I moved here from Chicago. Except for a handful of boutique magnet schools, The Chicago schools system was universally considered to be a disaster, and all across the city those who could put their pennies together got their kids enrolled in Catholic schools.
Watching what has been going on in Longfellow, I am concerned that the Minneapolis schools system could be lurching in the same direction. To explore why I am concerned about the future of Minneapolis community schools, I would like to take a look at what has been going on in Longfellow. Everybody knows about the colossal and short-lived Minneapolis-wide proposal to close nine schools, including three in Longfellow I would like to go back one step to an earlier proposal launched last fall to close two Longfellow schools. Last fall, the Minneapolis school system proposed to close Howe elementary school and Sanford junior high, and combine the Howe and Hiawatha elementary school populations into a K-8 housed at Hiawatha. (I won't bore people with the details of the different proposals) When I heard of these plans, I went to a Howe PTA meeting, and asked school officials if there were any parents or neighbors involved in developing these proposals. I was told no. I believe that this lack of involvement by parents and neighbors in developing the proposals had dire consequences, because the school system miscalulated in at least two key areas: The school system knew nothing of the passion and zeal the Dowling gardeners have for their plots of land. One school proposal had a new school building landing on the Dowling gardens the way Dorothy's house landed on the wicked witch of the east. The Dowling gardeners swarmed out like a nest of angry hornets, and the school system quickly beat a hasty retreat and dropped that particular proposal. The other miscalulation was their underestimation of the passionate commitment Sanford parents have for their school. Because these school closures would have such a profound affect on the neighborhood, the Longfellow Community Council decided to organize a public meeting on the proposals. There were almost a dozen different constituencies who each had a different stake in what happened. There were the parents, staff, and students of Howe, Hiawatha, Dowling, and Sanford schools. In addition we had the Dowling gardeners, the Hiawatha park boosters, the Somali parents, and the neighbors of the four affected schools. To make the the situation even more confusing, there were splits in the Dowling gardeners, and among the Howe and Hiawatha parents. My gut was that maybe a little over half of the Howe parents were in favor of the K-8, along with about 3/4 of the Hiawatha parents. About 40 people were involved in planning this schools meeting. The vast majority of the planners were from one of these constituencies. Longfellow Community Council's goal for the meeting was to get the community's opinion on the school system's proposal, and to find out what other ideas the neighborhood wanted to explore The people involved in planning the meeting were sharp, dedicated, and hardworking. At the same time most of the people were trying to make sure that the neighborhood meeting helped, or at least did not hurt, the objectives of their constituency. It was a constant struggle to keep the meeting true to the original goal, and not end up lurching in the direction of one constituency or another. More than once the room was filled with arguments, anger, and tears. It was the most difficult neighborhood meeting I have ever been involved in. And if there were these many problems just in pulling off this one meeting, I can only imagine how exponentially greater is the challenge for the Minneapolis school system in satisfying the wants and needs of the Longfellow students, parents, and neighbors. What happened was this: a net majority of Howe and Hiawatha parents wanted their combined K-8. But because the creation of the Howe-Hiawatha K-8 was tethered to shutting Sanford, the Howe and Hiawatha parents could get what they want only by closing Sanford. The Sanford parents were absolutely energized and united in defending their school, and the only way they could save their school was by torpedoing the Howe-Hiawatha K-8. All the proposals were voted down, and in effect the wishes of the Howe-Hiawatha parents were overruled by the Sanford supporters. I think there is something wrong when well-meaning parents are artificially pitted against each other like this. And these people are friends and neighbors, and sometimes the same family has kids in Howe, Hiawatha, and Sanford. When the Minneapolis school system debuted its Terminator II plan to reorganize the Minneapolis schools, three of the four Longfellow community elementary schools were slated for demolition. Absolutely everybody I talked to opposed the plan, and many of the parents said they were pulling their kids out of the Minneapolis school system - to private schools, charter schools, St. Paul, the suburbs. Had the plan been enacted, I think maybe a third of the Howe, Hiawatha and Cooper students would have left the system. I also heard several people remark that they thought all these Longfellow school closings in Terminator II were retaliation for Longfellow's refusal to bow to earlier school system proposals. And even with the plans in temporary remission, some parents are pulling their kids out of the community schools. One parent said to me "Maybe the school system has no choice, and maybe in a few years Minneapolis schools will again be strong and stable. But there is going to be turmoil the next few years, and I just am not willing to subject my child to this." I think that the root of the failure of the Howe/hiawatha/Sanford proposal was the failure of the school system to listen to and involve parents and neighbors in the planning of the proposals. I know that school board member Denny Schapiro is one person in the school system who can ask good questions and really listen. I think of how differently things might have worked out in Longfellow if someone with the ears of Denny Schapiro had first gone out to meet with the different constituencies concerned with the future of Longfellow-area schools, and asked questions, maybe thrown out some ideas, and really listened to what people had to say. I think that Denny would almost certainly have picked up that Dowling Gardens was a landmine that the school system might not want to step on. I think he would also probably would have picked up that there was a lot of fighting spirit among the Sanford parents and staff, and that tethering the Howe-Hiawatha K-8 to the closing of Sanford would put everything that the school system was trying to do in Longfellow at risk. I think that had the schools system really listened to Longfellow parents, they would have realized that they should have separated the issue of the Howe-Hiawatha K-8 from the issue of the future of Sanford. Let the Howe and Hiawatha parents decide for themselves whether they wanted their K-8. Then the school system could have said to the Sanford parents something like this: "We need improvements in areas A, B, and C, and we need to reach attendence levels of Q. We are ready to work with you. We need to reach these levels in, say, three years, or we may have to take drastic measures." And all that drive shown by Sanford parents in defending their school could be thrown into building up the school. It might have been tough - Howe and Hiawatha are feeders for Sanford, but not the only ones. But I saw the drive and energy and imagination at Sanford, and I think they would have seized the challenge. And I heard Sanford leaders say they had no problem with the Howe-Hiawatha K-8 per se, they just wanted to defend their own school. By not listening first - and I mean really listening, and not just hearing what one wants to hear - the school system missed absolutely critical information, and not having that critical information ultimately doomed their Longfellow plan. My experience with this Longfellow schools meeting also acquainted me with another major challenge facing Minneapolis public schools: Sanford has a significant population of Somali students. Sanford has a number of special programs that the Somalis use, such as English as a Learning Language. The Somalis were concerned that if Sanford was closed and the students scattered, then there would not be a high enough number of Somali students in any one place, and that they would lose access to these programs. I saw this same concern arise a few years ago at Edison. Edison was considered the defacto Hmong magnet school. The district lines were redrawn, and many Hmong were concerned that a drop in numbers of Hmong students would lead to a loss of valued programs. This is a situation where the goals of not concentrating groups of students in a few schools flies in the face of achieving a great enough number of students to offer specialized programs. The situation is further complicated by the fact that immigrant parents who feel their needs are not being met can opt to open a charter school catering to, say, the Somali or Hmong or Latino community. When this happens, it is yet another draining of students from the Minneapolis public school system. These excruciatingly difficult situations are repeated all across Minneapolis. I have no magic answer, and my experience with the Longfellow schools meeting has left me with a sobering appreciation of the daunting task the Minneapolis school system faces. Watching what is going on in Longfellow, I am worried that we could be lurching towards a Chicago-style situation, where parents do whatever they can to avoid sending their children to community schools. I think that one absolutely necessary step to avoiding this scenario is for the Minneapolis school system to get out there and listen to and involve parents and neighbors. There will not be consensus, there will be passionate disagreements. In the end the Minneapolis school system will still have to show strong leadership and make difficult decisions that many will disagree with. But my experience in Longfellow tells me that if all the thinking and decision-making is top-down, the result could be parents pulling their kids out of the community schools in droves. Jay Clark Cooper P.S. I am sorry I did not send this in when this issue was on the front page and talked about on this list. It took me this long to sort out my thoughts and get them down on paper. P.P.S. I know that a few years ago there was a major effort by the school system to get Longfellow-area school supporters to come together and reach agreement on what to do with area schools. I was only tangentially involved. I think the effort was very well-meaning, but I think the problem was that they were trying to achieve consensus, which I am convinced is virtually impossible. 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. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ 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
