There are two candidates running for one At-Large (citywide) seat:

Kim Ellison (Incumbent, DFL-endorsed)
Shayla Owodunni

tl;dr I would vote for Shayla Owodunni.

(Cut for length.)

I wrote about this race briefly in July, but mostly just wanted to sort out which of the two challengers I thought made sense to vote for (Kim Ellison, the incumbent, was obviously going to make it through the primary.) It’s now a race between Kim and Shayla, and I wanted to revisit it in more detail.

Kim Ellison has been on the school board for twelve years. Four as the District 2 rep, eight as an at-large member. She was heavily involved in the CDD (Comprehensive District Design) plan. (I found a pretty good explanation of what the CDD involved here. Worth noting that the plan was forced through during the early pandemic despite a lot of protest from families and by 2023 they’d lost 4,200 students, 13% of the students in the district.)

Back in 2020, I endorsed candidate Michael Dueñes, because I was frustrated with Kim’s approach to the schools, especially the CDD. Given the profound unpopularity of the CDD I’m really surprised that Kim was apparently not challenged for DFL endorsement this year.

Shayla Owodunni is a really unusual candidate for the school board in that she does not have children, and she’s not a teacher. Her entry point into MPS was working as an Early Learning Corps volunteer. However she brings some really interesting prior education and experience in finance, compliance, and risk management.

She also brings just an amazing amount of indefatigable enthusiasm.

One big concern I’ve heard from a number of people is that Shayla was endorsed by a right-wing (transphobic, among other things) group, the Minnesota Parent’s Alliance. This group is awful and I would be very wary of any candidate who sought their endorsement. Shayla did not seek their endorsements; in fact, she contacted them and asked to be removed from their voter guide. They refused. I think they endorsed her not because of her views, but because she’s the candidate whose last name is not “Ellison,” I really think it’s as simple as that.

Having conversed by e-mail with Shayla, I am solidly convinced that she is not a secret conservative. She’s opposed to book bans. She’s in support of diversity and equity initiatives. She wants trans students and teachers to be treated with the respect they deserve. I raised concerns about the fact that when asked about support of trans students, she said she loved and cared about all students — this is sometimes a dodge used by conservatives. She said: “I have been intentional to say all children—because LGBTQ+ families aren’t the only families finding me in real life or in my inbox with questions on where they fit in with my platform (…and I get it, I came out of political nowhere in the 11th hour). I have had Jewish families, I have had Muslim families, I have had Black families, I have had Somali families, I have had Latino families, I have had Indigenous families, I have had families with children with special needs…and the list goes on—who have asked me essentially the same question: Is my child going to be safe and supported by having you on the school board? And that answer is YES. That goes for in and out of the schools, and I stand 10 toes down on saying that anyone who knows my character would back that up in a heartbeat.” (And I’ll note, when the race got discussed on Reddit, several people who know her personally chimed in to say she’s absolutely not a conservative or transphobe.)

There were two streamed forums, both of which I watched.

First, MFT 59 (the teacher’s union) did a screening, which you can watch on Facebook. One thing that struck me watching was that Shayla has a ton of energy but not a lot of experience: she has been a classroom volunteer for two years, and that’s the perspective she brings. It’s not a broad perspective, and that’s not ideal. But the other thing that struck me was that Kim Ellison’s years of experience did not seem to be helping her answer these questions. In response to a question about what the district could do to find out why students are leaving she said, “I don’t know that we know all the reasons why students are leaving.” One of the reasons they don’t know is that they don’t ask. It’s repeatedly been suggested that they try asking. Kim has been on this board for 12 years! Implementing some sort of standard exit survey or data collection of any kind regarding families who leave the district really seems like a thing she could have done. Or at least pushed for.

Second, the League of Women Voters school board candidate forum (which also included Greta and Lara, the two candidates in District 6). Unfortunately, the sound is terrible in multiple ways and the garbled sound makes it really hard to follow answers. (I did my best.)

At one point a question came up about science-based literacy programs. Kim said something like, “why do we have to re-train teachers, they should be learning how to teach reading in their training programs.” There’s a whole history here, and I find it profoundly weird that someone who’s on a school board, who’s been on a school board for 12 years, doesn’t know it. My knowledge on this issue comes heavily from the podcast Sold a Story and that is actually super common, a lot of people are running around with basically the information from Sold a Story. I’m sure that the podcast is not the last possible word on reading instruction. But if you’re on a school board, and huge numbers of people are advocating for educational policies based on a podcast (or a book or a documentary) I feel like it’s a reasonable expectation that you at least read the cliff notes on it?

Also this isn’t new. Sold a Story came out last year, but there have been groups advocating for a shift in reading instruction approach for a long time. Not knowing anything about the science of literacy as a school board member feels like such a profound and also weird dereliction of duty. How have you not put in the time to learn about this issue?

(The quick answer to Kim’s question: there was this wildly popular approach to literacy instruction that was taught to most teachers for decades. It turns out to leave a substantial percentage of kids unable to read. This is now changing, but if you want elementary school teachers to be able to teach phonics, and someone graduated back in 2008 and didn’t learn how to teach phonics, we will have to teach them how to teach phonics.)

The group Great MN Schools sent out at questionnaire that both Shayla and Kim filled out. Shayla’s responses are long, detailed, and include footnoted references. Kim’s …….. In response to a question about reestablishing strong enrollment in the district, Kim said, “First, we need to engage families that have not traditionally been heard to learn their [hopes] and dreams for the child’s education. And, if a family leaves the district, we must ask them why to learn what would’ve kept then in MPS, what can keep others, and to learn what could bring them back.”

Again: that would be a really good idea. It’s been a good idea for all of the last twelve years, during which Kim has not done it. In response to a question about increasing the number of educators of color, Kim says, “I would begin by learning from current MPS educators of color to discover their experience in the district. I’d use that information to form effective strategies to help the district adequately recruit and retain educators that best reflect the experiences of students.” This is an absolutely unhinged response from someone who has been on the board for over a decade! How do you write “I would begin” like this is a hypothetical thing you could finally start doing next January if you win this race and get on the board?!?

Then there’s this question and answer:

What are your views on the science of reading? What priorities would you advance to ensure the district is improving literacy for students?

I believe reading is the most important skill we teach children. And, reading is as much a skill as it is an art. We should be teaching the mechanics of reading while increasing the desire to read. We can motivate children to wanting to read by ensuring their are interesting materials that children want to read. Once formal reading has begun, students will be reading in every class so all educators should be trained on how to identify when students are struggling and provide them the resources to address those issues. These are some ways MPS can create a culture focused on literacy in every building.

So once again, evidence-based literacy instruction comes up, and once again, it’s not clear to me that Kim knows anything about it.

Getting back to Shayla: some additional info about Shayla can be found on Ballotpedia, where she completed their survey. She mentions the book Disrupting Disruption as one that exemplifies her philosophy around education. (I haven’t read it, but the description talks about successful districts as follows: “What makes them distinctive is their relentless focus on developing and supporting teachers and engaging students; constantly seeking ways to do a better job; using data to enhance learning; developing partnerships with parents and local organizations; and relying on stable, supportive leadership.”) Almost all her answers mention equity in some way.

One point that came up in her e-mail to me is her particular focus on educational equity: “Year after year, we’re watching the life expectancy of Black males drop, and it’s directly tied to the failure of our system to support their success. Minneapolis is scraping the bottom of every research study in the nation for graduation rates for students of color (…bottom FOUR for Black males). … I am tired of the cyclical sappy sympathy followed by silence for students of color.” She says this is her ride-at-dawn issue. (I think it’s a good one.)

Fundamentally, a lot of Shayla’s proposals boil down to “we should have good schools!” What strikes me as specifically impressive about Shayla as a candidate is her energy. She started out as a literacy volunteer and wound up running because the more she saw of the schools and the students, the more she saw problems she thought she could solve. Also, she filled out a candidate questionnaire and provided endnotes so people knew where she’d gotten her data from.

I personally do not know how to solve the problems the Minneapolis schools have. But I am fully convinced that the energy, commitment, and openness that Shayla would bring to the board would be good for the Minneapolis Public Schools, and I would absolutely vote for Shayla if I lived in Minneapolis.

---

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi but instead encourage people to donate to fundraisers I can then see fund. Usually I do teacher fundraisers (and I found one for this year, Ms. Pierce at Lucy Craft Laney school in North Minneapolis who would like donations to buy books, math manipulatives, and social and emotional learning resources.)

But I’m also fundraising for something slightly more personal to my family this year: YMCA Camp Northern Lights. Camp Northern Lights is a family camp, which is a camp that whole families attend together. My family went to Camp Du Nord (the other YMCA family camp) for many years, and my daughter Kiera has worked as a counselor at Camp Northern Lights for the last two summers. One of the things that makes Camp Northern Lights unique is their serious commitment to inclusion of families from communities that have been underrepresented at YMCA camps.

Last summer, Camp Northern Lights had a serious fire early in the summer — no one was hurt, but they lost their commercial kitchen and the housing for the counselors-in-training. They are hoping to raise enough money to rebuild an expanded kitchen. I have set up a fundraiser towards that goal. If you’d like to express your appreciation for the usefulness of this blog, you can show your love by donating to my fundraiser!