BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
In a stunning reversal, after initially defending the choice of a $1.25 million contract with publisher Reading Horizons, the Minneapolis School Board reversed its decision and cancelled the contract at its meeting on Oct. 13. The meeting was packed with angry parents and community members who had already got them to reverse their decision to not allow further public comment.
We covered this controversy in last month’s article about the search for a new MPS superintendent. We were in agreement with a representative parent who accused the MPS and current Interim Superintendent Michael Goar of not listening and not respecting the community in their handling of the fiasco. Reading Horizon’s content was found to be extremely racially insensitive and outright racist in some cases.
Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds said, “I think (the reversal) was due to the fact that there was a strong community voice and that made a huge difference … the people would not relent.” Levy-Pounds also wrote an “open letter” to Interim Superintendent Goar which was published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Oct. 21. Southside Pride was a small but insistent part of this community’s voice demanding more transparency and more responsiveness to community needs from the MPS.
