Minneapolis school closures paused: What happens now?

Joining me is Colin Beachy, the chair of the president, yeah, the correct terminology here of the Minneapolis School Board. Had a very, well, you've had difficult weeks and months and years, but certainly this week with the decision to kind of hold off on a, I guess, what do you call this, a reorganization plan or realignment that would close as many as what, 16 schools and put them together and the decision was made, we're gonna put that on pause right now. I mean, what exactly, what led up to that decision? I know there was a lot of public, I guess, concern, outcry. What all went into this? Yeah, so, you know, and when you're saying hearing from the public, we were hearing from both sides as well. You know, there are people who are like, you know, we gotta get this done, we gotta make some move, but I think it was just really a matter mostly of people were feeling that we did not give them enough information as to why some of these schools were chosen how that's going to fit into the larger plan how much money is this going to save and so um as i said the last time i was here it was just kind of pretty clear what sometimes when you sit here and do this work you're like well yeah i've got all the answers and i've been doing this for four years so but as i said the public felt like they weren't part of the process for four years and so they're they're they just needed to be like this it felt fast for them, and it felt like a lot, it was a lot. It is a lot, when you're talking about closing schools, merging schools, changing your you know attendance boundaries because of that, that's the natural domino effect. And then you have families wondering about are they gonna be split from their friends? Are they gonna have to travel further? I mean, what were the range, I guess, of concerns from the public about the potential ramifications for their families? Yeah, kind of across the board, everything that you had just talked about. And one thing that was, this really brought up a lot of painful memories for people about the comprehensive district design, which we lost around 4,000 students during that time. And families felt like they were promised something that they didn't get, and they felt like what I'm hearing is that we're giving them a promise, but they're not sure if we're going to actually be able to deliver on that. And so we need to have more conversations because, listen, the transformation process was not about closing schools. We were trying to take the resources that we have and how can we better distribute them amongst our schools so every child has the same experience because that is not happening in Minneapolis right now. And so I think it really starts to beg a larger question, though, and you and I were talking about this a little bit earlier before we went on air, is that it's if if we are going to try and provide an equal experience for all of our students and and it causes changes this drastic that there's a larger conversation that needs to happen here and so i i actually would like to have you guys bring in some people from the state but i'm also on the statewide school board association and i think that we can talk about this is a larger trend than just Minneapolis Public Schools it's a larger trend than just the state of Minnesota, Philadelphia, I think, closed 16 schools, and Pittsburgh, like, 13 schools. So it's a national trend that's going on here, and we have to have a larger conversation about how we're providing an education for all of our students across the country. Well, and to be fiscally responsible, and you have to manage your assets properly. I mean, you're looking at, what, a multi-million dollar budget deficit, and you're also looking at under-enrollment, I believe. Is it 3,200 students with a capacity for fourth? What is the number. I think we're around 28,000 with the capacity. 28,000 with the capacity for, yeah, I was off by one, sorry. But in terms of under enrollment compared to capacity, you have to look at some of these things in order to deal with some of the fiscal, the money issues, right? Right, yeah. And some of the questions that we had is like, why would you close a school that's almost 85% at capacity? Well, the building is at 85% capacity but the resources needed to give them all the resources that they need, you still need to have a certain number of students to make sure you have enough FTEs which are employees to make sure that those services can be provided. So it's not really necessarily even about the capacity, it's about the number of students you need to be able to get that experience from people. And so, you know, these questions that you are asking are some questions that the public is asking. And so this is why we need to have more listening sessions, more explanations. And then we also have some questions from the public. Like you had said, if we're gonna wait, how long do we wait? How long do we pause? So we're taking a break this week here, but then we still have to get right back to work. And these conversations need to start ramping back up again. Yeah, putting a pause on this doesn't mean that okay, we're not gonna do this. It means you still need to do this or a version of this and the public feels that they need to be a bigger part of that conversation and creating that plan. Absolutely, absolutely. And so if not closing schools, then what? And so I think people have some creative, I actually have been hearing some interesting ideas from people. And I think one thing that's really important that people also remember is that the transformation process is continuing. And so we are still working on, we've got a new strategy to increase enrollment. We're focusing on families. People know the numbers. 56% of Minneapolis students don't go to Minneapolis public schools. So we're going to be focusing on those kindergarteners' families, see if we can get them in here early. We're going to try and expand our pre-K. And some of our buildings that are underutilized, we could perhaps get some pre-K programming going on in there. So a lot to talk about. People have some interesting ideas, but this is still moving forward. How much of this plan... Not the closing schools. Right, right, right. No, but examining what we need to do, some version of this needs to happen, and what version is that going to be? But in the end, because of budget issues, you have to do something, right? Right, and that's, I think, where we feel as a board, even though that we're not going to move closing schools, we know we've got to do something. And so something that I'm going to be able to do is that I've been looking at some schools across the country who have been going through some similar things, some of them have been more successful than others. So it's worthwhile to reach out and hear what some other people have done, maybe we don't have to reinvent the wheel. And so, I think that if people want time to have more discussions on this, I mean, that was really the message that I heard. More so than not about necessarily the schools closing, it was just about, we didn't feel like we were a part of this process. It felt a little bit, not blindsided, but I mean, something maybe approaching that where they felt like this was coming a little bit quick for them compared to the information they had. Yeah, and listen, I knew that there were gonna be some difficult decisions that were gonna come out of the transformation plan. I didn't expect it to be of that magnitude, and so I think I was caught a little bit off guard and I'm not faulting the superintendent or everything. They did what we asked them to do. What would we have to do if we want to change things by the next school year? And I just did not expect that that number of schools would be coming up to close. I expected that there would be some sort of proposal, but it just kind of caught us a little bit off guard as well. And the community was just saying, we need to talk about this before you go forward and make a decision in November. So again, what happens now and what kind of timeframe are you looking at in order to come? I mean, you can't kick this can down the road too long because you're dealing with a bottom line that you've got to address. So what happens? Well, first of all, I think we as a board need to decide what is the new timeline and what is a timeline that the families are comfortable with. I just feel like if we're back here at this time next year, now we're looking into the following school year. And so and then, you know, I think something that that that moving forward is, is I've started to talk about some of the structural issues that are going on here and not just a 1250 West Broadway. And so we need help from our city and state partners. And so we're going to be trying to have our an intergovernmental committee so that we're getting everybody at the table to talk about how everybody can help with this situation. And I know that we have families that are willing to go and help with that, too. So part of the issue for a lot of districts has been, you know, funding. and funding from the state. I mean, is this something that you're gonna be back? I mean, obviously districts are at the legislature. Is this something that in a few months, you're like, hey, we need help. It's from St. Paul. Yeah, no, I mean, that's been an ongoing thing for four years that I've been here. We need some help. I understand it's difficult for them as well. So I don't want people going out there pointing fingers at and you know getting all riled up at legislators who are trying to do their best but at some point we do need to have you know people who are saying that you know i support public schools but we need you to do more than support public schools we kind of got to got to act and listen it's easy for me to sit here and say this but it's i just feel like two things need to happen you need to educate your population you need to keep them healthy and then the rest you know, we all got to talk about as well. But yeah, we need help. And it's not just from our state and local, we need help from our federal government as well. So we have a special education cross subsidy, which I think is the biggest driver of some of our budget deficits. And so, you know, we need people to be playing, you know, kind of stepping up and doing what is uncomfortable for people. Yeah, you know, it's always been said, education is a silver bullet. I mean, you have a good education and a lot of good things follow from that um and that's just been a constant challenge um so well i appreciate the time coming in here of course again difficult conversations because again um something has to be done sure sure and um if i if i could yes i'd like to uh again remind people that um on the on the ballot this year and the election that flip your ballot over there's a constitutional amendment on there that will increase the per pupil funding for every student across the state without raising taxes and it will keep the fund that's a that it's a permanent land trust fund and it will keep the fund solvent more money to our students not raising our taxes keep the fund solvent um well dispersing more dispersing more of it to the students absolutely and i want to remind people too that that we need you to vote yes on this amendment if you uh a non-vote is a It's a no vote, so it's gotta get 50% of the votes. How much of the problem you're facing will be fixed by that portion? You know what, but every dollar helps at this point. And so it would be, based on the numbers from 2025, it would be another $800,000, almost a million dollars. Okay. So not solving our problem, but able to keep- But taking a pretty healthy dent out of it. Right, out of something. We can still keep some programming, we can still keep some teachers. So as again, that's what I'm saying, I hate saying like a million dollars isn't a lot of money, but in a system this large, it is kind of a drop in the bucket, but we'll take it. But every drop adds up. We'll take it. We'll take it. Okay. Colin Beeching, chair of the school board in Minneapolis, thanks for taking time in here. You've got a stressful job for you, right? Yeah, it's been a month. It's been a month. All right, appreciate it. Sure.