[Mpls] MPS School District

[Robin Halloum]

I'm a resident in the Longfellow Neighborhood and our daughter attends Hiawatha School. We are experiencing some major upheavals and changes in our area that needs attention. Hiawatha School lost its strong principal one year ago right at budget time. A time when one really needs a seasoned principal to negotiate with the district. And now all of the other experienced principals in three of our four local community schools will be gone by next year. I just learned that Sanford Middle School principal, Dr. Barbara Muir, who is an incredibly smart, articulate, strong leader will be gone as well. (Banneker will be the lucky recipient of her expertise.) What are the chances that this area will receive strong principals with a community vision and the experience necessary to get us through these extremely unstable times? And not first time principals? It just seems like a way too convenient way for the District's to make the changes it wants to make in this area and keep the community at bay. First time principals are under a lot of pressure and are under constant review by the district. They are usually pretty reluctant to buck the system, question, or make a stand.   I'm afraid that this does not bode well for the Longfellow neighborhood. I am so disappointed with the way we are being treated by the Minneapolis district. For example, Hiawatha School is losing a kindergarten class next year. The District held off sending new K families to our school because they were saving space for Baneker students to go to Hiawatha School. Which never materialized and Hiawatha lost out big time. We lost our second kindergarten classroom. The District's response has been we're very sorry. I recognize that things happen that are out of the District's control and intentions were good. It is just that we need more than we're sorry. We need this classroom reinstated; it affects enrollment for next year and our school�s viability as a whole. It is hard not to to feel like we're getting the shaft in this part of town and our concerns are not taken seriously. And it is hard not to wonder if a separate district over here should not be considered. Who knows at this point? I do want to stress that I believe Superintendent Carol Johnson is a gift to the Minneapolis Public School district. She really is a fantastic superintendent. She has a huge organization to run and it isn�t easy. She cares deeply that all of Minneapolis children's receives a quality education and is very smart to boot. I just wish we could clone her. We sincerely need more of her throughout our district. It doesn't seem like management, facility folks, area superintendents share the same vision as our Superintendent. And this must change. I do encourage all to attend the last of the district sponsored "East Area Small Schools Task" Monday, May 20th at 6:30 P.M. at the Sullivan Communication Center, 3100 E. 28th Street, 668.5000. Too be honest, I have not heard much good about this process from its attendees. We really do need the community, school board directors as well as other community members support on this one. I want to thank school board director, Judy Farmer, for attending these meetings as well as other community members, such as, Rep. Jim Davnie. A final thought, and this has been weighing heavily on my mind.  I think community schools, particularly community Middle Schools, are not supported as well as magnet schools and this does not make sense to me. Is it right that we allow far and wide expensive bussing for magnet schools and shrink community schools attendance boundaries? Are we really saving significant costs? We are already six million dollars above budgeted transportation costs. This is money that could go directly into educating our children. Why not make all schools as attractive as magnet schools? Extended, expensive bussing from one end of town to the other should only be allowed for "The Choice Is Yours Program". [The Choice is Yours Program is a program developed out of the NCAAP settlement with the MPS District].  Our transportations costs are outrageous and unreasonable.  I do not believe magnet schools have more diversity or students who qualify for "free and reduced lunch" than community schools. If the MPS District really wants to save real money it needs to be able to make some gutsy changes and look at the "white elephant" in our district ~ the magnet schools and their transportation costs. These are not easy times and I wish the district well. Robin Halloum