NO MENTION in the article about new board members several years ago signing letters to other board members on UNION stationary. Also no mention regarding the current 43% graduation rate which is worse than gang infested LA or even Chicago.

dflleft...no need to mention them since you ALWAYS mention those facts on EVERY story. Provide new material once in awhile. For example, the article does question one Director about possibly supporting Edison being more white. Why is this so? Is there some underlying reason for needing/wanting more white students? Does increasing the white population within a building help the non-white student population in any way? The Board should really look into the numbers and costs of student-contact teachers and compare it to non-student-contact adults. The results would probably shock everyone.

Too early to determine if the programs are working to take a vote? Just by looking at the recent stats of graduating Seniors, one can see that the schools mentioned in the article are in trouble, and fall below the MN average. Is it the intention of the Minneapolis Board of Education to sit on restructuring schools for another year or two so more children fall between the cracks? Get busy, because too many tax dollars have been wasted already, and too many children have suffered from your negligence. Close the schools that are dead weight, and re-organize your game plan, for pity sake! Else one will begin to wonder where you received your education.

Lack of parenting in society has created the academic problems we have today.

I've never had the feeling Arneson was trying to make NE schools more white, just that she was trying to keep more northeast kids in MPS. It is not 1960, northeast is a very diverse community. About 70% of kids from northeast leave our public schools at some point. Keeping more of those kids benefits everyone - district wide. Making sure that all schools in the district have equitable offerings is not parochialism, it is fairness, and good for the district as a whole.

I agree with rufusx. How can getting more kids from Northeast Minneapolis into the Northeast Minneapolis schools possibly be a bad thing? Too many of those kids, especially in the older grades, are currently leaving Minneapolis for St. Anthony, Columbia Heights, private schools, or elsewhere, and taking their per-pupil dollars with them. Getting more Minneapolis kids into Minneapolis schools will bring in funds that are now supporting other school districts, and it will strengthen the entire Minneapolis district in plenty of other ways. I suppose the anonymous staff person mentioned in the article would similarly accuse North Side residents of “parochialism” because they have tried to get more neighborhood families to attend North High School, when large numbers are leaving for other school districts? Would keeping North Minneapolis kids in the Minneapolis schools be a bad thing, just because it might make those schools “more black,” “more Southeast Asian,” or more of anything else? Not if you ask me. I think if people really get behind their neighborhood schools, send their kids there, and stay engaged, the schools are bound to get better, no matter what the demographics are.

I agree that we need to retain and attract our city residents, but by what means? I am a firm believer that strong academic programs will attract families not new policies or redrawing boundaries to limit poorer families and families of color in hopes of ending white flight. My child goes to a magnet school that is very popular to Northeast families and it is quite diverse. However, we were told that a certain board member was going to see to limiting the number of white families at our school so that they would be forced to attend their NE community school. Our diverse school filled with NE residents proves that most, not all, families are more interested in quality academics and less about the complexion of a school. If it takes making a school more white to attract and retain families, I would never send my kid to that school because it is not representative of the world in which we live. School board members are supposed to look out for the welfare of all students, not just protecting their turf. I regret ever voting for district reps.

Steve Brandt also failed to mention that District 4 has a representative that does not have any experience in MPS schools, neighborhoods, parks, community organizations, etc. He has never spent a moment in MPS schools, and had a large amount of money contributed from St. Paul Republicans($1500 from Wheelock Whitney family), wealthy-white suburbanites and education "reformers." Reformers could care less about District 4 families and students being represented by someone connected to MPS schools or communities. If you "believe" in reform, that's enough for them. They'll open their wallets. Disgusting.

jslay69 - Quite diverse by whose standards? I assume you are speaking of Marcy, which is a magnet school that is supposed to be serving all of zone 1 (which includes north and northeast). The demographics there do not reflect zone 1. In order to justify the extra integration funding it receives as a magnet, it should proportionately serve students from the other 1/2 of zone 1 as well, which it does not current do. And many of the families live in a community school zone with as strong or stronger academic scores. But if schools don't want to serve the mission they collect extra monies under, that's fine, make them community schools with the same budgets as others. Families can still opt into them, but can provide their own transportation if they live too far away.

Rufusx - Do you know if there are low-income or minority families from North or Northeast Minneapolis who are trying to get into Marcy and being turned away? If not, I don't necessarily see a problem. However, if "integration" dollars are being used to bus white kids away from a diverse school in their neighborhood to a higher-income or less diverse school farther away (which it sounds like Marcy might be compared to other North and Northeast schools), and that takes up seats that would otherwise be filled with lower-income or more diverse students, I can see why the school board would be interested in regulating that situation. I suppose one effect would be "limiting the number of white families," as jslay69 puts it, but jslay69 seems to mean that as a criticism, rather than a compliment. If a magnet school is supposed to be serving low-income and diverse neighborhoods, but is failing to do so because too many seats are taken by higher-income white families, then "limiting the number of white families" might actually be the right thing for the school board to do for the city as a whole. Personally, I would rather see everyone go to their neighborhood school, but as long as we have "magnet" schools, let's make sure they serve the city fairly, even if that means "limiting the number of white families" to give others a chance.