MinnPost’s Twin Cities Documenters program trains and pays community members to take notes at local government meetings. Below is Documenter Al Zdon’s summary and observations from the April 14 Minneapolis Board of Education (or school board) meeting. You can read the full notes here. The notes include links to the agenda and video, as well as timestamps to help you navigate the recording.

Attendance:

Present: Greta Callahan, Lori Norvell, Collin Beachy (chair), Kim Ellison (vice-chair), Abdul Abdi, Sharon El-Amin, Joyner Emerick, Lucie Skjefte, Student Reps Boisey Corvah and Zion Webster, Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adam (ex-officio.) Emerick took part by interactive media.

Absent: Adriana Cerrillo

School board meeting summary:

• The board received public comment from about 25 people, who mostly asked the board to reconsider budget cuts to counseling, adult education, library services and social workers.

• The board received a presentation from the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee on their recommendations for how the district can meet the needs of American Indian students.
  • In February, for the third consecutive year, the committee unanimously voted the district was not adequately meeting the students’ needs, which is defined as “nonconcurrence.” The next step after this vote is for the committee to provide recommendations to the board, which then has 60 days to respond. 
  • The committee’s priorities are improving representation of American Indian educators and culturally responsive mental health support, addressing disproportionate disciplinary actions to American Indian students and shifting to a restorative justice approach, and improving culturally appropriate access to tutoring and academic interventions. The committee urged that all American Indian students below proficiency should receive interventions. 

• The board received the final audit from last year.
  • The auditor noted that the district’s reserve fund had dropped from 8 percent of the budget to 7.5 percent. The board has a policy requiring an 8 percent reserve in order to keep a high bond rating. The audit was several months late because the district did not provide information to the auditor in a timely fashion.

• The board received a presentation on the 2026-27 school year budget process and fiscal year 2027 capital plan. 
  • The board asked staff why the Annishinabe Academy, which is supported by a board resolution, was not in the capital plan. The academy would relocate to the Cooper School property and costs could be $105 million. Staff said there would be a further report on the academy in eight months. 
  • The board was informed that cuts in special education compensatory funds from the state could cost the district $5 to $8 million next year.
  • Director Greta Callahan made a plea to the board members to not make the cuts to teaching and support staff. She said the cuts amounted to less than one percent of the district’s general fund. Callahan was president of the teacher’s union before being elected to the board. 

• The board voted to move Director Callahan from the finance to the policy committee and Director Adriana Cerrillo to the finance committee. Cerrillo has not attended a school board meeting in several months, and the policy committee last month had to cancel a meeting because of lack of a quorum.

• The board approved a contract with GardaWorld via the consent agenda.
  • This item was pulled from last month’s agenda because it was found the parent company was building an immigration prison in Arizona.
  • A new provision in the funding was that the contract, which is for security at the Davis Center, would be terminated at the end of the school year.

School board meeting observations and follow up questions: 

Accessibility: Did you face any challenges that made it harder to document the meeting or that may have made it difficult for others to attend? For example: trouble accessing the location, difficulty hearing the discussion, lack of nameplates for elected officials, or the agenda being unclear, disorganized, or incomplete.

Name cards for those speaking to the board can only be seen by the TV cameras and not by the people in the room.

Scene: About how many members of the public attended the meeting? If watching virtually, what was the livestream count (if applicable)? Was anyone protesting outside? 

About 80 people attended at the peak.

Notable: Do you have any follow up questions or other observations to share? What stood out to you as interesting or confusing? Is there anything you’d like to see reporters look further into? Were there any particularly memorable quotes?

• The budget website has a great deal of information, but no comparable data for the prior year, thus making it difficult or impossible for the public to see what’s being cut.

How to get involved:

When is the next meeting for this board/committee? Any upcoming public hearings? Online surveys? 

• The board’s next meeting is a working session on April 21. 
• The board’s Finance Committee will review the final proposed budget for the 2026-27 school year on April 28, and the May 12 full board meeting will include a first reading of that budget. The board is set to vote on the budget at its June 9 meeting. 
• The district also has a MPS Parent Legislative Action Committee, which is open to all parents and community members. Members receive updates for how to get involved at the state funding level.

More context:

Read Documenter Al Zdon’s full notes here. The notes include links to the agenda, video and timestamps to help you navigate the recording. You can also find all of our notes on Minneapolis school board meetings, going back to 2022, here.

Want to become a Documenter? You can start by making an account here.

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