Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education met on Nov. 12 for its regular business meeting. All board members were in attendance with Director Joyner Emerick joining remotely.

The board selected Lucie Skjefte as its next District 3 director after multiple tie votes between her and candidate Fateema Hussein were resolved in a coin toss. Skjefte was chosen by the board to represent District 3 after candidate interviews last week. Former District 3 Director Faheema Feerayarre resigned in September. Skjefte’s term will run until January 2027 and she’s indicated she will  run for re-election in 2026.  Skjefte has previously served as the chair of the district’s American Indian Parent Advisory Committee.

Financial projection update

Senior Finance Officer Ibrahima Diop presented the district’s five-year financial projection, otherwise known as the pro forma, showing the district will exhaust its reserves next school year without significant budget cuts or additional funding.

The district is expecting $7 million less in annual revenue compared to the forecast provided in October. There was no explanation given for the change. The revised figures would place the district in statutory operating debt at the end of next school year.

Diop said that in 2019, the district’s pro forma predicted the fund balance would be -$156.2 million this year. But the fund balance at the beginning of this fiscal year is estimated to be around $154 million. He said the district was able to make adjustments to its expenses to avoid the dire prediction, including the nearly $260 million in state and federal pandemic aid in the past four school years, which was not anticipated when the 2019 pro forma was developed.

The district says enrollment has increased by 558 students compared to last school year, for a total of 30,667 pre-K-12th grade students this year. Students who are new to the country, or newcomers, make up almost all of the new students, Diop said.

Nearly all of the newcomers are Spanish-speaking and receive English learner services. Diop said the district receives about $5 million per year from the State to support English learners, and spends about $25 million more from its general fund to support them.

Director Sharon El-Amin expressed skepticism about the district’s enrollment projections.

“If we are not doing what our children need to have in order to succeed in this world from an academic standpoint to where our children are not reading at grade level, how real are those numbers for us to be projecting to think that families are going to continue to send their students to a system if academically we are not seeing a change in our Black and Brown families in the academic arena,” El-Amin said.

The pro forma does not assume enrollment will continue to increase in future years. Diop explained that this is a conservative forecast assumption because the district is uncertain whether it will continue to receive as many newcomer students in the future.

Director Ira Jourdain said the district could not realistically increase its enrollment enough to cover the projected future deficits.

Director Adriana Cerrillo said the district needs to be advocating for more funding at the State level, and asked Sayles-Adams if the district had reached out directly to Gov. Tim Walz. She also asked Diop to use his expertise to provide more guidance to the board about how to address the budget deficit.

“I don’t know what it is that we are waiting for to put responsibility on the governor,” Cerrillo said. “By June we are going to be in a deep hole.”

Chair Collin Beachy said he and other board members are working with an inter-governmental committee to advocate for additional funding for the district.

South High teacher fired for unlocking bathroom

The board’s approval of the consent agenda included the firing of a South High School teacher.  Multiple students and staff members asked during public comments that the board amend the consent agenda to remove a teacher from the district’s discharge list. According to the public commenters, the teacher was let go from her position after unlocking a restroom for a student in violation of the school’s policy.

Students said that the restrooms on the second and third floors of the school are always locked, and students are required to find a dean to unlock the restrooms. Students at the school board meeting said this leads to physical and psychological discomfort for women and women-identifying students because most of the deans are men.

School calendar development

Ryan Strack, assistant to the board and superintendent, provided an update to the board from the calendar committee, which is working to develop the school year calendars for the next three years.

The committee is proposing to maintain many of the features of the current schools calendar, including starting after Labor Day, two weeks for winter break, one week for spring break and taking days off for major Jewish and Muslim holidays.

The committee must balance the State’s requirements for minimum number of school days and instructional time, its collective bargaining agreements and community input. Strack said the one area of feedback the district hasn’t been able to address yet is the number of days off in the middle of the school year.

Jourdain asked for Indigenous People’s Day to be added as a day off. The board will review a draft of the proposed calendars at the Dec. 10 board meeting and vote to approve the calendars at its January 2025 business meeting.