Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams addressed the thousands of people that gave feedback about the school transformation plan by publicly asking to pause the options they provided to the school board in September.
“The feedback we received largely indicated that this was not the approach or timeline our community believes we should pursue right now,” Sayles-Adams said at the Oct. 13 school board meeting. “I must recommend now that the school board does not move forward with any school closures or mergers at this time.”
Read more on the school transformation plan
The meeting audience stood up and applauded Sayle-Adam’s remarks–a rare response from school board meeting audiences.
School board Directors Greta Callahan and Sharon el-Amin announced a resolution on Oct. 9 to also pause the school transformation process, including language to explicitly stop any school closures in the 2027-28 school year. The resolution was not added to the meeting’s agenda, something the board’s chair, Director Collin Beachy, can do.
El-Amin said she was caught off guard by Sayles-Adams announcement and labeled it as a possible “grandstanding” moment.
“This is a blindside move,” el-Amin said. “I sent my resolution. I shared it. There was no feedback. There was nothing that said the superintendent was going to take this position.”
Director Lori Norvell said bringing forward a resolution was “unprofessional” because of an existing agreement with board members.
“The process we decided on as a board was discussion tonight, not to bring any resolutions, not to have any voting about anything,” Norvell said. “So I also would like to talk about the disrespect and the unprofessionalism that has happened with this. We all should have a say in any resolution that comes forward in this transformation.”
Legally, school board members cannot work as a full body on resolutions outside of meetings because that could be considered breaking open meeting laws.
The board voted to add Callahan and El-Amin’s resolution to the meetings agenda by a vote of 6-3. Directors Norvell, Ellison, and Emerick voted no.
Over three hours later, the board passed an amended resolution that removed the language to stop school closures in the 2027-28 school year.
The language was replaced with the school board continuing discussion on “enrollment strategies, early childhood enrollment, school start and end times, school choice assignment policies and procedures, and an impact analysis of compensatory education and other needs-based, State-generated funding distributions in the district.”
The next school board meetings are through the finance and policy committees on Oct. 27.
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