Thursday, March 21, 2013
After the district's finance department completed a preliminary budget recommendation, Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson addresses the community.
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Thursday, March 21
Editor's Note: The following is Minneapolis Public Schools' Superintendent Bernadeia H. Johnson's statement on the preliminary budget. Dear MPS partners and friends, On March 15, Chief Financial Officer Robert Doty and his finance team presented the preliminary fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget to the finance committee of the Minneapolis Board of Education. You may recall that our school district faced a $25 million budget shortfall for FY 2014, which begins July 1. I worked with my leadership team to make tough choices, knowing that strategic cuts at the central office level would be necessary to continue to focus on our priorities for schools. I am pleased to report that the staff budget recommendation puts forth a balanced budget for MPS. …
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Tracine Asberry joins eight others on Minneapolis school board.
Tuesday night, Kingfield resident Tracine Asberry was sworn in as the first school board member to specifically represent Southwest Minneapolis. Asberry won an uncontested election last year after her three opponents dropped out after they were unable to win an endorsement of the Minneapolis DFL party. Despite this, Asberry spent the following months visiting with local PTAs, community groups, and area residents in a campaign-style effort to meet constituents. In her speech, Asberry said board members faced a high calling: The Pedagogy of the Oppressed states: "There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Dr. Bernadeia Johnson's contract was just renewed.
Tuesday evening, the Minneapolis Board of Education voted to renew Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson's contract for another three years. The new contract is not too dissimilar from Johnson's last. She's still paid a $190,000 base salary, but the total possible amount of performance-based bonuses is increased from $30,000 to $40,000. In her previous term, Johnson has pushed through a number of changes, including a measure called "focused instruction" that's designed to make sure all schools are teaching roughly the same topics, and measuring how well students are learning lessons. For more information on focused instruction, see the Minneapolis Public Schools website. In comments to the board following its vote, Johnson acknowledged the …
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
This is where you can find election results for local city council and legislative races and links to our separate election stories for county, judicial, constitutional amendments and national results.
Southwest Minneapolis' voters participated in an historic election on Tuesday. President Barack Obama was re-elected. Minnesota became the first state to reject a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and woman. Voters also stopped an amendment requiring voters show photo ID at the polls. The DFL took control of both houses of the state legislature. They even got to see Mayor RT Rybak crowd-surf at the official DFL election party in reaction to Obama's victory (See video at right). Initially, Southwest Minneapolis' high voter turnout caused long lines at some polling places, and a few ballot scanners had hiccoughs. As the night war on, voters waited on tenterhooks to find out how their community voted—many …
Thursday, October 4, 2012
The John B. Davis Education and Service Center cost $36 million.
You paid for it, so why not go see it? Thursday, the Minneapolis Public Schools are throwing open the doors to their new headquarters, the John B. Davis Education and Service Center, located at 1250 W. Broadway in Minneapolis. Light refreshments will be available as you tour the hallways and offices—and look for the school board's new meeting room—accompanied by student musicians from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. You'll also get to meet Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson, Minneapolis Board of Education Chair Alberto Monserrate, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, David Mortenson, president of builder M.A. Mortenson Company, and Bishop Richard D. Howell Jr., overseer of Shiloh Temple, the new building's accross-the-street neighbor. The headquarters also gives…
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Bates is well-known for her in-depth knowledge of the district's finances.
Name : Ms. Carla Ann Bates Age : 50 Place of residence : Seward Neighborhood, Minneapolis Attended college : Yes College : Yankton College Degree : BA Year of graduation : 1984 University : UMn Area of research : American Studies Year of graduation : 1998 Job titles held : IT Professional Employers : UMn Party affiliation : Democrat Running for a: Local office Running for position: Minneapolis School Board Chamber/district: At Large Incumbent: Yes First elected: 02 November 2008 Previous elective offices : Minneapolis School Board Unsuccessful bids for elective offices : No Address Name : Seth Kirk Title : Campaign Manager Website : Carlabates.org 3 children, 2 in Minneapolis Public Schools and 1 graduate; partner of 26 years, Susan …
Mann has run for school board in every election cycle since 1999.
Name : Mr. Doug Mann Place of residence : 3706 Logan Avenue North, Minneapolis Attended college : Yes College : U of MN and Mpls Community and Technical College Degree : Associate in Arts and Practical Nursing Diploma Year of graduation : 2009 AA degree, 1990 PN diploma Job titles held : LPN, substitute Educational Associate and Instructional Assistant, Volunteer English-as-a-Second-Language Tutor and Classroom assistant Employers : NA Party affiliation : Other Party affiliation : Green Party Running for a: Local office Running for position: Minneapolis School Board, at-large (citywide) Chamber/district: Minneapolis Citywide Incumbent: No Previous elective offices : No public offices. Held elective offices within UFCW local 789 nursing …
Asberry comes to the school board after a long career in education.
Name : Dr. Tracine Denise Asberry Also known as : Tracine Age : 0 Place of residence : Minneapolis, Minnesota Attended college : Yes College : North Central Bible College Degree : BA - Cross Cultural Ministries Year of graduation : 1991 University : University of St. Thomas Degree : MA - Elementary Education Year of graduation : 2004 University : University of St. Thomas Area of research : Critical Pedagogy Year of graduation : 2009 Job titles held : Administrator Employers : African American Academy for Accelerated Learning Party affiliation : Democrat Running for a: Local office Running for position: Minneapolis Public School Board - District 6 Chamber/district: District 6 Incumbent: No Previous elective offices : NA Unsuccessful bids …
Saturday, September 8, 2012
SW Minneapolis will vote on 1 at-large, 1 locally-elected member in Nov.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Longtime citizen activist jumps into at-large race.
Only last week, the race for the one at-large seat on the Minneapolis school board up for grabs this year looked settled. Now, as a longtime citizen activist declares a write-in campaign for the seat, could those predictions get overturned? Incumbent Carla Bates has been widely favored to win the race because of her long list of achievements in her first term, and the fact that her main opponent, Doug Mann, has not been able to win any of the several school board races he's competed for. However, on Aug. 7, Eli Kaplan announced he was launching a write-in campaign to challenge Bates in an email to the MPS Parents' Forum listserv. "I went to the school board candidates forum on Mon Aug 6 and I was not impressed with any of them," Kaplan …
James Sanna
11:41 pm on Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Thanks for the clarification, Eli! more ›