St. Paul’s school board has decided to no longer televise the portion of its meeting where the public offers comments. So on Tuesday, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers decided to give the public its own televised forum to comment while the school board was meeting.
The “People’s Board”, as the union called it, invited members of the public to make their comments at a town hall meeting that was livestreamed on The UpTake. “So unlike the other board meeting that’s going on across town right now, these public comments are being broadcast for all to hear,” said SPFT Vice President Nick Faber.
Present to listen to the comments and respond were four DFL endorsed candidates running for St. Paul school board. Nine people are running for the four positions on the board. Only one of the candidates is an incumbent.
Teachers and parents voiced concerns about standardized tests (they’re demoralizing), special education (it’s difficult), the school to prison pipeline (restorative justice can interrupt it) and many other topics.
Faber started the meeting reminding the crowd that they as voters were ultimately in charge of the school board “Whose schools?” he asked. “Our schools” replied the crowd after a little coaching.