Issues

As your Minneapolis School Board representative, I will deliver:

1) Leadership! As a leader, I will work hard to ensure 100% of our students who want to go to college have the opportunity to do so. We will never have true equality until public education gives all our kids the opportunity to reach their highest potential. MPS developed a sound strategic plan to reduce one of the largest learning gaps in the country. I will work hard to make sure that the MPS strategic plan is implemented. We need to make sure that we dramatically increase achievement of our most vulnerable kids, while also ensuring that students who are currently doing well continue to excel.

2) Your Voice! I will be a voice for parents and students who in the past have been underrepresented on the School Board. As the founder and CEO of Latino Communications Network, which publishes La Prensa de Minnesota and runs the Spanish language radio station La Invasora, and as someone who grew up in Puerto Rico and who’s native language was Spanish, I’m deeply connected to the immigrant community. I know that immigrant parents want programs in our district that help our English learning students become completely fluent and proficient in English, while also helping them preserve their native languages. There are known effective programs that insure our immigrant students can become fully bilingual, instead of so many who today end up lacking proficiency in both English and their native languages.

It’s time for someone who truly understands the importance of these programs to advocate for them at the Minneapolis school board in an effective way. I will make it a priority to present a vision in which every MPS student learns a second language. Research shows not only that bilingual students will be more employable, but also kids that learn more than one language do better in other subjects too.

3) Experience! As a person whose life work is communications, I’d like to contribute to improving MPS communication with all its stakeholders: Parents, students, community members, teachers, and staff. We can improve in effectively soliciting ideas from our stakeholders, to better capitalize on the diverse strengths and capabilities of this community.
As I talk to people about our campaign, I frequently hear a desire for better communication from our school district. Good communication starts by building strong relationships based on mutual trust.

We must make sure our communications are always accurate and that we always deliver on what we communicate. As traditional ways of communicating become obsolete and our stakeholders become more diverse, we need to communicate effectively our successes and the great things happening in our schools, while also acknowledging and exploring how we can improve in our challenges. We can improve in effectively soliciting ideas from our stakeholders, to better capitalize on the diverse strengths and capabilities of this community.

The MPS board has accomplished much in the past four years.
But MPS still has many challenges ahead:

• We still face one of the worst learning gaps in the country.
• Too many of our kids still don't graduate from high school.
• Too many of our kids are years behind in achievement.
• Too many of our kids and their parents fear for their safety when they go to school.
• Too many of our students still join gangs, abuse drugs and alcohol, and are becoming teenage parents.
• Too many teachers -- the most important people influencing our kids in school -- don't trust MPS leadership.