Updated w/ Carla Bates speech

What a beautiful spring morning. Nearly perfect. 70 degrees with a slight breeze. As usual during convention season, I was heading to Edison HS to go inside a dark auditorium for yet another convention. This time it was the Minneapolis DFL Convention. This convention was to endorse three candidates for the Minneapolis School Board. Carla Bates, Jill Davis, Lydia Lee and Dan Miller were all vying for the three spots.

I walked into the building and heard the delegates reciting the pledge of allegiance from the hallway outside the auditorium. I'm a delegate so I went and got my badge and went in to find the 8th Ward section. Brian Melendez was the first person to address the crowd.

RT Rybak addressed the crowd and spoke in favor of the VOTE YES campaign to provide more money which is desperately needed for Minneapolis Public Schools. There weren't all that many speakers. Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer were at other events although they both had tables set up in the side hallway. They went to events like the MN-07 convention that Grace Kelly attended.

I'll confess that I've attended a few too many conventions this year so far. I've lost count. There were some procedural motions. The question and answer segment got moved up from between the 1st and 2nd ballot to after the candidate speeches. As is customary at any DFL convention, there were protests over the process, points of order, points of personal privilege, motions from the floor and all the usual bulls**t that you come to expect. The participants always take this procedural nonsense so so seriously. It's as if it is a matter of life and death or something.

I was chatting about the English Premier League with one of my neighbors throughout the silliness.

Eventually, it was time for the candidate speeches. Lydia Lee went first.

Lydia Lee

Lydia spoke in a monotone. She didn't seem excited at all about running again. What I remember most is her describing how her parents didn't want her to run again but she did it anyway. I got the distinct impression that she wasn't much interested in running, either. My neighbor leaned over to me and said he didn't think it was a good idea to tell the crowd that you didn't want to run, but were doing it anyway. This wasn't a speech of Mullery-esque proportions, but it was definitely underwhelming. With a speech like that and enough delegates unhappy with her tenure on the board, Dan Miller might have a chance.

Truthfully, this is not a fun time to be on the school board. Drastic and ugly cuts have been made because Governor Pawlenty refuses to adequately fund education. No Child Left Behind has tied teachers hands forcing them to teach to the test and punishing schools that need help. She and the other Board members have cut the Minneapolis school system to the bone and are looking at a $13 million deficit next year and possibly a $20M the year after. I can see why she might not be perky and bubbly about it all ... maybe she's got a more relaxed style ...

Jill Davis

Jill Davis ran unsuccessfully in 2006. She missed getting endorsed by a hair in a crowded field. She's back, even better organized and had fun up onstage. Council Member Paul Ostrow was the first to introduce her, Brett Buckner, former DFL CD5 organizer and currently with the Ellison campaign, was next, followed by her father.

Mr. Davis spoke about how 70 years ago he walked across this very same stage to receive his diploma. He spoke about raising his kids in Minneapolis schools and how they all graduated from Edison. He was funny, sharp and sprightly ... especially considering (if you do the math like I was doing while listening) his age or any age actually. The crowd responded as it was obvious he was comfortable onstage and was having a good time.

Jill's Dad had had a little too much fun leaving Jill less time than she had planned, but Jill listed her skills and talked about her vision for Minneapolis schools. She talked about restoring trust, restoring access to a well-rounded education and strengthening community connections.

She was energetic and sounded determined to do her best to make process of governing transparent and honest. As I mentioned earlier, these are difficult times for Minneapolis schools, but she did her best to convince the delegates that she cares and can do the job. Considering all the endorsements she'd listed on her lit, she's been doing a good job reaching out over the last two years. While she's got some of the less desirable members of the Park Board supporting her (Jon Olson, Walt Dziedzic and Bob Fine), they are overbalanced by many solid progressives whom I respect. Hopefully, she doesn't take any governing tips from her Park Board friends and listens to her progressive supporters. Check out her supporter/endorsement list.

Carla Bates

Kim Ellison, a parent who knows Carla as well as her son introduced her. Sadly, my pix of them all turned out too muddy. Did I mention that I was inside a dark auditorium on a georgous spring day? Anyhoo ... the parent had watched Carla's involvement in her local PTA and raising money to make sure that the school band costs were minimal. Things like that. Her son talked about going to South High School.

She emphasize that schools depend upon well-prepared teachers, strong support from administrators and community involvement in the schools. She talked about her background as an activist on school-related issues and how she wants to improve the technology used in the classrooms. She sounds smart, driven and has a plenty of endorsements from people and politicians I like.

Here's a transcript of Carla's speech:

Hello Delegates, thank you for coming today!
My name is Carla Bates and I am running for the Minneapolis School Board. I would be honored to have your support and your vote for the DFL endorsement.
Minneapolis has a long tradition of great public schools. Today many schools carry on this tradition and I celebrate our successes. But, today, it is also true that too many of our children are not achieving academically and the consequences for them and for our city are huge. I am running because I know we can do better to help all of our kids be successful.

I grew up in a town of about 10,000 people. My mother and I were on welfare. And I escaped from the stresses of poverty and my mother’s mental illness by going to school every day.

And it is school that saved my life. One of my first teacher-heroes was my 7th grade reading teacher who introduced me to the world of ideas, to history, to theatre and to possibilities. She encouraged me to make the arts and sciences part of my intellectual world and to see myself as part of something larger. She taught me how to think.

And she introduced me to stories about people who changed their worlds and made them better. She gave me a poster with the caption “Arise, go forth and conquer.” And from her I learned that I could make a difference.

And from these gifts – how to think and believe in myself - I have been able to create a life of meaningful work and a strong family.

I want my three children, who all attend Minneapolis public schools and all of our children; to develop the knowledge, confidence and passion they need to “arise, go forth” and build a better life for themselves and their community.

I’ve spent over ten years working hard as a parent activist in our schools. Through my work I have learned about education policy and financing. Many consider me one of the most knowledgeable people not on district payroll on Minneapolis Public Schools today. I also bring skill sets sorely needed on our board – I have grappled with special education and I actually do instructional technology for a living. My commitment to special ed and instructional technology make me unique in this candidate field.

Now, I ask for your support to bring my experience, energy and passion to the Minneapolis School Board. Over the past 8 years we have seen a lot of school communities in pain; schools closing, losing teachers to layoffs, cutting yet another program as resources become scarcer.

The achievement gap is greater here than just about anywhere in the country. Our schools are not preparing all of our students to participate in the 21st century economy.

We can do better!.

As a School Board member I will listen to the people – listen with my heart first – and use my knowledge and experience to translate what I hear into action. I will focus my efforts around my 3 Rs for effective school boards: Relationships, Resources and Results.

First R is relationships: The School Board must be focused on building honest, productive relationships. We can do better – but only if we learn to work together: the board and the administration must see parents and teacher as partners. Without trust real reform will not occur.

The second R is resources: We are rich in resources in the district.
Our teachers and administrators, custodians and bus drivers are some of the best in the nation. And our students are absolutely outstanding: they are beautiful in their diversity and inspiring in their resiliency.

But to do better, we must manage our resources more wisely and then communicate our need for more resources more effectively. The Board has the duty to get students and teachers the resources they need to focus their energy on learning.

And, the third R is for results: we must show results! And the goals set by the strategic plan are a good place to start –
80% proficiency in reading;
80% in math;
and a 75% reduction in the achievement gap.

My commitment to results drives me to seek a spot on the School Board.
Public education is the promise that one generation makes to another. As adults we promise our children to support them and guide them into adulthood. It is our duty, our challenge to keep this promise.

I promise you that when I am elected to the Board with your endorsement - I will bring the full measure of my energy, dedication and experience to help Minneapolis Public Schools to do better!

Please vote for me, Carla Bates, for the DFL endorsement today. Working together we can do better.

Dan Miller

Former Mayor Don Fraser, Lucy Lyons, a guy whose name I didn't catch and Peggy Flanagan all introduced Dan. The former mayor likes his enthusiasm and energy (as does our current mayor RT Ryback). Lucy is a teacher and Peggy is retiring from the school board to run for the the state legislature. Dan is young, 28, but still has some decent credentials to point to.

He advised Minneapolis and NY on education initiatives and helped Cincinnati redesign their school system. He's got connections at the state capitol working for Larry Pogemiller and has been a policy analyst with the Council on Crime and Justice. He speaks well and is very earnest. Two qualities I like in politicians.

He said that his experience combined with his financial knowledge and connections at the Capitol make him an ideal School Board member. He promised to work tirelessly for the VOTE YES referendum. He also talked about how important transparency and good process was in governing, seeming to chide the current school board for not doing so. He also talked about increasing enrollment. The combination of declining enrollment and Republican underfunding are two key factors in the current urban school district's crisis.

Between the candidate speeches and the question and answer session, Rep. Keith Ellison addressed the convention. The crowd stood and applauded as Keith took the stage. Keith certainly knows how to get DFLers excited. He talked about exploding the vote to support the Democratic presidential candidate as well as the US Senate candidate and the importance of the VOTE YES referendum campaign.
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Question and Answer session

Delegates lined up at the two microphones for the half hour question and answer session.

What would you do about property taxes which are unfair especially to poeple on fixed incomes and which is the main way for school referendum's to get their funding?

Dan Miller: We need to drive up enrollment through marketing and advertising our schools. With higher enrollment we'll get more money from the state. He hoped for better funding from a DFL-controlled legislature.

Carla Bates: We need to support candidates who support progressive taxation. We need transparency. We need someone to explain the budgeting process in a way that someone with a High School degree can understand the budgeting process and the budget itself.

Jill Davis: We need to work with the city and state on this issue. We need to drive up enrollment.

Lydia Lee: We're doing the best we can with the money that we have. We don't have control over how much money we get. We have tough choices before us. We must drive up enrollment, but we must deliver quality education.

What would you do to address the $13M budget deficit?

Carla Bates"Well, I'm not on the board, yet, but ..." We need to have planned better. We'll have to make cuts. One thing we can work on is transportation. Our transportation system is inefficient and expensive. We also have too many properties, many of them are wasted space.

Jill Davis: We must not make cuts from school sites. The choice system and transportation are hurting us. We are a smaller school system than 10 years ago.

Lydia Lee: We may have a $20M deficit the year after. The cuts have been as far away from students as possible. We're now down to the bare bones and are considering cutting bone.

Dan Miller: "I challenge the assumption." He doesn't think we're in a position that we can't do anything. We need to increase our marketing and advertising to increase enrollment. With more students, we can ideally get more money.

What do you think is the roll of teachers in the District's decision-making process

Jill Davis: Teachers need a larger role.

Lydia Lee: She talked about professional development and didn't really answer the question as far as I could tell.

Dan Miller: We need to actually listen to the teachers. The current board is not listening. We need to go to them, tell them what the challenges are and ask them what we should do.

Carla Bates: We need to establish a clear policy by which decisions are made that everyone understands.

A parent was angry at the school board members for not responding to his concerns promptly and then dismissing his concerns with the excuse that they are a policy-making board and rely on staff. This seemed to be directed at Lydia Lee. I didn't catch the exact question, but this was the general intent as far as I can tell.

Lydia Lee: She danced around this question. I couldn't follow her answer, but she certainly didn't answer the question.

Dan Miller: I will not rest until any call from a parent had been followed up on. He cited an example from his past of working at Wells Fargo. Even if the call wasn't at related to his area of work, he was responsible for making sure the caller's concern(s) were addressed.

Carla Bates: She didn't exactly answer the question, but talked about needing to consider everyone in the city as a potential problem-solver. She sort of supports the current policy of the Board being a policy board and that staff are for addressing parent concerns.

Jill Davis: Parents are pulling their kids out of Minneapolis schools because they are not satisfied. If you have a concern, I want to hear from you.

What about more autonomy for teachers?

Dan Miller: Are we listening to teacher's advice? He thinks this is a myth. We need full buy-in from teacher working groups. We need their advocacy into final decisions that we make.

Carla Bates: She talked about NCLB demoralizing teachers. As Barack Obama says "we need to fix it, not nix it." It seemed to me that she didn't exactly answer the question.

Jill Davis: What is our management system? How do we pick our teachers brains for solutions? Teachers have great ideas for education reform.

Lydia Lee: There is a core group. Our best teachers are on the curriculum committee. We need research-based changes not the same old same old.

Will you abide by the endorsement?

Carla Bates: Yes

Jill Davis: Yes

Lydia Lee: Yes

Dan Miller: No. To boos from about a quarter of the crowd, Dan explained that he thought that running to the primary was more democratic and that we are the Democratic Party.

I told my neighbor that Dan had just blown his chances for endorsement.

I need to step back and explain something. Sharon Henry-Blythe, a long-time board member, is not seeking the DFL endorsement but is running for reelection. She had previously been endorsed and for whatever reason has by-passed the convention and is running to the primary. So there is going to be a primary regardless of Dan's abiding or not.

McKenzy Foundation connection?
The questioner tried to direct the question directly to Dan Miller but wasn't allowed to so she asked everyone. Do you have any connection to the McKenzy Foundation? Why is the school board waffling on supporting the Alternative Contract Schools (ACS)? (Kids who are not succeeding in the Mpls schools are sent to ACSs and many succeed there.)

Jill Davis: No connection with McKenzy Foundation. If contract schools are delivering, we should continue the contract.

Lydia Lee: No ties. We just need to check on the results of the contract schools.

Dan Miller: I worked for the McKenzy Foundation, but I don't any longer. "I will not parrot the McKenzy line."

Carla Bates: No ties. Contract schools are for students whose needs are not met at our public schools. We can talk about getting rid of ACSs when all students needs are met.

Do you support teacher seniority?

Lydia Lee: Yes, if they are qualified, competent teachers.

Dan Miller: Yes.

Carla Bates: Yes, if teachers have the right skills for what they are teaching.

Jill Davis: Sorry ... I must have gotten distracted and I missed her answer ... my notes are blank.

After Commissioner Peter McLaughlin spoke to the convention about the importance of the VOTE YES referendum. He also got heckled by some delegates who are still angry with him over forcing through the Twins stadium. After Peter was done it was time to vote.

While waiting for the results, we heard from the VOTE YES referendum. I was informed via email that the campaign is actually called the Strong Schools Strong City Referendum.

As I'd mentioned earlier, RT Rybak, Keith Ellison, Peter McLaughlin as well as many, many others are on board the campaign. Here's what I found online about it:

Approval of this resolution means that on election day this fall, voters in Minneapolis will have the opportunity to vote for or against the referendum. If approved, the referendum will go into effect for the 2009-2010 school year and will last eight years, ending in the 2016-2017 school year.

The current referendum, which expires in 2009, calls for an annual levy of $29 million – all of which has been dedicated to preventing overall increases in class size in the district. The new referendum, if approved by voters, will dedicate half of the funds – or approximately $30 million – to managing class sizes. The other half of the funds will cover a number of items the district has designated as high priorities.

Among these items are:

• Funding to help students develop early reading skills, fulfilling the district’s goal of having all children reading at grade level by third grade.
• Funding for math and science, fulfilling the district’s goal of preparing all children for algebra by eighth grade.
• Funding for technology and updated textbooks.

Accountability will also be a major commitment in the new referendum. To this end, an independent organization will be chosen to audit and monitor the use of referendum funds to ensure appropriate application.
(MPS News)

Teacher Proud MPS parent Anne Hoops (right), School Board member Pam Costain (middle) and former mayor Don Fraser were among those who spoke in favor of the referendum. After much shenanigans (i.e., amendments and floor motions) from some people who I can only assume were opposed to the levy, we got to vote on whether the City DFL should endorse the VOTE YES referendum campaign and put it on the sample ballot. The sample ballot is huge for the campaign as they have limited resources and Democratic turnout is going to be large enough that the sample ballot could make the difference.

It was endorsed and the amendment to put it on the sample ballot passed, too.

Then they announced the results from the first ballot.

After this a motion was made to suspend the rules and vote by show of hands between Lydia, Dan and no endorsement. It wasn't even close, Lydia received 70%.

Miraculously, I was out in time (2pm) to enjoy a decent bit of the afternoon.