More than 70 people filled the Meraki Building on Monday evening for a forum with Lara Bergman and Greta Callahan, the two candidates for school board in District 6. The forum was presented by a group of Southwest Minneapolis neighborhood associations and moderated by Kingfield resident Tane Danger.

Danger navigated a range of topics with Bergman and Callhan, drawing out areas where the candidates agreed–they both support the $20 million technology levy on the November ballot and developing plans to grow the district’s enrollment–as well as their disagreements– Callahan blamed the district’s equity-focused comprehensive district design for driving families away from the district, while Bergman said families were leaving before the redesign.

On the surface, Bergman and Callahan have much in common.  Both grew up in Minneapolis, attending Minneapolis Public Schools, where Bergman graduated from South High School, while Callahan transferred to Holy Angels, a private Catholic school in Richfield for high school. Both have experienced the district as parents. Bergman’s two children currently attend Armatage Elementary School, and Callahan’s son recently graduated from Southwest High School. And both women have experience teaching younger students, Callahan as a former kindergarten teacher at Bethune Arts Elementary School and Bergman as a teacher at a private Montessori preschool.

But their approach to serving on the school board differs. Callahan believes that her years as a teacher in the district and her experience leading the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, gives her the advantage of being an insider with pre-existing relationships with board members and district administration. Bergman styles herself as a bridge builder, who “has skin in the game” as a district parent, and “is beholden to no one,” an apparent reference to Callahan’s close relationship with the teachers’ union.

The district’s budget

Danger kicked off the forum with a question about the greatest challenge facing the district– its growing budget crisis. Danger pushed the candidates for specific actions they would support to balance the district’s budget.

“We should all be rioting in the streets right now because we have mandates from the federal and State government right now that are not funded,” Callahan said.

In addition to asking for additional funding, Callahan also pointed out the impact of 42% of school-age children who live in Minneapolis but do not attend its public schools. She said the district does not currently have a plan to recruit these students to district schools. She proposed paying teachers and other district employees to go out into the community to recruit new students.

Callahan also said the district spends too much money on outside contracts. In a follow-up question, Danger asked Callahan if there was enough money in district contracts to solve the district’s budget crisis. Callahan said that the district has not responded to a data request for over two years, asking them for information about all of the district’s outside contracts.

Bergman suggested that the district should be more transparent about communicating with families about its budget challenges. She suggested providing families with a menu of options about how to make budget cuts. Callahan said that the district has tried this approach and calls it “dangerous to classrooms” because people just fight for themselves.

School Closures

When Danger asked the candidates about declining enrollment at Minneapolis Public Schools, Bergman promised voters “bold and innovative solutions to address the sustainability of our budget, not wishful thinking.” She noted that under the current budget, while enrollment at school buildings had declined, class sizes have increased, there are more split grade classrooms, and arts and advanced coursework has been cut.

“We can’t be more focused on saving buildings than we are on what happens inside those buildings,” Bergman said. “The only way we are going to be able to provide enough supports in buildings to students and educators is to consolidate some buildings and make sure we have the enrollment in the building to support that.”

Bergman said that families in District 6 are ready to have honest and transparent conversations about what consolidating buildings might mean. She blamed previous school boards and district leaders for lacking the political will to make difficult decisions about school closures. She said that by consolidating schools, the district will be able to afford to add programming, like early childhood education and dual language programs, that will attract new families to the district.

Callahan told the audience she would want to have three questions answered before considering school closures as a way to address the budget crisis. The questions include how much would be saved by the closure of a building, how many students from the closed school the district expects to retain, and how many students would need to enroll in a building to keep it from being closed.

Callahan said the district should first eliminate outside contracts, lobby for additional state funding, and develop a plan to grow enrollment before exploring closing schools. In her view, even mentioning closing schools as a possibility would lead to further declines in enrollment in the district.

Growing enrollment in the district

Callahan and Bergman shared some common ground around the need for the district to reach out to families who have left Minneapolis Public Schools, or never enrolled, to understand how the district can recruit and retain families.

Callahan said the district’s comprehensive district design, approved in 2020 and implemented in 2021, is the cause of much of the recent decline in district enrollment. She also blames charter schools, particularly in North Minneapolis, which she said “weaponize the word ‘choice’ to poor Black mothers.”

“No one should feel like a martyr for sending their kids to public schools because they are not meeting their needs,” Bergman said.

Bergman noted that half of students living in Minneapolis and not attending district schools are enrolled in suburban districts or private schools, but that Callahan only criticizes charter schools.

“I don’t feel great saying which parents' choices are valid,” Bergman said.

Callahan said families want stable staffing within schools and lower class sizes, which they sometimes seek by open enrolling in suburban districts. She said that the State’s “wildly loose open enrollment laws” allow suburban districts like Edina, Bloomington, St. Louis Park and Robbinsdale to “take so many of our kids. That’s why they’re doing so well.”

Bergman said the district was losing enrollment before the comprehensive district design was implemented and the plan did not have the intended impact of integrating the district’s schools. She suggested investing in early childhood education programs and an evidence-based literacy curriculum to increase enrollment.

Personal attacks

Bergman made two references to Callahan’s choice to enroll her son in Edina Public Schools from kindergarten through eighth grade, in a back and forth about enrollment, and recruiting and retaining families during the forum.

Callahan responded, explaining that when her son entered kindergarten, she relied on her parents to provide childcare before and after his school day because she was teaching. She says her parents wanted him to attend schools in Edina because it would be more convenient for them to pick him up and drop him off. Later, when Callahan wanted to move her son to Minneapolis Public Schools, she says her son’s father, who she was not married to, intervened, believing the change would be disruptive for their son. Callahan also noted that Bergman had sent her child to private school.

“I don’t need an explanation,” Bergman said. “I’m just illustrating that families make their decisions about where to send their children to school based on a variety of circumstances. It’s not just because of decisions that the district is making.”

Bergman said that her child had been enrolled in a private preschool before enrolling at Armatage Elementary School. Bergman defended the choice, saying that by Callahan’s definition anyone who has paid for childcare has sent their child to private school.

Academic Outcomes

Danger asked the candidates how they would address the gap in proficiency between white students and students of color in the district. He noted that 12 years ago he had moderated a school board candidate forum where academic outcomes were a central topic, but that data indicate the district has made little progress since then.

“The number one indicating factor of how students will perform on these racist, biased standardized tests is household income,” Callahan said.

Callahan said that her students were “brilliant” but that they came to school with “baggage” describing a former student who had been physically abused and placed in foster care. She said that the district should meet students’ other needs before focusing on academic outcomes.

Danger asked if Callahan was saying that the district should not be looking at assessment results.

“Absolutely not,” Callahan replied. “Teachers are already doing enough progress monitoring.”

According to Callahan, academic standards are “made up.”

"Quite frankly having the same standards for students living in poverty saying, 'why aren't you meeting these same test scores as students who have had a stable home and two parents and someone who can read to them at night?' does not make sense," Callahan said.

She said that standardized testing is a “multi-billion dollar industry leading to the dismantling and defunding of our public schools.” She then encouraged parents to opt their students out of standardized tests.

Bergman acknowledged that standardized tests are an “imperfect measurement” but pointed to the district’s FastBridge assessments as showing that many students are not proficient in math and reading. She called for an evidence-based literacy curriculum, along with support for teachers to implement it, as one way for the district to address academic disparities.

Bergman also said that additional investments in early childhood education could improve academic outcomes and break “generational cycles of poverty.”

Callahan criticized the State’s READ Act legislation which requires districts to use evidence-based literacy curriculum, and requires additional training for teachers in the science of reading. She said the $75 million appropriated by the legislature would have been better spent by lowering class sizes.

“There is a billion dollar industry profiting off of saying our kids can’t read and it is literally distracting all of us from the problems we’re facing,” Callahan said.

Comprehensive District Design Boundary Changes

While Danger had many questions prepared ahead of time, developed based on the input of the neighborhood associations and individuals who had submitted questions online in advance, he also asked questions submitted by the live audience on Monday evening. One person asked if the candidates supported the redrawing of high school pathway boundaries as part of the Comprehensive District Design that shifted some students living between Interstate 394 and W. 36th Street from Southwest High School to North High School.

Callahan said she had publicly supported redrawing some of the boundary changes that were made as part of the CDD if it would bring families back to Minneapolis Public Schools.

“It doesn’t make sense, some of these changes, where kids are on the bus for an hour at a time, going to a school where the principal said ‘no thanks, we don’t want you,’” Callahan said, referring to North High School and its principal Mauri Friestleben. “We should look at what’s accessible and what makes sense instead of gaslighting our families that they’re racist if they don’t choose this route or school for their children.”

Bergman says that the CDD did not live up to its goals of “equity and integration.” The district made its magnet schools citywide, and moved them to school buildings in the geographic center of the city as part of CDD. One impact of this change was that Armatage Elementary School lost its designation as a Montessori magnet school and became a non-Montessori neighborhood school.

“It’s interesting that Greta talks about putting your kid on a bus for an hour because prior to the CDD we were putting kids on the bus for an hour and bringing them from the Northside to Southwest side magnets,” Bergman said.

Bergman did not explicitly endorse boundary changes, but said that any future changes should bring families into the conversation.

Closing Comments

Danger ended the forum by first asking the candidates what voters could hold them accountable for in four years, if they are elected.

“I can’t wait to bring all of my experience as a teacher but also of my knowledge of the forces at be trying to dismantle our public schools,” Callahan said. “The public does not know–and it’s no one’s fault–how all the nice sounding ed reform groups are destroying and siphoning money from our public school system.”

Bergman said that four years from now she hopes people can see the district operating differently.

“I want to be a really good board director by listening to diverse stakeholder voices,” Bergman said. “I don’t want just my vision for Minneapolis Public Schools but I want our vision moving us forward.”

Bergman added that the district should have an evidenced-based literacy curriculum implemented in four years, with data to show how it is working for students.

“Literacy is liberation. And we are denying children their freedom when we are graduating them and moving them from grade to grade without the skills they need to be successful,” Bergman said.

Danger then asked both candidates for a closing statement.

Callahan recalled an op-ed she wrote as a teacher at Bethune in response to an article about “the worst teachers teach at the worst schools.” She followed this by developing a program that brought politicians and community leaders into schools to read to kids so they could see both “the joy of the children and the potential and the baggage that they carry.”

“I am choosing this fight for strong public schools. I ask that you join me. I ask for your vote and I am so grateful that you are here tonight,” Callahan said.

Bergman began her closing saying that in the past four years she has often asked herself “what about the kids?”

“I don’t think we can expect perfection from our leaders but I think we can expect honesty, transparency and accountability,” Bergman said. “I have no other agenda than to do right by our kids.”

Bergman promised to be a thoughtful leader who will communicate with constituents.

“I hope you walk away feeling like I’m the leader that listens and I’m the leader that inspires you to get involved so that this district meets the moment for our kids. And, of course, I hope I have earned your vote,” Bergman said.

Both candidates will be on the ballot for District 6 residents in the general election on Nov. 5. Information about where to vote can be found on the Secretary of State’s website.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Oct. 7 to adjust a quote by Greta Callahan. It was originally published as "Quite frankly, having the same academic standards for students living in poverty as for students who have a stable home and two parents and someone can read to them at night does not make sense."