A coalition of Minneapolis City Council members, former school board members, retired administrators, parents and pastors are calling for major reform in the school district's contract with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, including an end to seniority-based teacher placement.
The individuals have signed the "Contract for Student Achievement," a three-page document that Lynnell Mickelson, co-founder of Put Kids First Minneapolis, presented to school board members Tuesday night.
"In the past, teacher contract negotiations have been treated as exclusive talks between private parties," the document reads. "Unfortunately, the result has been a legacy of contracts that repeatedly put the needs of adults over the academic needs of students."
"Today, our schools work very well for some of our students while completely failing others. Minneapolis has the largest achievement gap in Minnesota," the group's "contract" says. "So we call on the district and the MFT to negotiate a different kind of contract -- one that recognizes the academic crisis in our schools and makes student achievement the top focus."
Lynn Nordgren, president of the teacher union, disputed some findings in the group's letter.
"The group is well-intentioned, but their strategies are misguided," Nordgren said. "The teachers are the experts. For some reason, everybody else thinks they are the experts now."
Former school board chair Catherine Shreves is among the more than 30 people who signed the "Contract for Student Achievement." During her time on the school board, poor-performing teachers were often removed from schools that had active parent involvement and dumped in schools that didn't, she said.
Shreves likened the staff turnover to "The Dance of the Lemons," a term used in the film "Waiting for Superman" to describe how less-than-stellar teachers are shuffled from building to building because no principal wants to keep them on staff.
