Spring is a great time to be Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent because I have the opportunity to recognize some of our many outstanding students. I want to offer my whole-hearted congratulations to the six students who have recently been selected as Gates Millennium Scholars. These students are among only 1,000 scholars nationwide to receive good-through-graduation college scholarships via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They are Fadumo Abdullahi and Abdullahi Ali of Edison High School and Doua Kha, Mai Vang, Soua Chang and Susan Vang of Patrick Henry High School. In addition to financial assistance, Gates Millennium Scholars receive academic support, mentoring and leadership training. As a result, recipients have an average five-year graduation rate of almost 80 percent, 45 percent higher than the six-year rate for all college students.

Nineteen participants have been selected for the 2010-2011 Minneapolis Principals’ Academy.

The Minneapolis Principals’ Academy is designed to develop principal leaders who are effective in creating successful schools that get results. It is a year-long intensive and rigorous professional development program using both national and local experts in the field of educational leadership to prepare dedicated leaders for the principalship.

Selected applicants are educators who aspire to obtain school principal positions after completion of the professional development program. MPS received 47 applications this year.

Recently, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and several of the Trade Unions released their endorsed candidates for the upcoming November Minneapolis Public School Board election. Only one union to date, Service Employees International Union, has endorsed a single African American for the new school board.

We have been advised that each of the major MPS unions screened several African American candidates for the school board including current School Board member T. Williams and new candidate Chanda Baker. I know for certain those two African Americans screened. Only Chanda Baker received the SEIU endorsement

While I cannot speak for the qualifications of all the African American candidates I find it impossible to understand why only (SEIU) could identify a single qualified African American that they could endorse.

Nineteen participants have been selected for the 2010-2011 Minneapolis Principals’ Academy.

The Minneapolis Principals’ Academy is designed to develop principal leaders who are effective in creating successful schools that get results. It is a year-long intensive and rigorous professional development program using both national and local experts in the field of educational leadership to prepare dedicated leaders for the principalship.

Selected applicants are educators who aspire to obtain school principal positions after completion of the professional development program. Minneapolis Public Schools received 47 applications this year.

Minneapolis mother, educator seeks at-large seat on MPS

The race for Minneapolis Board of Education heats up in the wake of numerous changes, not only in elected members, but in the overall structure of the board itself. This November, Minneapolis residents will elect five members to the board of Education and four in 2012.

Due to a referendum in 2008 enacted by voters, election districts will be based on existing districts for the Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board eventually increasing the size of the board from seven to nine members by 2013.

With the announcements from thee current board members, including Tom Madden, Chris Steward and Pam Costain, that they will not be seeking re-election, there’s a flurry of interest in the seats up for grabs, with six candidates vying for the two At-large seats alone.

Chanda Smith Baker is one of them.

We were able to catch up with Chanda to get her perspective on the race and why she’s running.

 

Children sprawled out on couches, recliners, or floors; nearly hypnotized by a variety of images and messages projected from a television screen. The image has become all too familiar. Increasingly, young children are adopting habits of a sedentary lifestyle, at a stage in life when activity is imperative to growth, mentally and physically. Oh The Things You Can Do! (When You Don’t Watch TV), a children’s book written by Candy Pettiford and illustrated by Andres Guzman, is one step in Pettiford’s mission to reclaim youth.

It all began with a personal revelation. “I have grandkids. And I realized we were losing them because they were watching too much TV. Not only that but they are into these different electronic games. I thought: ‘If I am having problems with my grandkids I know people must be having problems with their children and their grandchildren.’ I really almost stumbled upon writing the book,” said the author.