What’s at stake in Minneapolis school board races? Prompt action likely amid financial struggles

Minneapolis Public Schools is moving slowly on a so-called “transformation process” that could include school closings and consolidations, but there is no hiding the severity of the challenges the district faces.

Nor the tough decisions sure to confront a board that now has four seats on the November ballot.

At a finance committee meeting last week, Jon Clinton, the district’s executive director of finance, told board members that the school system’s rainy day fund would be drained completely in 2025-26 if operations were to remain as they are today.

But the picture need not be viewed as “doom and gloom,” he said. Instead, Clinton added, “I would look at this as an opportunity.”

Then let’s get moving, came the call from Board Member Joyner Emerick, who upon hearing the report, said: “This is not business as usual ... There is some serious work to be done.”

A transformation timeline released recently suggests a newly constituted board will be making its 2025-26 budget-balancing decisions in January and February. But questions remain as to whether closings and mergers will be part of the mix.

Candidates weighed in recently on the fiscal challenges ahead.

Lara Bergman is an early childhood educator running for the open District 6 board seat in southwest Minneapolis. She faces Greta Callahan, former president of the teachers chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. The seat is currently held by Ira Jourdain, who is not seeking re-election.

Bergman is championing efforts to boost literacy and invest in early childhood programming. Getting there, she said, requires financial sustainability, and that may mean closings and mergers. She attended last week’s finance committee meeting — as she’s done on a regular basis — and described the mention of “opportunity” as a rosy way of avoiding hard truths.

The district is spread too thin, she said. Some schools could take more students. Yet in others, class sizes are huge and caseloads so large that educators can’t build relationships with students and families, she said.

“I just fundamentally believe, and it’s been one of the objectives of my campaign, to be someone out in the community talking about this moment, listening to reactions, and listening for the places where families could get on board with the possibility of their beloved school having to close,” Bergman said.

A way to get there, Bergman said, is by consolidating buildings, and in turn, expanding programming — perhaps not far from the school left behind.

Callahan argues that the mere mention of closings is causing families to leave the district: “This is not something that should be talked about so flippantly,” she said.

She said she would entertain the idea only if there also are plans to stabilize and recruit students, plus answers to three questions: How much money is being saved by closing a building? How many students will be retained if the school closes? And how many new students have to enroll to keep it open?

District expenditures currently outpace revenue by about $85 million annually. When asked how it might save money, Callahan said she has long sought answers about how much the district spends on outside contracts, and would renew that push, as well as examine the district’s transportation costs.

She also plans to help lead efforts to get the state and federal governments to fund mandates related to special education and English language learners — while acknowledging that such a fight is one for the long haul and not a quick fix on a 2025-26 budget gap.

Kim Ellison, a former board chair, is seeking re-election to an at-large seat, and is being challenged by Shayla Owodunni, a preschool tutor at Pillsbury Elementary in northeast Minneapolis.

Ellison has said the transformation discussions should not focus simply on closings and mergers, but opportunities to grow, citing the popularity of the district’s Spanish immersion dual language programs. She is the board member assigned to a task force studying the issue, but it has yet to meet.

This month, Ellison took part in walk-throughs at two buildings — an exercise aimed at getting a better understanding of the numbers of classrooms and students they can hold, as well as how the school flows.

But parents also begin making school-choice decisions next month. She was asked if there was enough time to make weighty decisions about closings and mergers that may disrupt next year’s plans.

“It would be difficult,” she said. “It would be very difficult. I don’t see it. It would be hard.”

Owodunni is a former consultant in governance, risk and compliance for retailers and hospitals, and said the district should be more transparent about its budget predicament and the potential of the schools going into statutory operating debt.

She’d like to know the potential savings that come with closing schools, plus the possibility of leasing the buildings later. Asked if she has faith in the board making the correct budget-balancing decisions, she said it may want to form a task force of finance experts, teachers and community members.

“I’m the type of person who, if I don’t have the right answers, I will find the right people who do,” she said.

Also on the ballot are incumbents Sharon El-Amin and Adriana Cerrillo, who are running unopposed.

School board members serve four-year terms.