MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Public School District is one of the largest in the state. And it has endured a historic teachers strike, school closures, declining enrollment and now, a changing school board.
On election day, Nov. 8, voters will choose five new members to create an entirely new majority.
"We struggle with enrollment, we had a strike, we struggle with staff and then funding is always an issue," said current MPS Board Chair Kim Ellison.
She's part of a nine-member board tasked with turning some of those things around. But come election day, that board that will look dramatically different.
"Even if we have two or three new faces, it feels like a different board," Ellison said. "Five new faces is going to feel like a different district; I mean, anything could change."
Eight candidates are running for five spots and their first job will be to choose a new superintendent. Ellison hopes to start interviewing candidates by the spring.
That job is followed by not only balancing a budget, but negotiating another new teacher's contract next year - important duties following one of the most hostile times to be a school board member.
In fact, from August 2020 to August 2021, the Minnesota School Board Association reported 64 school board members quit, up from 15 the year before that.
"We have seen more organized efforts to endorse school board members running," said the MSBA's Executive Director Kirk Schneidawind.
This year, the MSBA reports 1,600 candidates across the state filed for approximately 1,000 open seats, 618 of whom are incumbents. That means there could potentially be about 400 new faces on school boards across the state.
"I would encourage our voters to do their due diligence and even though you've got a lot of issues on the ballot this fall, the school board elections are very important to provide the leadership to the school district," Schneidawind said.
Minneapolis isn't the only district with so many school board candidates. According to the Secretary of State's Office, 22 people are running in South St. Paul, 15 in Luverne and 10 in Bemidji.
The newly-elected board members in Minneapolis would start their positions in January.
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