Burroughs Elementary gets interim principal

A Minneapolis elementary school principal's interim replacement was named Tuesday, but school officials remained tight-lipped about why he was relieved of duty, and a school board member refused to discuss allegations that it stemmed directly from an argument the two had last week.

Tim Cadotte, principal at Burroughs Elementary, was placed on indefinite administrative leave Monday, following what parents described as a heated argument between the principal and the board member that included charges of racism.

Parent leaders at the southwest Minneapolis school say the board member, Chris Stewart, and other district officials have cast Burroughs parents' activism in the face of impending boundary and program changes in the district for the 2010-11 school year as "prima facie" evidence of racism against blacks.

Board members held an executive session Tuesday evening to discuss "personnel issues." The meeting was closed. It was not clear whether Cadotte was discussed.

Stan Alleyne, a spokesman for the Minneapolis schools, cited data practices laws and said district officials will continue to decline to comment on the details behind "the issue or incident" involving Cadotte until the end of the disciplinary process.

Cadotte had led the award-winning school since 1999.

Alleyne said the interim principal, Marsha Seltz, will begin work at Burroughs this morning. Seltz retired from Lake Harriet Community School in southwest Minneapolis last year after 25 years as a principal and teacher.

Kip Wennerlund, a Burroughs parent, said that parents learned the two men argued during the visit and that Stewart was overheard calling the principal and the entire school racist. Wennerlund was not present during the exchange.

Stewart confirmed in an interview Monday that he visited Burroughs last week. He described board members' visits to schools as routine. Stewart declined to provide further details about his visit to Burroughs.

On Tuesday, Stewart said he still couldn't discuss the situation. "I'm not able to say much legally about this at all because it's considered a personnel matter," he said.

Cadotte referred a reporter to his lawyer Roger Aronson. The Minneapolis attorney did not return calls from a reporter Tuesday.

The school's parent-staff site council has disagreed with a decision to begin phasing out a program for Spanish-speaking students and opposed the possible reassignment of Burroughs students to other schools. The council, which includes Cadotte, issued a statement on its position in March. The statement was sent to a range of local officials and parents.

The district faces a $28 million deficit for next year and is preparing a draft plan to downsize the district by the 2010-11 school year. The changes are expected to touch on sensitivities about urban geography, race, class and language. The plans could affect up to a third of the district's 32,500 students.

According to state Department of Education data, Burroughs was one of 12 schools out of 81 in the district that met state testing benchmarks during the 2007-08 school year.

Seventy-two percent of Burroughs' 698 students are white, and roughly 20 percent qualify for free and reduced price lunch, a common indicator of poverty.

Meanwhile many of the district's schools in north and south Minneapolis have up to four times as many poor students and primarily serve students of color.

Wennerlund said he called Mayor R.T. Rybak last week to inform him of the situation at Burroughs. Still, Wennerlund said he and other site council members have asked parents who reach out to local officials to "do no harm."

Alleyne said that although he can't discuss details yet, the district is following a specified process with Cadotte.

"When we have an internal investigation," he said, "there is a process in place where the issue or incident is looked into, people are interviewed, [and] all sides of the incident or issue are investigated."

When the investigation is complete, he said, "the administration will make a recommendation [to the school board]"

"We try to look into it as soon as possible and complete it as quickly as possible," he said.