Wearing a bright orange Minneapolis Public Schools T-shirt, Interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox made her way through a crowd of hundreds of families, stopping briefly to give high-fives and test dance moves with her students. did.
A district-sponsored celebration for the toddler’s family was one of the first events during Cox’s one-year tenure. Her conversations with parents and students built community trust and helped her prioritize reimagining Minneapolis school culture after turbulent years.
“When we go out to community events, we’re not sitting behind a table,” said Cox, who recently attended a neighborhood gathering and visited several schools. We’re initiating these conversations so they can be heard.”
Many Minneapolis families have long called for a reset of the district’s culture. It became clear that they wanted to feel that they were there. Coupled with her three-week teachers’ strike last spring, the pressures of the pandemic have added to the challenges school districts were already facing.
Enrollment numbers have been declining for years, and the latest statistics show that fewer black families are choosing public schools, especially in Minneapolis. From July 2021 to July 2022, student numbers will drop by about 3,300, with the steepest decline among black students.
“We have families who have told us in different ways…they feel unwelcome at school and that needs to change,” Cox said. is a public educational institution that needs to serve everyone.”
One of Cox’s top priorities is building relationships and improving communication in the name of creating a positive environment, one of the pillars of the district’s strategic plan.
“It was about dusting [the framework] It’s been turned off and really intentional about how we talk about it,” she said.
Under the newly reorganized School District’s Equity and School Environment Division, Minneapolis Public Schools now has about a dozen “climate coordinators.” Each school is assigned a coordinator who can provide resources and support as the school creates a welcoming environment between staff and students.
The goal is not to create one standardized atmosphere in all schools, but to make the district’s 28,000 students and their families feel welcome and to support school staff in making that happen. school district leaders say. Cox says each of his 90-plus schools in the district already has its own atmosphere and community.
“That’s the beauty of MPS and I never want to take it away,” she said.
This is a relief to Melisha “Mimi” Carol, the family and community liaison at Northside’s Lucy Rainey Elementary School, best known as Mimi-san. She says the school already has a distinct and supportive culture, and credits the school’s leadership for setting that atmosphere.
She remembers coming to her first job interview and noticing that the woman wiping her child’s nose in the entryway was Principal Lisa Pawelak. It showed Carol that the principal of the school is nothing more than the relationship building she expects from her staff.
“Culture absolutely starts with leadership, because leaders set the tone,” she says, noting that she’s still a little skeptical about getting culture-building advice from someone who isn’t in the classroom every day. added.
“They need to hold people who aren’t doing it accountable and get out of the way of those who do,” Carroll said.
Pawelak is happy to see more conversations about climate and culture in the city’s schools. She said the concept may be difficult to quantify, but there are measurable signs of a welcoming school environment, including staff and student retention rates and school placement requests.
“In our white American culture, we don’t often emphasize emotion enough,” she said.
Maintaining a welcoming family isn’t just about fun relationship-building activities like Friday lunchtime karaoke. says Carroll.
Cox agreed.
“We have to balance that support and accountability,” she said.
At an event Wednesday at the Mona Moede Early Learning Center, Minneapolis mother Chelsea Sullivan stopped near a table where her children were building clay pinch pots. Her child will soon begin preschool at Mercy Elementary School, and her two children are participating in the district’s early childhood program.
Before returning to the car, Sullivan looked over his shoulder to see Cox in an orange shirt. When they walked into the event, Cox greeted them with a smile and she danced with Sullivan’s daughter for a while, which she said was a welcome surprise.
“Many families have a sour taste in our mouths after spending the last few years in this school district,” Sullivan said. , I’m waiting to hear more. I’m cautiously optimistic.”
