MPS parents hope proposed pause leads to a new approach

MPS parents hope proposed pause leads to a new approach Pilar Pedraza KSTP Parents and teachers who oppose the Minneapolis Public School district’s transformation plan are hoping its proposed pause is just the start of a new plan. The news that two school board members plan to suggest a one-year delay at the October 13 school board meeting is still just reaching many parents in the district.“My kids are second grade and first grade, and they’re definitely having a lot of anxiety about it,” said Jamia Pettinger about the proposed closures laid out in the three possibilities currently under consideration for the district’s transformation plan.Two of her kids attend Lake Harriet Lower Community School and a third is set to start kindergarten there next year.A member of Minnesota Families for Public Schools, Pettinger has fought hard against the district’s plan to close 15 to 16 schools, including her children’s.“We’ve had people at every single listening session, and there’s not been one positive commenter that said that was in support,” she said.Pettinger says she was relieved to learn school board members Sharon El-Amin and Greta Callahan are pushing a plan to put the closure on hold for a year, a plan that could come up for a vote as early as October 13th.Natasha Dockter, vice president of the Minneapolis teachers union, echoed the sentiment.“I’m hopeful that a majority of them will sign on to this resolution,” Dockter said about the new plan coming from El-Amin and Callahan.“I hope it’s unanimous,” said Pettinger. Both Dockter and Pettinger say they hope the pause is really just the start of a new plan.“Letting the plans just continue to be out there and fester will only cause more problems, continue to cause our district to lose additional families, additional students,” said Dockter.  “One that brings parents along in the process,” Pettinger said of her hopes for a new plan.They also worry the uncertainty about school closures with the current transformation proposals is hurting future enrollment already.“What we really need to be doing right now is focusing on increasing enrollment,” said Dockter.Pettinger said, “The hardest part is watching my neighbors talk about maybe we won’t choose MPS next year, maybe we’re going to pull our kids regardless of this because we just don’t trust that the district has our kids’ best interests at heart.”Since announcing the transformation plan, the district has said it’s an effort to reverse declining enrollment.Digging into the recent trends, 5 Eyewitness News has learned that in the last 10 years the district has seen a more than 18.5% drop in enrollment, which is about 6,600 students.For context, the birthrates for kindergartners who started school in those years dropped roughly 12.4% and are still falling.5 Eyewitness News tried to speak with the superintendent Friday to find out how this proposed pause in the transformation plan would affect students.  The district sent a statement instead saying, “To respect School Board processes, the Superintendent will not comment at this time. Dr. Sayles-Adams looks forward to the opportunity to share her recommendations and perspective on possible next steps next week once the community meetings have concluded.”Last month, Dr. Sayles-Adams said, “Roughly two-thirds of our schools lacked the enrollment necessary to automatically generate full funding, requiring us to provide supplemental support to try and maintain them.”While there are families that support the current school transformation proposals, they’ve been fairly quiet, unwilling to speak on camera with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. The opposition has been the vocal majority.