MPS Transformation Plan - Update!

On September 15, the Minneapolis Public School District released three plans that would result in closing 15-16 schools (about ¼ of the district) in the following school year. The outcry from the community was swift and clear - invest in our schools instead of closing them. Importantly, the response from the community was organized. In the midst of a busy campaign schedule, I jumped in to work organizing and working with our local school communities alongside parents, educators, and community members. In some way, this campaign interruption felt like a reminder of why I chose to run in the first place as a parent organizer. Between September 15 and October 13, I hosted and attended listening community gatherings throughout District 5, went to every MPS-hosted listening session in District 5, rallied with educators and parents, wrote e-mails and sat through meetings, and had many, many meaningful conversations with our community. This moment gave me the opportunity to show you how I will lead - alongside others, boldly, tirelessly, with open ears, and with a stubborn hope for something better. Just like we achieved a pause on school closures at the October 13 school board meeting, I know we can achieve the work we set out to do together in Minneapolis Public Schools.

While the below information is currently outdated, I wanted to leave this information available so you can see how I was making sense of the Transformation Plan and what sort of vision I have for our school district’s future.

WHAT IS THE TRANSFORMATION PLAN?

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The district has talked about “The Transformation Plan” in obscure language as a way to “optimize” the “MPS student experience”. In reality, The Transformation Plan is a plan to rapidly close at least 15 schools across the district in less than a year with barely a month of community input.

WHAT IS IN THE PLAN?

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Each of the 3 plans contains at least 15 school closures. Between the plans, 17 schools are named for closure, with a third of them concentrated in North Minneapolis.

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WHAT IS NOT IN THE PLAN?

  • The district stated there were not significant cost savings expected, and the district deputy superintendent stated “that wasn’t the intent” of the Transformation Plan.

  • The district discussed pre-K availability by pathway rather than by actual pre-K spots available or number of sites offering pre-K. It is not clear from their presentation that there would actually be an increase in pre-K seats, considering that a number of elementary schools currently offering pre-K are set to be closed.

  • There was no mention of the CDD or its impacts. They did not address that a 2-year impact analysis of the CDD was never completed, nor did they acknowledge the problems exacerbated by the CDD: transportation cost, racial isolation, and declining enrollment.

  • The Black Parent Advisory Council asked the district for a thorough analysis of how the transformation plan would impact Black students, and their requests were never answered. In some of the proposals, demographic makeup of high schools appear more racially segregated than they are currently.

  • Despite being asked directly by a student board member at the September 15 meeting, the district offered no explanation of how enrollment decline would impact their predicted outcomes. It did not appear that potential enrollment decline as backlash to another massive district-level change had factored into any of their proposals.

  • Though the board named “cost/benefit of school consolidation or closure” as one of their transformation parameters in the June 2026 meeting, the presentation did not address the potential costs of school closures like negative impacts to student mental health, decreases in overall enrollment, diminished trust in the district, and the potential to worsen the already dire financial situation.

WHERE DO I STAND?

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With limited research on school closures published, what’s out there points us to closures being an ineffective tool to address a budget deficit. Currently, I do not support the transformation plan as presented by the school district in September. This plan was brought forward with no supporting data, and no plan to engage families impacted by the district’s decisions. That’s not how our schools should operate. Put simply, we need more information and we need more time. 

Here’s what I would like to see from our district, and what I would fight for as your board member: 

  • A real plan to grow enrollment. Our district should be engaging parents and educators as partners in addressing the fact that we only have 53% of potential MPS students in our district enrolled in an MPS school.

  • A full financial audit of our district. Our district’s financial mismanagement has cost us millions of dollars. This is unacceptable. We need a thorough and transparent audit that establishes the accurate financial standing of the district. Following the audit, the district needs to demonstrate to the board and the community their ability to manage their finances by completing and passing annual audits, adhering to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (including appropriate separation of concerns), and partnering with the board on a plan for preventing future waste and fraud. This is the minimum required to begin to re-establish trust between the district and community that our money is being used appropriately and responsibly.

  • Any plan that could have a destabilizing impact on our students (like closing schools) should be treated seriously.

    Treating a plan seriously looks like:

    • Months of outreach and engagement that actually shapes the plan.

    • Being honest with our families, which looks like saying “closed school” instead of “deprogrammed school.”

    • Serious research, data collection, and financial analysis that shows us how the plan will save money and addresses possible complicating factors like decreased enrollment and higher rates of segregation.

Right now, the Transformation Plan does not contain any of the above requirements, and therefore I do not support this plan. 

The district should delay this plan and allow for full community engagement with a board that is committed to seeing through any potential changes. 

WE CAN’T DO NOTHING

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We have been told that there are two options: close schools or do nothing and continue to lose money. This is a false choice. There is a real, viable third option. We can fight hard to actually address the many issues facing our school district in a way that sets us up for a future of growth and success. I am committed to that fight. It will not be easy and it will require all of us, but our kids and our city deserve to see us fight for them.

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WHAT CAN WE DO?

    • The majority of schools slated for closure are “approaching optimal enrollment.” If we can increase enrollment by 2,133 MPS’s physical space will be deemed “efficient” (as stated by MPS Senior Operations Officer in 2025).

    • Spanish Immersion - students leave MPS to open enroll in dual language & Spanish immersion programs in large number, and we have heard this repeatedly as a priority for many families in deciding what school to choose. 

    • Pre-K access - we need more pre-k options for MPS families. When we offer pre-k, we set students up for success and capture more kindergarten families. This is a no-brainer for increasing enrollment.

    • The school district should be partnering with MFE & MPS families to help drive enrollment & community engagement. There is already robust district-wide MPS parent engagement that the district has left untapped.

    • MPS needs to be at community events showing off the amazing programs we have. We should be at art festivals sharing about our arts magnets, cultural events sharing about our language options and cultural programming, neighborhood events sharing about our incredible neighborhood schools. 

    • We should be doing direct reach-outs to families who have left MPS to understand their “why,” and we should attempt to gain back families who have been open-enrolled into districts currently closing schools. 

    • We should have a public relations campaign to highlight the wonderful things at MPS after years of negative headlines in the press. While PR campaigns cost money, providing PTA/PTOs with a toolkit for community engagement & recruitment would be a very cost-effective method for driving enrollment.

    • We need an overhaul of the finance department so we can understand MPS’s actual financial situation. Every year it seems like we have a massive deficit announced and then somehow in every news cycle we receive a different picture. The loss of tens of millions of district funds over the past year is unacceptable, and it should not be our kids who bear the burden of that mismanagement and poor oversight.

    • Once we win a trifecta, we must work with state-level partners to address the policies that negatively impact MPS’s funding, such as the special education cross subsidy bill back, the enrollment reporting deadline, and open enrollment. 

    • We must push for increased per-pupil funding from the state to keep up with inflation. 

    • We should and can win a state constitutional amendment to increase funds from the permanent school fund.