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"We;re going to wash those stains right out of our schools."

I don’t think you heard this: “The Minneapolis school district boosted administrator pay as it was cutting 118 jobs.” (Star Tribune) Isn’t it time to stop the train wreck called the Minneapolis Public Schools?

by Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN NEWS and Black Politics in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN (IBNN NEWS/Satire/Editorial Opinion/September 24, 2011)….In breaking news reported by the Johannesburg Times (Star Tribune), Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has just hired a second outsider to work in administration for the admin-heavy, student-abandoning Minneapolis Public Schools.

The Star Tribune story by reporter Corey Mitchell says, “Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has hired an administrator from the Chicago Public Schools for the second time in three months. Stephen Flisk comes to Minneapolis next month from the nation’s third largest school district, where he last served as superintendent of Carver Military High School.  In Minneapolis, Flisk will work as associate superintendent for Area B, the portion of the city that covers the attendance areas for South and Roosevelt high schools and their feeder elementary and middle schools. He replaces former associate superintendent Erin Glynn.”

Superintendent Johnson, who paid out big cash to see if her underlings were being paid enough money, commissioned a study that resulted in a report saying, “Some Minneapolis school administrators were underpaid.” Again, the focus is never on the children. If Superintendent Johnson paid as much attention to the reports on the Minneapolis Public Schools achievement gap in her faulty school system…well, maybe not. It hasn’t happened already and there have been many reports.

Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson approved more than $270,000 in pay raises this summer for 35 central office administrators that were awarded in lump sums. (Damn, can I get my $3,800? Don’t make me cuss you out in public – I’ll do it!)

This is very troubling. At a time when U.S. Education Secretary Duncan says we need more teachers of color, and maybe administrators too, Johnson surrounds her wagon with unknowns, White unknowns.

Are there not Black, Hispanic-Latino, Asian, or Somali education professionals in Minnesota to fill and exceed the administrative needs of the Minneapolis Public Schools? Or is Superintendent Johnsons psychological egoism combined with her ethical egoism too much for local possibilities?

Now that we know the Minneapolis School Board can be easily “punk’d” by a leadership group flexed by Superintendent Johnson to derail important concerns on the superintendents actions and the corrective action that need to be taken right away – it’s only a matter of time before the rubber hits the road on this train wreck.

 More to come…