At this evening's school board meeting, I presented the district with teacher
recommendations for the Strategic Plan. Below are the five recommendations along with
some opening remarks to the Board. I did make additional comments on each of the items
if you watch the tape of the meeting. I hope this not only adds to the discussion, but
encourages the district to focus on a handful of meaningful reforms rather than trying to
change everything in the hope that something works.

My opening comments (taped comments may differ slightly, as I did not read verbatim):
"No one disagrees that as a district we can and must do better by our students, all of our
students. Yet, when you look at the strategic plan, the high school redesign, and the
North Side Initiative, among other plans, we are seemingly going to do a million things at
once. If we do, we will do all of them poorly. Ms. Halliday (Director of Strategic Planning)
did a very good job summarizing the concerns of teachers with regard to the strategic
plan recommendations. Those concerns reflect the disconnect between what teachers and
parents said in the surveys, and the recommendations that are now presented by
McKinsey.

"Our first recommendation is on class-size." We get that this is a tough one because it
costs money, but we must address it." Class size has been dismissed on the argument
that we cannot afford to bring classes to referendum levels, and there is little impact
between a class with 35 students and a class with 33. However, if we ever hope to get to
referendum levels we have to take steps. We will never do it if we wait until we can afford
the leap. We need to work in the direction of referendum levels which will benefit all of
our students, and in the meantime we need to get there by starting with the kids that need
small classes the most."

The recommendations:

1) Focused Reduction of Class-Sizes
As state dollars have failed to keep pace with the needs of the students of Minneapolis, it
has become increasingly more difficult to keep class sizes at the levels identified by the
referendum (a ratio of 1:19 for grades K-2, 1:25 for grades 3-8 and 1:26 for grades
9-12). The District and the Union recognize we cannot move immediately to referendum
levels. However, we also recognize the importance of working toward optimum teaching-
learning conditions.
Therefore, in recognition of the importance lower class sizes play in improving student
learning and closing the engagement and achievement gaps between cohorts of students
and to respect the referendum goals agreed to by Minneapolis voters, the district will
focus its efforts to reduce class sizes for students with the greatest needs.
The 2007-08 budget has allocated for teacher-student ratios of 1:26 in grades K-3, 1:32
in grades 4-8 and 1:34 in grades 9-12. District allocations for 2008-09 will maintain
current teacher-student ratios but count students in the following manner:
• Each student receiving special education services shall count as 1.5 students.
• Each student receiving English Language Learning services shall count as 1.3
students.
• Each student qualifying for free or reduced lunch shall count as 1.3 students.
• Each student in grades K–2 shall count as 1.3 students.
• If the student falls into multiple categories, they will be counted in the single highest
category.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers will work with the school board and district staff
to lobby the Legislature for appropriate funding levels and campaign on behalf of
renewing the class-size referendum in 2008. The goal is to have all students in classes
with the ratios called for in the referendum by no later than 2012.

2) School Autonomy/Site-Based Management
The Minneapolis Public Schools Strategic Plan recommendations call for greater autonomy
for the "high-performing" school. As the ultimate goal is to improve the quality of
instruction and learning for all students, authentic site-based management must be in
place in every school to improve the achievement of each student served, and eliminate
gaps in learning between groups of students.

The benefit of shared decision-making is supported by research. Research shows that
employees who are involved in the decision-making process are healthier and are more
successful in achieving the goals of the organization. Research shows that families who
feel heard by the educational establishment are more active in the education of their
children and more supportive of the goals and practices of the institution. Site-based
management assures that all individuals involved in the process of educating students
shall have a voice in the discussion.

Sites must have control over their professional development. Minnesota statute calls for
each site to have a professional development committee and a percentage of dollars to
organize and carry out professional development

Initiatives and program changes should come from the staff at the sites, and the district
should function to support and facilitate site-based plans. Any initiative that comes from
the district offices must first get approval from the legislatively created Professional
Development Advisory Committee by a two-thirds vote. The district central offices need
to maintain oversight of the site-based plans to ensure equity for all students, and that
students are showing improvement as a result.

The school district should directly control a bare minimum of the overall dollars, and the
rest should be fairly distributed to the schools. Only funding for essential central
functions should be directly controlled by the district offices.

3) Improve Parent and Community Relationship Through a Focus on Pre-K and Early
Elementary
Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers must work
together to lobby the state legislature for greater investment in ECFE and Kindergarten.
In the meantime, All-Day Kindergarten should be assigned on a needs basis. Children
who qualify for free and reduced lunch should have first priority, regardless of which
school they attend. This means there may be some schools with all of their Kindergarten
classes as All-Day, and some schools with all of their Kindergarten classes as Half-Day.
ECFE should continue to be integrated into elementary schools to enable the child and
parent to see kindergarten as continuation of their ECFE community.

4) Integration of City/County/State Social Services
Because the achievement gap is not simply a product of the schools, social services from
the city, county and state should be integral parts of the school when possible. Schools
should be seen as true community centers, not just a place to drop off your children. To
accomplish this, non-governmental organizations should also play a role in supporting the
work in the classrooms.

5) Joint Committee on Inclusion.
The achievement gap is not simply a product of the educational system. However, every
institution must constantly monitor its practices and policies to identify and change
systemic practices that can be shown to be contributing to discrimination and disparity
among groups of students. We need to better reach out to all groups in our community.
To this end, a joint task force must be created that includes staff, parents, community
members, and experts.

Submitted by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers to the Minneapolis School Board on
December 4, 2007.

Rob Panning-Miller
President, MFT 59
Barton Parent