[Mpls] Minneapolis Superintendent Peebles

[Pat Bohn]

As a person who has been dealing with the Minneapolis school board for
25 years as a parent, community person and employee, I feel a need to
comment on the whole Peebles uproar.   I do believe that the
superintendent needs to work on her people skills.  However, a lot of
what is being floated around the district is rumor.  She has made many
people uncomfortable, but that's not always a bad thing.   Also, the
notion that Peebles should not focus on certain (Northside?) schools
misses the point.  She should be concentrating on the toughest, lowest
performing schools. Many of the comparisons of Superintendent Peebles to
Carol Johnson are off the mark.  Carol Johnson was a very nice person
with great people skills who I liked as a person.  She was not a great
superintendent.  She never wanted to make people uncomfortable, even if
they weren't doing their job.  We need to remember that while Carol
Johnson was in charge many schools were not making AYP, discipline
problems n our secondary schools got worse and families left the
Minneapolis Public Schools causing the closing of schools now.  Let's
hope the school board gets her some mentoring for her people/management
skills, and then lets her get back to working on improving academics in
our lowest schools.

Buzzy Bohn
Folwell