GET PODCAST: PRIMARY FOCUS 2010: At-Large Minneapolis School Board Seats

IS THERE A MORE THANKLESS JOB than sitting on a local board of education? Worse – an urban school board, with its multiple issues of funding, student achievement, teacher contracts, charter schools, parent involvement – or lack of it, volatile management and lingering desegregation requirements? It’s powers are limited, the compensation meager, the polarization inevitable.

Despite the ever-pressing – and for many, seemingly irresolvable – burdens school board members face day in and day out, despite the rapid burnout rate of board members, the refusal by teachers’ unions to back beleaguered incumbents – parents, education activists,  and just plain concerned citizens continue to jump into the fray – perhaps believing that they will be the ones to make the difference between failure and success.

This year will be first for a new Minneapolis Board of Education configuration passed in 2008 requiring nine instead of seven members, six of which are district-based, the other three at-large. The seat terms are staggered, so that, in 2010, voters will elect the three even-numbered district members and two of three at-large members. The districts follow the same geographic boundaries as those of the Minneapolis Park Board. (The remaining seats – one at-large and the three odd-numbered district office seekers will be filled in 2012).

An irrefutable indicator of just how frustrating it can be to serve on the Minneapolis school board and, perhaps, a dislike for this new system of representation, just one of the four eligible (now all at-large) incumbents is seeking reelection – Theartrice (T.) Williams. All other eligible incumbents have declined to run, and one – former board chair Pam Costain – has already resigned.

Too few candidates filed for of the District seats to need primaries; but ten candidates filed for the two at-large positions. (Shirlynn LaChapelle is not campaigning.)

In a rather nasty convention, the DFL refused to re-endorse T. Williams, perhaps, in part, because the Minneapolis Teachers Federation also refused to endorse him, primarily because of some re-organization votes he and most of his current colleagues cast and the union opposed. The DFL did endorse newcomer Richard Mammen. The Teachers endorsed Mammen as well as Northsider Steven Lasley.

For this final week’s coverage of races less covered, at least in broadcast media, TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL hosts a conversation among the six most viable of the ten on the ballot. ((Listen online by clicking on the KFAI logo in the right-hand column.)