Director Sharon E. Brooks asked the Robbinsdale Area School Board to pay for her to go to the Council for Urban Boards of Education Conference in October. Accommodations, registration and transportation to the site in Las Vegas would total about $3000. The board voted against this request.
“There’s a lot to learn,” Brooks said of the conference. “There are a lot of different initiatives that will be introduced on how to identify racism. ... How to offer solutions that our board may want to ask our administration to implement. There will be talks about governance for urban education. The differences in urban education and non-people of color.”
Brooks spoke about creating a PowerPoint presentation with all the information she plans to learn at the CUBE conference. Brooks said the keynote speaker at CUBE would be Ruby Bridges, a Black woman who began a lifelong career in activism by attending an all-white kindergarten in 1960.
But, Director John Vento pointed out that Bridges was a keynote speaker at the April CUBE conference, not the one in October. The October keynote speaker is Michael D. Smith, chief executive officer of AmeriCorps.
Vento said he would not support any out-of-state travel for any board members.
Director Greta Evans-Becker also did not support Brooks’ request, saying, “With our district having $17.4 million in cuts and travel out of state restricted for the rest of staff — and from our budget, nothing has had a cut whereas, across the district, budgets everywhere else have had cuts — I can’t reconcile sending someone out of state when our district is in this position financially and there is local professional development.”
Director Kim Holmes agreed with Evans-Becker.
Director Caroline Long said she did not want to approve Brooks’ request because “we need to also feel the budget cuts that our students are feeling and that our staff our feeling.”
Director Helen Bassett brought up racial disparities. In 2019 the US Department of Education ranked Minnesota the worst in the nation for racial disparities.
Bassett spoke about how she learned a lot from attending and presenting at conferences, including the knowledge to create the district’s first equity policy.
“I feel it’s very unfortunate that we have conflated professional development for board members with the budget and the travel and all of that because it’s not about that. ... Directors need to know what they’re doing because it’s the director’s job to supervise the superintendent. Now, the superintendent does the work. But if we don’t know the questions to ask, if we don’t know the policies that are all around the country that we may or may not be doing, how can we grow?”
Chair ReNae Bowman said the district needed to perform equity audits but she did not support Brooks’ travel request.
“We have some of the most dismal statistical information about our district,” Bowman said. “And to me what that says is somewhere up in here we’re not doing our jobs. And I don’t think a trip to Las Vegas is gonna help us do that job any better.”
This meant the board was 5-2 against paying for the conference in Nevada.
“Well it’s no surprise that the white people on this board have decided that learning about urban education, which is primarily focused on Black people, is not relevant enough to be paid for,” Brooks said.
Long was offended by Brooks’ comments.
“As Black people, isn’t it wonderful that we come in all different kinds of shades, hair textures, facial features? So I find the comments that Director Brooks made today very insulting because I am a Black woman. And just because I don’t agree with you on something doesn’t mean that I’m white.”
Brooks apologized, saying she did not know.
The board’s budget
The board has a budget of $203,422 for 2023-2024.
$58,934 is for administration/supervision.
$11,601 is for non-instructional support.
$3,423 is for other non-licensed salary.
$45 is for cash in lieu of benefits.
$7,603 is for FICA.
$1,153 is for PERA.
$1,423 is for health insurance
$10 is for life insurance.
$162 goes to dental insurance.
$84 is for tax sheltered annuity.
$73 is for HSA benefits.
$70,000 is for contracted services.
$800 is for sped litigation costs.
$654 is for interdepartmental service.
$350 is for non-instructional supplies.
$4,847 is for food.
$30,350 is for memberships, dues and licenses.
$11,995 is for travel/conventions/conferences.
The 2024-2025 budget has not been finalized.
Most Popular
Comments / 0