There is much good in what Ms. Gallagher shares about her passion for her neighborhood and Keewaydin and Wenonah schools. There is much to be said in favor of supporting community building through schools. Having spent time in both Keewaydin and Wenonah schools, I see great strengths in both the specific buildings and the idea of small schools. I do not have to be convinced that those communities might benefit from a k-8 plan. The city will be a better place if the activist families can have schools they love.
That said, her postings provide a handy case-in-point for a discussion of public school governance. The abundance of misinformation that goes uncorrected and fuels community distrust does not bode well for public education here. I raise it in relation to the Wenonah-Keewaydin situation because it’s the issue on the table, but it is representative of much of what I saw during my years on the board.
Here are comments on a few items from Ms. Gallagher’s posts and the included Fridgen letter:
1.
-<<we attempted to get information from the district. To no avail. There seemed to be no paper trail of this mysterious group>>
There is a lot of information out there on the “mysterious group” AKA The East Area River Schools Task Force, including board action on the recommendations from it. It was a great example of quite the opposite of a “mysterious group.” It was a big, public, unwieldy, frequently convened and eventually indecisive group that tried to please everybody.
2.
-<< The East Area River Schools Task Force, including Sarah Snapp (Mpls school board member) as one of the facilitators .... (Dorie: Why did Sarah Snapp not step up with the information requested since she was the facilitator of the 2002 task force?>>
Sarah may have attended some meetings as a junior staff member (I don't know), but she was neither the facilitator nor a school board member. Since summer she has been leading the district’s communications department. I find it hard to believe anyone could think Sarah or anyone else did (or could) hide anything about the task force. Dozens of people were deeply involved in it. Its findings were part of the background the consultants considered. But they also were developed before the severity of the enrollment decline was known and used as a basis for planning.
3.
-<< now we are told our values don't matter..You wonder why people do not trust the district. I try to teach my children honesty, fairness and the importance of working together to solve problems. I think the district should be ashamed of its lack of candor.>>
The information was all out there. It is one thing to say that values matter. It is quite another to say that your values are the only values that matter.
For instance, there is a value of using all the district’s resources as efficiently as possible, of using resources for instruction not empty rooms, of convincing the public and legislators that they are not paying for unused space, of keeping a mix of social classes in the city schools.
“Honesty” and “fairness” may look somewhat different from different moral high grounds.
4. -<< the district's strongly supports the concept of small schools...>>
This is a fabrication During my time on the board, I several times spoke to the benefits of small schools with little support. Joseph Erickson was in partial support, talking about the benefits of small programs that foster learning communities, but he emphasized that they may be within larger buildings. I do not remember any other statement of support for small schools from the board or administration. There is no district policy or resolution of which I am familiar that is consistent with the statement.
5.
-<<Why did we waste money paying professionals to study the same thing within 2 years? What has been the cost to the taxpayers? Why is this not public information.>>
The items under study were different. One was East area, the other looked at the entire city.
The sources of funding have been made public. I don’t have all the information at hand, but as I remember it was a combination of federal and local grants and some state funding earmarked for facilities.
Why a facilitator? You need a facilitator when many assume that facts are being manipulated. When anything the board considers that differs from what a particular group wants is deemed deceit, you need to find an honest broker. Look at it as one of the economic costs of vigorous grassroots democracy.
6.
-<< Let's have some honest dialogue and representation with the taxpayer's elected employees..lest they forget why they are elected.>>
Board members are elected to serve a citywide public, to do the best by and for the entire community.
How quaint.
The center, perhaps, will no longer hold. The effectiveness of special interests (neighborhood, school, race, class, ethnic) in opposing decisions that do not serve particular interests, often using misinformation or intimations of misbehavior, is a fact of life in Minneapolis public education.
Support for dialog with a citywide “public” is not.
Final note:
Ms. Gallagher’s posts are merely typical of the level of discourse I heard on the board.
These sorts of posts, I think, are made acceptable by a sense that the district is made up of fools or knaves. Once that perception is legitimized by a few others -- this list, special interests, coffee klatches, local media -- it lends legitimacy to all sorts of irresponsible charges and lazy reporting. It doesn’t make sense for those in the district to respond to each allegation, but the end result is a sense of distrust based in substantial part on accumulated misinformation and indefensible opinion. It’s unhealthy for the city.
Is it possible that families that can do much to build strong schools will leave Keewaydin and Wenonah (and Waite Park) if they don’t get what they want? Absolutely, and that’ would be a loss to the city and young people. That scenario is important to consider. That argument does not need to be built on misinformation.
The city, its schools and children face some difficult times. If we cannot establish a trusted system for balancing competing values -- a system in which you can lose a battle but still trust the process -- the exodus of families will accelerate and we will soon look like a lot of other urban school systems.
Dennis Schapiro Linden Hills (h) Hawthorne (w)
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