Osseo school board ties on vote to end racial-equity consultant contract

Osseo Area school board members came to a stalemate vote Tuesday night on deciding the fate of the district's five-year relationship with a racial-equity consulting group.

Three board members voted to not approve the district's achievement and integration budget and plan. The district's revised plan would have reduced its spending on the Pacific Educational Group (PEG) and terminated its contract with the group after the 2017-2018 school year.

Teachers, parents and community members packed into the Osseo School Board meeting room to voice their support of the district's contract with PEG, which works to lessen racial disparities and narrow the achievement gap through professional development.

Erin Aulik, a first grade teacher at Birch Grove Elementary School for the Arts, was one of several teachers who addressed the board Tuesday.

Aulik averages about two to three white students in her classroom each year. As a white teacher, she said, the trainings have given her the perspective and tools to accommodate her students of color.

"I would not be half the teacher I am today without the professional development I have received from Pacific Educational Group," she said to the board Tuesday.

At a March 7 work session, the board seemed in agreement that they would approve the revised budget and end their contract with PEG on Tuesday. Board members said PEG has not helped the district, where students of color make up more than half of the enrollment, close its achievement gap and Osseo Area Public Schools could no longer support the cost of PEG's services.

"As we reduce our dependence on outside vendors, we are able to dedicate more of the AIM (Achievement and Integration for Minnesota) budget to other areas of our equity work," Mike Ostaffe, school board member, said Tuesday.

With a tie vote, the district is back to the drawing board on its achievement and integration plan. Board members will now have to review the plan again and ask the Minnesota Department of Education for a second extension on submitting its budget. Board members Jessica Craig, Stephanie Fortner and Jim Burgett voted to not approve the budget on Tuesday.

Abdullah Kiatamba, executive director of African Immigrant Services, worked with the board on drafting its first equity plan in November, Kiatamba said the board wanted to end its contract with PEG but offered no alternative on how the district would move ahead with its equity work.

"It does not make sense to transition out of something to nothing," he said. "They have not created an alternative."