Neal St. Anthony's column in Tuesday's Star Tribune focused on relationships between Minneapolis Public Schools and local business leaders in the wake of the Jennings situation.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/4152383.html I personally found the following quote to be pretty enlightening: "Although life at the top of Cargill has its challenges, it pales compared to what you face managing a big urban school district," said [Cargill CEO Warren] Staley, whose wife and sister were both public school teachers. If the CEO of Cargill thinks he's got it easier than the superintendent of MPS, I think that says something about how realistic it is to believe that we can go out and find some magical candidate who is going to turn the school district around. I hope those who talk a lot about how important it is to get our schools back on the right track will start by sharing what they are doing to contribute. I've personally been volunteering with a bunch of other state employees for the past five years with the Everybody Wins! Power Lunch program at Franklin Music Magnet in St. Paul near where I work. Basically, what I do is serve as a "book buddy" - each fall term, I get partnered with a student and once a week, I visit them to have lunch together and then we spend the recess period reading together. Reportedly, Gov. Pawlenty will be participating this year. More information on the program is available at: http://www.everybodywins.org/ Franklin Music Magnet's successes are profiled on the Proven Results page: http://www.everybodywins.org/provenresults.php Pretty much everyone I know who has participated in Power Lunch finds it incredibly rewarding. Some of my friends who left state employment continued volunteering at Franklin until their book buddy went on to middle school. >From the web site, it appears there are Minneapolis schools that are involved with the Everybody Wins! program. Anyone know which ones? Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
