Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Parents, Educators Speak Out on Proposed MPS Closures
The fallout continued this week over the near-universally-reviled Minneapolis Public Schools proposal that could shutter more than a dozen district schools. On Tuesday, hundreds of community members and public school workers gathered outside of the Davis Center in Minneapolis to demand that the schools stay open.
Workday Magazine’s Amie Stager was there, and she brings us this report from the scene. Here’s just some of what educators and parents had to say:
- Patrick Farwig, special education assistant at Kenny Elementary School: “The proposed closure of 16 schools is an assault on our students’ sense of security. It is an affront to each one of us as educators, and it is a destabilizing threat to every community and neighborhood in our city.”
- Mia Pettinger, parent of students at Harriet Lower Elementary: “We surveyed over 1,000 parents from every single school in the district. We are hearing loud and clear that without community buy-in, this plan will lead to enrollment loss, enrollment loss that has been grossly underestimated by district leaders.”
- Marcia Howard, president of MFE Local 59: “We are going to stand up and fight back for every single program, every single site, every single school in this district.”
Angry parents and teachers cite a lack of data from the district and a failure to engage with families among their grievances with the proposal. Angry parents also packed a public meeting to challenge the district’s transformation plan Wednesday night.
We Gotta Lay Better Pipe
Did you get one of those scary letters from the Minneapolis Public Works department alerting you about lead water pipes in your building? You’re not alone, and another 40,000 warnings are set to go out in October. Our pipes might have lead, but it’s not exactly clear what we’re supposed to do about it.
“Unfortunately, we also have to include a lot of the risk language that’s required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state health department,” Annika Bankston, director of Minneapolis Water Treatment & Distribution Services, tells Claire Carlson for MinnPost. “It’s not very consumer-friendly, I would say.”…