The Minneapolis school board is delaying a vote on the district's new strategic plan after public outcry last month from parents and school staff who said they felt blindsided by the proposed plan, which could affect attendance boundaries and threaten some language-immersion programs.
"The initial feedback we got was that we needed to make sure that there was a more inclusive process going forward," school board Chairman Nelson Inz said. "We had a lot more work to do in reaching out to the community and developing the plan."
At a recent board committee meeting, Superintendent Ed Graff recommended that the board push back the vote from August to December to allow more time to engage the community in the summer and fall.
"The initial recommendations have, I believe, opened the door to a substantive conversation about desegregation, integration, choice and how placement protocols have impacted the district and how race and income affect public education," Graff said at the meeting.
The recommendations, rolled out at the end of April by district leaders, include options that would change attendance boundaries for some schools, reassign students to new schools, and possibly jeopardize some language-immersion and magnet programs.
The focus of the new three-year strategic plan, district officials say, is to improve academic achievement, boost enrollment, and restore parents' trust by providing rigorous instruction and equal access to programs across the district.
But district staff and parents are pushing back on the proposed plan, arguing that redrawing school attendance zones to fill under-enrolled schools will lead to segregation and accelerate enrollment declines.
Absent from the plan, others say, is ensuring that underserved students have equitable access to effective, experienced and diverse teachers. They have called on the district to delay the final school board vote on the plan and give the community enough time to offer feedback.
