‍As part of our 2024 election coverage, we are conducting interviews with Minneapolis Public Schools school board candidates. I talked with District 6 school board candidate Greta Callahan, former president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers on Sept. 27. We talked about a range of topics from taking over as the union’s president during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to how she would address the district’s current budget crisis. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Melissa Whitler: At the center of your campaign is the leadership experience you would bring as the former president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. When you were first elected to that role in 2020, there were a lot of external events happening in the district, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent civil unrest. From the outside, it seems like there was a shift in the way MFT was operating. Can you talk a little about that shift?

Greta Callahan: We had tried as a union–and a lot of unions do this actually–where we say we want to become an organized union. We can't keep being a pop machine union where you put in a coin and you get something out. We really need it to be like a gym where if you want to be strong, you have to actually go workout.

I had started at a charter school before I was in Minneapolis Public Schools. That has been a passion of mine, talking about corporate reform, talking about the dismantling of public schools. When I initially decided to run, I was really running on that kind of stuff. And then it was like COVID, all this stuff happened.

One of my biggest goals was to have just way stronger communication. I started an MFT podcast. I was making videos of the emails I was sending out. I was just trying to communicate in every way possible so that members were up to date with what's going on and especially back then with COVID where nobody knew anything.

I knew without full transparency, but then also without developing new leaders, we would not be able to be the union we are today. It was really, really important to me because of where I had taught that our union was more reflective of our students and not just not just in color of the skin, but where people were teaching, what they were doing. So I made a really strong effort to have all kinds of different teachers, nurses and social workers, from all over the district to get more involved.

And because of all those conditions- I've not shied away from my dislike of [former MPS superintendent] Ed Graff- it just made it easier to get people to wanna fight so hard for our public school system.

MW: In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, the school board passed a resolution to remove School Resource Officers from schools. It was something that students in particular had been pushing the board to do for a while. Unlike in other districts, the union didn’t oppose this change.

GC: We take credit for it, but what I can tell you is we don't take credit for how it ended up. Our big push was not to get cops out of schools. Our huge push was to add more mental health support, lower class sizes. The need for cops goes away because we're going to be supporting the whole child. And the way the board did it felt very reactionary, without a solid plan in place to do anything different. I don't think that was good for kids or a better replacement necessarily.

MW: To go back to leadership and collaboration. The current board has three members who were endorsed by MFT in the 2022 election, one member who was endorsed by MFT previously but not in 2020, and three members who have not been endorsed by the union. Having observed this board, they are not always cohesive and there are some tensions among members. How would you carve out a role within the board, given the current dynamics?

GC: I don't agree with the cohesiveness at all. This is my favorite board that I've got to work with. I've had one-on-ones with all of these people for the last year or two. I can't name anyone on the board right now who I can't work with. Every single one of them–people we didn't endorse–I respect. I didn't always feel that way with some of our boards. I truly believe that this board is rooted in our kids, rooted in strong public schools and we might differ on how to get there.

MW: Yes, I think that's where their differences come out, right? I'm not saying the board members are not committed to the district, but they don't always agree about everything.

GC: For sure. But I really like all of them. I mean, some of the ones that have not been endorsed by MFT I would say I had the best conversations with actually. I'm really excited to work with this board.

MW: Do you have a vision for what your role would be within the group?

GC: What I know as someone who has been a leader, who's been through a lot, is you gotta see where you fit in first. So I'm excited to see where that is best and how I can be most effective.

MW: The board is currently in the third year of implementing a strategic plan. Is there work within the current strategic plan that you would jump into?

GC: I absolutely want a new strategic plan. We're actually asking teachers and educators in the buildings to implement this plan. But they had zero say in this plan. You cannot have buy-in without co-creation. You will only get compliance or malicious compliance.

With a plan that's number one goal is student achievement, and number two is student well-being, I can tell you that the ground floor understands that those two have to be flipped. I sat down with all the board members and was like “What the heck? Who made this plan?” Nobody could speak to it in a way where anyone felt total buy-in of it, whether it was the top or people in the classrooms.

If we want anything to have buy-in we need the implementers to be involved in the creation of it.

And that is one of my superpowers. That is why MFT is stronger now, from that co-creation, not just the top making decisions and deciding things.

MW: One of the other things, besides the strategic plan work that the board is grappling with is the budget. How do you think they fill this budget hole and do it in a way that's not harmful to students, and where people want to continue to work for the district?

GC: Having this conversation about 100 times a day has honestly made me more and more enraged at the state and federal governments. Because obviously we need to increase enrollment, but when we have wildly outrageous loose open enrollment laws, it is really hard, right? We're competing with other public school systems. I have heard that we do have some legislators working on trying to change that. And I think that would be one hugely critical step.

But when we talk about Title 1 funding, ESL mandates, Special Ed mandates that aren’t being funded. When all of these COVID dollars are going away, that we needed. I have to be honest, I've been really frustrated even with our national unions, who should be making that priority number one. We all kind of stopped drowning for a second and we're accepting that this money that they pretty easily got to us is going away.

Sometimes I think I want to get on that board and start a revolution where we stop fighting with each other for these tiny pieces of the pie and put our sights on the change that has to be made and that is at the state and federal level.

If we do want to retain our families or increase enrollment, we need to be doing things that families are asking for. They say “I know, but we don't have the money for it” and I'm like, OK, but also we could not do it, lose more families and then have to cut again. They're in this vicious cycle–cut, fire, close, cut, fire, close.

We all deserve the best here in Minneapolis and we have to have a solid plan to retain our families and stabilize. That just has to be the number one priority right now because there isn't one, and people are hanging by a thread here in Minneapolis Public Schools.

‍MW: And what do you hear that families want, door-knocking in District 6?

GC: They don't know that this is what it's called, but guaranteed programming. I know I've talked about “why does Kenny have 5th grade orchestra, Anthony doesn't.” Things like that. We want it to make sense. World language that our kids want at Southwest, like Japanese.

I totally understand the fiscal crisis we're in. And I know that there are things families are asking for, and they're saying it's going to keep them, and they believe it will help bring in more families. And I think some of that deep work, those conversations, that co-creation should be front and center right now for our school board.

MW: The board has to approve a balanced budget. It creates a situation where if you add one thing, you have to cut something else. So what are some of the things that could be cut?

GC: When I started at Bethune, we had one mentor for the building. It worked. And now we have a lot more coaches.  And I'm talking about MFT members. This is wildly unpopular, by the way.

MW: How do members feel about you talking about their jobs changing?

GC: We have to do what's going to keep families and get more families back. We worked really hard at trying to retain educators and I'm very proud of the work we've done to make that happen. And we have to also be focusing on how to retain and attract new families. And honestly, I don't know what the new [budget] cuts are, but while I was president we had 10% of our staff who are licensed teachers working with adults and in Saint Paul Public Schools it was 5%.

MW: Can you clarify what specific job categories you're talking about?

GC: I'm not going to name any specific job.

MW: Are you thinking more like the literacy coaches or differentiation specialists that used to be part of predictable staffing at every school? Both of those roles have been cut from predictable staffing.

GC: That's why I'm saying I actually don't know which positions.

MW: Teachers working with teachers?

‍GC: Licensed teachers working with licensed teachers. We need to look at how many of those positions are newer, are effective and is it something that we could reassign to help lower class sizes without increasing costs.

MW: Those people are doing work right now. Would that work go away or does it become someone else's responsibility? Have you thought through it that much or is that getting too in the weeds?

GC: Was that work just made-up out of thin air five years ago? We have all of these positions, these are not positions that have always existed.

We need to do an audit of all the things we're spending money on and how it is affecting children. And again, will all of this solve our fiscal crisis? No. And this is where I get into how things feel in the building. Could it change how our buildings are feeling for educators, students and families? Yeah, it could.

When I was a newer teacher at Bethune, we had some contract language for high priority schools where we had class size caps. My kindergarten class went from 27 to 18 and it was the best thing ever and I'll never forget when we lost it. I talked with district leaders and they were like none of your test scores at high priority schools changed from this. And I remember thinking oh my gosh, but our buildings feel so different.

MW: You mentioned the test scores, and you also said that for these teachers working with teachers positions, we need to look at the effectiveness of them. What makes something effective in your mind?

GC: I think we have to ask, why did we get those positions to begin with. And that's how you would decide, right? What were we trying to accomplish? And I don't know that because I wasn't there for them.

MW: So if the position was put there, say a reading coach, and it's not moving proficiency in reading, then would you think about eliminating the position?

GC: I wasn't there. I don't know what this was for, these roles. I'm really excited to get information like that. I'm just trying to think as creatively as possible with the budget we're working with.

MW: And what you're not saying is you want to explore all of these things before exploring the idea of consolidating buildings?

GC: Absolutely yes, 100% yes. And I'm not even suggesting cutting any of these positions just to be clear.

MW: At the forum you said how districts save money when they consolidate schools by reducing staffing. Nobody likes to talk about that. It's really painful for people to lose their jobs. Is that one of your goals is to try to figure out how to balance the budget without eliminating any positions?

GC: Our superintendent, as you know, made some big changes. And I'm really excited to see if our departments are making more sense. Does that feel like all of the people in the Davis Center are doing something that is critical for MPS?

MW: Obviously, the district has to have a payroll department, and they have to have an accounting department.

GC: Totally. Day-to-day those things are critical.

MW: So you’re not not saying that every position at Davis should be eliminated?

GC: Oh, my God. Oh, no, no, no. In fact, when I talk to teachers who go to Bloomington or Edina. They're like “Man, there are no issues with payroll.” That's so important to have retention.

At MFT, I had a staff of ten. I understand what management is like and how critical it is to have day-to-day functioning. So no, I'm not on another planet about any of this stuff.

MW: Currently, the district allocates funding to school buildings and requires that schools have a baseline level of staffing the district calls predictable staffing. If schools have funding left after funding those positions, the principal and site council have some leeway over what else to do. Where do you come down on the spectrum of all schools should have the same staffing, and schools shouldn’t be cookie cutters?

GC: I remember us making many decisions like, voting to cut the librarian this year because we need this money elsewhere. You need autonomy in a building, and there are some things that we just do need to be consistent. I'm not saying every single program has to be the same, but what we should all have as a librarian, we should all have a nurse.

People want world languages. They want High Five. They want 4th grade band and orchestra, by the way, not just 5th. It's looking at which of those programs are widely asked for by some families. I'm hearing all the time on the doors like “why do they offer that in Bloomington?”  And some of them are things we used to do.

I’d like to see some world languages and a librarian instead of leaving it up to the building to decide. I would like it if the board voted to offer some that is guaranteed so that we do have more consistency. It's tricky business because we also want buildings to have autonomy. And we do need things that people know, if you go to the Minneapolis Public Schools, you get orchestra. Or you will have librarians in your building.

MW: I’m going to steal a question from John Edwards that he asked candidates in 2022 and I really liked it. What is bringing you joy right now?

GC: I mean, what's bringing me joy right now? And I will say it has literally restored my faith in humanity is knocking doors. People are afraid to do it. And I'm like it’s so good. 99.9999% of people who open their doors are so kind and care so deeply. And it has truly brought me joy that I did not ever anticipate.

MW: Is there anything that I didn’t ask you about that you would like for voters to know?

GC: I'm enraged with the government. The thing I've been thinking about is just all of the needs we have in our city or in our state. Let's just take Minnesota. I won't go federal right now, but, when busing started decades ago, what I've realized is the state government, the federal government has indicated their responsibility of integration, of supporting families and making sure people are paid a living wage and have that responsibility of, like integration into our schools.

I don't wanna fight amongst us anymore. This is not actually the problem. The problem is so much greater than us. I think it's going to take a lot of education about how we even got here, like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top and all the churn has caused the dismantling of public schools. I want to be in this place of common ground and bring us together around trying to create real, lasting change without going at each other.

MW: Where do you think that common ground is? In Minneapolis we're a majority Democrat city and we have differences right here.

GC: I'm just not thinking Republican Democrat. I'm more thinking of funding for schools and what responsibilities we're placing on our schools. Even if it is just a whole bunch of Democrats, get behind that instead of turning the focus on what do we have to cut? National unions and school boards across the country, we should all be passing collective resolutions around unfunded mandates. And just taking care of our families.

The Minneapolis Public Schools District 6 school board election is on Nov. 5 and Minneapolis voters can vote early at the Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services building, 980 E Hennepin Ave.