteering in
the classroom but it became pretty clear that the situation was
beyond our control.
>
>We felt stuck, not being able to get into the Minneapolis schools we
liked and being pretty uncomfortable with the one he was at. So the
best option we had was for him to go to the private school where my
mom was working.
>
>It has worked out pretty well for him and we haven't wanted to move him, or
our dauthter who now goes there, from a place where they are happy and have
friends. The biggest downside is that they aren't learning some of the
lessons that people on the list have been posting about. My
wife and I are going to keep trying to sort out the best options for
them and I'm not really sure where it will all end up as they get
older. I know this has political implications but I hope people can
respect that as we do that we are going to be paying more attention to our
job as parents...where ever that leads.
* One post asked what impact this will have on my ability to promote
the school system with businesses and others we want to bring to the
city. I have already done work in this area. I was part of the team
that presented a program to AT&T to adopt Rosevelt and worked with
the Youth Trust on developing curriculum partnerships between
Minneapolis businesses and Minneapolis schools. I would be more effective if
I could give more personal experience but I think
I have shown that I can do this well. If my personal case is raised
I will continue to say that the circumstances that led to our
decision have been changed by the district, which helps illustrate
why the schools are getting better.
>
>*Others have asked whether my personal situation lessens my
political support for the schools. I have been an active volunteer
in several school board campaigns and helped develop the communication
plan for the first school referendum.
>
>I will also continue to be active in trying to make sure every
neighborhood in the city has a community school option. I agree with
Lynnell's post that the move to community schools has been a great
decision for Minneapolis. This was not a popular stance a few years
back---in 1993 I wrote an opinion piece for the Star Tribune that
proposed community schools for integrated neighborhoods like
Whittier. That got a lot of criticism back then but it ended up to
be the right move. Much of the credit for the change in attitude
should go to Sharon, who showed leadership in coming out for that at
the time.
>
>Unfortunately there are still a handful of neighborhoods that don't
have this option. One of them is mine and I am a representative of
my neighborhood to the King Field-East Harriet community school
committee. Tom Streitz and a bunch of others deserve a lot of credit
for getting this started and, as Mayor, I will keep working on this.
---------------------------------
A postscript: This has been a great thread and, again, I think it's totally
in bounds to ask a candidate about this. But I did want to clear up one
point that seemed off the mark. One of the posts about this made some
connection between this and some personal quarrel between Lisa McDonald's
husband and I. I don't understand the connection, have no knowledge of any
problem between George and I, and caution list members to not pass along
this kind of rumor without checking with the people off line first.
R. T. Rybak
www.rtformayor.com
--
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