Dateline Minneapolis: Schools will discuss changes with public

As Jill Stever-Zeitlin discussed Minneapolis public schools' upcoming community engagement sessions from her cell phone one recent morning, she sounded excited but somewhat anxious.

Her work as a special adviser to Minneapolis Superintendent Bill Green keeps her busy, but it isn't easy to explain because it encompasses many initiatives.

Still, here's what it boils down to: Stever-Zeitlin is working with Green and his academic and operations cabinet to implement Minneapolis schools' ambitious strategic plan to boost academic achievement.

She will lead the community engagement session on Thursday in south Minneapolis while Deputy Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Steve Liss and Jackie Turner, the district's operations and family engagement directors, conduct the sessions in north and northeast Minneapolis.

District families can expect to hear details about potential changes to magnet and community school locations throughout the city. The need to discuss potential changes in program sites and bus routes has become even more pressing now that Minneapolis faces a projected $28 million deficit for the 2009-10 school year.

Stever-Zeitlin joined the district last March following a successful career at McKinsey and Company Inc., where she helped large financial services, health care and higher education institutions implement planning and management initiatives. The South High alumna is a Harvard MBA graduate who attended Yale as an undergraduate.

McKinsey serves two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 and worked with Southeast Asian countries a few years ago to help them plan their rebuilding process after the tsunami disaster.

Since last summer, a key part of her work for the district has revolved around a storm of a different kind: realigning the physical resources (i.e., buildings and bus routes) of a district that's grappled with declining enrollment in recent years into a leaner, simpler, more efficient system.

The Minneapolis public schools had 46,000 students during the 2000-01 school year. Although the enrollment loss was lower than projected this year, the total enrollment has slipped to about 32,500 students in district schools this year.

Meanwhile, the majority of the district's families have multiple choices of nearby community and magnet schools. Stever-Zeitlin said more than 73 percent of the district's elementary students were bused to a regular instruction program outside their immediate attendance area during the 2007-08 school year. The price tag: $20 million.

Minneapolis would spend money on busing no matter what, she said, but the district wants to be as efficient as possible to maximize the amount of resources available for instruction.

"We have lots of school choice, and it's for good reasons, but it's expensive," she said. "We've been looking at achievement across programs and capacity based on current and projected enrollment. These meetings are taking the next step and saying, 'We've looked at this data and if we changed [or streamlined] the system in this way, what would you think?'"

Even so, there are several variables on the financial front -- a looming multibillion-dollar state budget deficit and federal stimulus proposal -- that make it difficult for school officials to present detailed information about changes at individual schools.

"I hope people aren't too frustrated by that," Stever-Zeitlin said. "We need to hear [their] input and feedback as we do our work."

Minneapolis Superintendent Bill Green and his senior leadership cabinet voluntarily amended their 2008-09 school year contracts recently to take 2 percent pay cuts because of the district's multimillion-dollar projected deficit. Beginning this month, Green's annual salary will be $190,218. He earned $194,100 in compensation during the previous school year. Earlier this school year, Green waived a provision of the contract that called for a 3 percent pay increase this school year.

Green's senior leadership team consists of Deputy Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson, Chief Communications Officer Susan Eilertsen, Chief Operations Officer Steve Liss, Assistant to the Superintendent Dan Loewenson, Chief Human Resources and Accountability Officer Patricia Pratt-Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peggy Ingison.

Patrice Relerford • 612-673-4395