Minneapolis Public Schools face pushback as it considers alternative to school resource officers

It’s been a month since the Minneapolis Board of Education voted to terminate the district’s contract with Minneapolis police to staff school resource officers. The district is now looking at alternatives.

According to a Facebook post from Monday, they plan to hire 11 Public Safety Support Specialists. The district is being criticized for including a law enforcement background in the job description.

“I grew up in this community, I know the kids, I work with the kids,” said a Minneapolis mother, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity because she’s an employee of the district.

“Giving back to the community, helping them and being with them just really spoke to me,” she said. “Being in the schools, helping them, talking with them, interacting with them in a positive way, which is what these children need.”

She applied for one of the positions, citing her background as an educational service provider and criminal justice education.

“When I got the email back stating you’re not qualified, it hurt,” she said. “It hurt to the point where it was like it was a slap in the face.”

The employee told us she supported the district ending its contract with MPD.

“I believe they’re welcoming back in exactly what they dismissed and you can’t do that,” she said.

A rally outside of district headquarters on Sunday called for more community involvement in the process.

“There was not a lot of information provided to us and we didn’t really get the opportunity to weigh in,” said Ma-Riah Roberson-Moody, an organizer with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.

She told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that they learned the district would be creating a new position at the end of June. This job was posted on July 2, she said. Roberson-Moody told us the union did not get a copy of it for almost a week, with the application deadline looming on July 19.

“It required only law enforcement background,” said Roberson-Moody. “There was no requirement of social work experience, there was little requirement of de-escalation, or trauma informed care.”

Following the rally, the district posted an apology on Facebook.

It said, “We regret any misunderstanding about the intent for these initial positions. We look forward to continued collaboration with the MPS community as we create a new vision for climate, culture and safety in our schools.”

It explained the role of the Public Safety Support Specialists and how the community would be involved moving forward. You can read the post below.

“I think it addressed some of our concerns but something we’ll keep fighting for is shared decision making power,” said Roberson-Moody. “We have to get more into opening up that power to our parents and our families and our students so they can get a say in what’s going to be in their schools.”

She hopes the district will consider those working within MPS.

“Who might not have a law enforcement degree but they have years of experience deescalating within our schools, working with our students,” she said. “Those are the people that need to be considered for these positions."

For the employee we spoke with, “I too see the district open up the position again […] actually conducting full interviews involving community members, make it a public forum, talk to the people let their voices be heard.”

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MPS Facebook post:

"The community has provided Minneapolis Public Schools with valid input about the hiring process to help us move forward without the use of School Resource Officers.

Please know that the positions for which we are currently accepting and interviewing applicants — Public Safety Support Specialists — is on an accelerated schedule to ensure we have staff onboard and extensively trained prior to the first day of school this fall. These positions are part of a two-step plan that will be presented to the Board of Education on August 18. Step 1 — which includes hiring 11 additional people into these positions for the 20-21 school year, and Step 2 — a longer-term more comprehensive plan that will allow for more thorough planning and community engagement over the next year.

We would be the first to say that the timeline for these first positions did not allow for creation of a perfect job description, but we are grateful for past literature reviews, community engagement, survey responses, stakeholder feedback, and recent work of the Climate & Safety Advisory (CSAC), which helped us set appropriate roles and responsibilities for the position.

These new staff members will not be an extension of the discipline/enforcement systems of the past.

• They will be an asset for schools in regards to planning and response to incidents that threaten the safety of students and staff; • They will be rooted in the core district priorities of Equity, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS);
• They will be working in collaboration with schools to continue to dismantle the white supremacist culture we operate under; and
• They will ensure we continue to deconstruct the school to prison pipeline.

Unfortunately, because we used an existing job description to allow us to meet our August 18 deadline, the job description did mention a background in law enforcement. The vast majority of those to be interviewed do not have that background, and are being reviewed based on other equivalencies. The most important experience required for the position is understanding and making authentic connections with students so that students do not feel another adult is being brought in to control them.

In an effort to confirm these intentions, we will be holding second interviews with our candidates and inviting both internal and external individuals (including students) who volunteered to serve on the District’s climate and behavior framework committees to join us for these interviews, which are tentatively being scheduled for the week of August 3rd.

We regret any misunderstanding about the intent for these initial positions. We look forward to continued collaboration with the MPS community as we create a new vision for climate, culture and safety in our schools."

KSTP reached out to each of the Board of Education members for comment, most did not respond.

Board Chair Kim Ellison replied by saying the topic will be discussed at the meeting on Aug. 28, "which will outline the immediate and long-term plans to address safety in schools."

KerryJo Felder told us she believes the district needs to slow down and reach out to the community to build trust.

"Each district is different, each school is different and no cookie-cutter design is going to work for Minneapolis schools," said Felder.

She told us she has shared concerns with Superintendent Ed Graff.