‍I am a Minneapolis resident and Minneapolis Public Schools parent. I am also an educator in a neighboring district. I am wondering if you can help me with some of my questions:

Who is leading this site? 

Andrew Haeg, co-founder of Southwest Voices.

What is the direct involvement or cooperation with MPS personnel?

There is no direct involvement with MPS. Our reporters and community connector regularly attend MPS events and meetings and interact with MPS personnel for interviews in order to report accurate news with perspective, but there is no connection between MPS and Minneapolis Schools Voices.

 Is it a public relationship, a partnership, …? 

It is neither. We are journalists reporting on Minneapolis Public Schools. 

The disclaimer says “Minneapolis Schools Voices is a news service by and for Minneapolis Public Schools families and educators. Every Friday, we send out a weekly email newsletter and a news digest via our texting line. Sign up to get updates sent right to your inbox.“ But none of the writers listed appear to be MPS teachers/educators or appear to work in public or K-12 schools.

Melissa Whitler is an MPS parent and Cirien Saadeh worked at North News (a publication in cooperation with North High School). Cirien was hired to be our community connector, which means she is tasked with making connections with MPS families and educators to grow our network. Outside of Minneapolis Schools Voices, Cirien is also an educator at the college level. Similar to what we do over at Southwest Voices, we are working towards community members writing pieces and curating information about the district’s community. ‍

I’d love to get more perspective if you are willing to share. 

Andrew Haeg applied for a Minneapolis Foundation grant to start an education-focused news site, which we have named Minneapolis Schools Voices. Through our work at Southwest Voices, readers have told us over and over again about how grateful they are for our education coverage. We similarly noticed a gap in coverage of the district writ-large. We received the Minneapolis Foundation grant to expand our education coverage.