Communicating in Context

Dear MPS board members. I’m an MPS Parent to a 4th Grader at Howe with an IEP.  Genuine question: Is there a •need• for the district to have unilateral control over the decision to add minutes and days to this school year? It has felt like there is (once again) no room for collaboration or problem-solving together with families, with principals, or with educators.  It is my understanding that •only seniors• need the added minutes this year.  Kindergarteners in particular, only •need• 850 hours.  I’d like to see more creative problem solving and community input, especially after the districts •chosen• behavior these past three weeks involving stonewalling and abandonment of bargaining duties, FOR DAYS at a time, as well as union busting actions and attempts to wedge community support away from MFT and ESP. These behaviors are abusive in nature and result in diminished mental health in the form of anxiety, for those who are working to make sense of all of this and get...

Dr. Heather Mueller, Dr. Stephanie Burrage and Eric Tauber, I'm writing today as a parent of Minneapolis Public Schools. Please strongly consider reversing the extra time (42 daily minutes and extension from 6/10/22 through 6/24/22) in the contract agreements with Minneapolis educators and educational support professionals. This agreement is not equitable for our family; my child who is in 4th grade and has an IEP is vulnerable to shift/changes affecting his ability to be a receptive learner, and is already struggling with the uprooting of the past three weeks.  For clarity, I wholeheartedly believe a three week strike was only necessary because MPS chose to spend several of those days and hours stalling, actively not meeting with the union bargaining teams to work things out. This added time feels like a punishment to the educators and families of Minneapolis Public Schools, given that a three week strike was necessary based on the districts choice to stonewall, and put ...

Three weeks ago, on day one of the •necessary strike• walk out of Minneapolis Public Educators & Educational Support Professionals (MFT/ESP) I learned how Malcolm’s school nurse (Nurse Angie) is on the MFT bargaining team. Today, she shared publicly this breakdown of time laid out by a fellow bargaining team member, of their total investment of time. I cannot begin to perceive the emotional, intellectual and spiritual labors, not to mention the emotional and physical •toll• these numbers represent. ‘Thank you’ feels like it will never be enough. Our public school community will be better because of these massive efforts (bargaining team and strike line, alike.) And, it is just the beginning. A message found me along the way through my years long personal mental health burnout/breakdown, and I feel it’s relevant here: ‘Discovery is not recovery.’ Our community is now made fully aware (in discovery) of the true state our public school system has been ‘existing’ (barely surviving) in....

  After everything our MPS educators and support professionals MFT/ESP have been fighting for, I want to underscore that my words here come from a place of deep reverence for the labors of every striker out on the line these past three weeks, as well as every MFT/ESP bargaining team member. I need to acknowledge how your work these three weeks was FREE; you weren't paid. You risked your personal safety and lost planned income for your families. I salute you and love each and every one of you, so deeply for showing what was *necessary* in the working conditions of MPS to stand up for yourself, for your valued knowlege and experience, as well the children of Minneapolis Public schools. WE NEED YOU. WE LOVE YOU. THANK YOU ALL. While my expression comes from a place of *full support* for the *Safe and Stable* schools this tremendous union family has worked so hard to create for our kids, I learned something new this morning and it is a spiky pill to swallow. It feels like salt being p...

I want to be hopeful today and through the weekend, that the demands and needs of MPS educators and support professionals, what all they’ve fought to secure for our kids, are being met in this tentative agreement.  However, I feel we have a long game on our hands; If the union members do vote their hearts and minds, in agreement, to return to school on Monday, then it’s “settled.”  I feel this effort must continue, in that case shifting completely to us; as parent/community stakeholders, to continue this fight in a couple of ways. Letting our educators and support staff continue to do what it is they do best; nurture our children’s minds in their schools and classrooms. 1) MPS administration and school board are an embarrassment, and behaved shamefully these three weeks. I believe they have shown us they don’t care for our kids. I don’t know how to flip a school board, but I would love to find ways to engage our PTO or other parent groups to •back• new candidates for the board...

As a parent struggling through this, I know how difficult it can be to not feel informed and up to date. Several others in this group speak the language of what all is happening on a deep level and I so value the emotional and intellectual labors being poured into this space. It is also difficult for me to keep up. Sometimes I simply need reminders like this (image, not mine and I don’t know who created!) to clear my own lens of perspective.  Shared from a place of love, and from a place of what I am sensing… that our educators are holding the last line of defense between •actual• publicly funded schools -  and a push toward privatization and further segregation by MPS. I am a person who struggles to stick to facts and numbers when people/entities are •showing us• how their words don’t match their actions.  The last parent communication email from MPS on 3/19 (four days ago) read “We are committed to getting students back in classrooms as soon as possible, as well as hono...

This is a hill I will choose to die on, over and over again. A deeply personal reflection as we begin week three of •necessary• school shutdown due to labor strike… Those who are suffering have a keen recognition of what is not being said due to having been forced to endure without the truth being exposed and internalizing more than words can often express.  Witness and listen. To to help uncover the truth for yourself, it can be done by paying some attention those who experience differently than you. As we are called over and over again to stick to the facts and numbers, as we continue in solidarity with this massive tide of needed change; I speak from a wholehearted place after experiencing a lifetime of not feeling (and not being) seen, heard, believed. Facts are critical. Yes, and, so are the feelings and •sensing• of those who are suffering.  Period. Facts. Thanks for reading. 💙✊🏼💙 #mft4kids #safeandstableschools #mps #minneapolispublicschools

From yachts to makeshift rafts, everyone is in this thing together, in one way or another.  Speaking of boats, I can't help but think of the massive ship that is our public school system, long having kept kids (and families alike) in strong routine and progressive forward movement, or trying to. I keep picturing Minneapolis Public Schools system in its current state of being as the Titanic; that moment after its catastrophic breakdown.  Having coasted for longer than it could/should have on what's left of the grace and nurturing flow of its educators and the support professionals who've kept the ship afloat through storm after storm… our public schools are not functional for good reason.  The combined cold and neglectful treatment coming  down on those who’ve held the ship together, kept it afloat year after year, especially over the past decade… while MPS administration has reduced funding for resources “crisis” style thanks to shifts and mismanagement, re...

It hasn't been easy for us to show up on the picket line with Malcolm's school since the very first day. Malcolm has expressed several times how he is "glad there is a strike but is not happy for the reasons."  This was a bit difficult for me to fully grasp at first, but I've come to recognize how my child is attempting to relate how he 'doesn't like' school and is grateful for the break (which isn't new, school is very challenging for him and this is his way of telling us.) He also wants his teachers and ESPs to have all their demands met, and it is still really hard for him to show up in such a massively disrupted environment alongside them. Even with the overal spirit of positivity and solidarity at the picket line, my child cannot fully process being in this environment.  I’m trying to be kind and sensitive to my child’s needs and continue to do my best to show up alongside in the ways I know how. Ever grateful for my own many privileges, namel...

(We intended to show up at the picket line, signs in hand, for those who keep our school alive. It turns out, they showed up for us, without pay. I'm not surprised in the least, but it feels like a very big deal and I want to ensure that I document it. ) Malcolm was reluctant to be photographed this morning. However we were •so proud• to stand and rally with his incredible, kind, generous and loving 4th grade teacher. (He did however take this photo of me with her, and let us hold his sign! She loved it!) Malcolm’s third grade teacher led us in some incredible call and response; we learned she will be getting a bullhorn for later rallies!! She shared how proud she is of Malcolm for coming out today. His 3rd grade teacher was also accompanied by her young adult daughter who DID get this photo of Malcolm with his sign. Malcolm’s school nurse, who’s been with him since age 4 when he started High 5(MPS Pre-K) rallied with us; I learned she is also on the union’s bargaining team, which...

Dear Speaker Hortman,  I am writing to you today, asking that you please work to prioritize public schools within the Minnesota House's budget target allocations.  From the projected surplus of $9.3 bilion for the current two-year budget cycle, our public schools should receive $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2023, then $3 billion for fiscal year 2024 & $3 billion for 2025. As a Minneapolis Public School parent to a 4th grader with an IEP for special education services, I •implore• you to nurture the places that have been neglected.  Our inner-city public schools demand inclusion with this projected wealth distribution. Thank you for your consideration, Lacey Welter Minneapolis, 55406

Dear Superintendent Graff, Associate  Superintendent  Roche lle Cox and MPS Board of Education: I am writing as parent of a 4th grader with an IEP who attends Minneapolis Public Schools. Despite his age being just 10 years, he (and our family) have been a part of the Minneapolis Public Schools community exclusively since 2012, thanks to the Minneapolis ECFE and High 5 programs before Kindergarten.   I have made MPS our community through thick and thin. I wish to express my full support for the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals and their demands of MPS. You have a responsibility to our community, the children of Minneapolis and  especially  the district's most vulnerable children who find stability in the services MPS provides them.  You have a responsibility to listen to your educators and ESPs who work directly with our children. When they ask for their needs to be met in the interest of creating  safe an...