Tag Archives: Washburn High School

Minneapolis School Staffer Challenges Harsh Disciplinary Action

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August 6, 2016

How do you go from winning a work-related Peacemaker Award one year, to being told you are unfit for employment the next?

By working for the Minneapolis Public Schools, of course. 

Elisabeth Geschiere

For the past few years, Elisabeth Geschiere has worked for Check and Connect,  a dropout prevention program at Washburn High School. Geschiere is “conversationally fluent” in Spanish, and has worked closely with the school’s Latino population as both support staff and an advisor for the Latino Club. In 2015, she was lauded on the school’s website as “one of a very select group of nominees” to be considered for the district’s Peacemaker Award, which Geschiere then won. The website announcement ends on a high note:

We thank Elisabeth for her tireless commitment to equity, peace, for the students at Washburn.

Now, Geschiere has found herself on the nail end of the district’s often bludgeon-like HR hammer. This spring, students in the Latino Club became upset when the Chicano Studies course they had been told was coming to Washburn was instead rolled into a more general “American Civil Rights” class. The school cited low enrollment as the reason the class had to be scrapped. (Adding more ethnic studies courses is a new focus for MPS, but the classes are electives and thus not required.)

On a day when Geschiere happened to be out sick, the students met with Washburn principal Rhonda Dean to express their dismay over the situation, vowing to make their concerns public at the next school board meeting. When Geshciere returned to work the next day, she says Dean asked her to help the students try to boost the enrollment of the Chicano Studies course they wanted, in order to keep it alive as a possibility. (The students say they have proof that, during their meeting with her, Dean also told them to ask Geschiere for help.)

Geschiere says that is just what she did, by sending out emails to fellow Washburn staffers, alerting them to the course, and otherwise supporting the Latino Club students in their push to make the ethnic studies course a reality. 

Somehow, though, Dean accused Geschiere of telling her students to go to the school board meeting with their complaints. On May 12, one week after Dean asked her to help the students drum up enrollment, Geschiere says Dean called her boss, Colleen Kaibel. Dean wanted Kaibel to “immediately remove” Geschiere from her position–but not until the school’s upcoming Multicultural Arts Festival took place. “I know she is doing good work on that, and the students are excited about it,” Dean told Kaibel, according to Gescheire’s records.

Side note: Geschiere and her Latino Club students started the annual Multicultural Arts Festival three years ago. According to Geschiere, the festival “attracts around 300 parents, students, staff, and community members and happens to showcase Washburn students’ diverse backgrounds and talents as well as the arts.” 

Elisabeth and Latino Club
Geschiere and the Latino Club

Next, Geschiere says she was called to a meeting with the Washburn principal, as well as an assistant administrator and district HR associate, Emma Hixson. During the meeting, Geschiere says she was told that she was “inciting students” and acting “beyond the scope of her duties as Check and Connect staff”–something she was not faulted for when helping to set up the Multicultural Arts Festival, mostly on her own time.)

Weeks later, on June 27, Geschiere received a letter from Hixson. In icy tones, Hixson’s letter accuses Geschiere of telling the students to go to the school board with their concerns about the Chicano Studies course:

Your actions in this matter were outside the scope of your duties as a Check and Connect staff person and inappropriate for your advisory role with the Latino Club outside the duty day. If students brought concerns to you, you should have brought those concerns directly to the administration. It is not constructive or appropriate to take the time of professional staff with questioning, nor is it appropriate for you to have discussed the matter of school curriculum with (other staff).

Finally, Hixson brings the hammer down in the last line of her letter:

This document will be placed in your personnel file and evidence that you are not recommended for rehire with Minneapolis Pubic Schools.

Geschiere says this letter was labeled a “Written Reprimand,” but was clearly intended to end her five-year career in the district. There is no due process apparent here; only a cold note, informing Geschiere of her wrongdoing, which Geschiere insists is based on false information. Moreover, questions linger about what, exactly, Geschiere is being accused of. 

If her alleged crime is talking with students about going to the school board to advocate for themselves, is this considered worthy of dismissal in the eyes of the Minneapolis Public Schools? 

Hixson’s suspiciously toxic letter still sits in Geschiere’s file, although she has written letters to the district’s HR director, Steven Barrett, asking to have Hixson’s letter removed. (She has also received support from her union, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.) After receiving no reply from Barrett, Geschiere wrote to the district’s new superintendent, Ed Graff, and the district’s Chief of Schools, Michael Thomas.

When she also received no reply from these district higher-ups, some of Geschiere’s friends organized a “phone/email zap” on August 5, asking supporters to flood MPS with this message:

I am writing/calling in regard to the unfair treatment of MPS employee Elisabeth Geschiere by the Washburn Administration and HR Department. Geschire has been an outstanding support for marginalized students at Washburn and it appears she is being punished for that. She did nothing wrong. She simply supported students from Latinx Club as their staff advisor. The claims by the Washburn Administration, and subsequently HR, that Ms. Geschiere “incited students” are not only patently false, they are disrespectful to the students who took the initiative to advocate for themselves. I ask you to do the right thing and immediately remove the “letter of no re-hire” dated June 7, 2016 from Ms. Geschiere’s MPS file.

By mid-afternoon on August 5, a message on the Facebook event page created on Geschiere’s behalf held this message: “The public pressure is working! Keep it up y’all! The superintendent reached out to set up a meeting with Elisabeth for Monday. Will keep you posted!”

Geschiere’s experience with Minneapolis’s seemingly hot-headed HR department is just the latest in a string of high-profile encounters between staff and the district, indicating a pattern of behavior some might consider abusive:

  • July 12: Parents, teachers, students and staff from Barton Open School flood Superintendent Graff’s debut school board meeting, advocating on behalf of teachers investigated by Barton’s new principal, Jonas Beugen. District administrator Michael Thomas recently announced his continued support for Beugen, and blamed the Barton events–documented here–on problematic district “procedures and practices.”
  • June 9: Questions emerge about the conduct of Minneapolis administrator, Lucilla Davila, who was then put on leave by the district. Davila was running a nonprofit that did business with the Minneapolis schools, and was responsible for the placement of several principals–including Whittier’s Norma Gibbs. In May, Whittier parents went public with their own complaints about Gibbs and Davila, including the attempted firing of a beloved Whittier staff member.
  • June 8: Geschiere’s coworker, popular Washburn theater teacher Crystal Spring, is threatened with termination by HR director Barrett after being arrested while off work. In a letter sent to Spring, Barrett upbraided Spring and seemed to cast judgment on her actions, telling her it was “troublesome on multiple levels.” Charges were later dropped against Spring, who also had her job restored after a public demonstration on her behalf.

There has been no official word since June regarding Davila’s status. Geschiere has resigned from MPS, a decision she says she made before being put through the HR wringer. Still, before she leaves, Geschiere wants the district to acknowledge and correct the “appalling” and unjust treatment she and her supporters believe she has received–not just for her own sake, but also in light of acknowledged district-level patterns of “problematic” HR practices.

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Minneapolis Public Schools Shows Growth, Restores Teacher’s Job

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June 14, 2016

After being threatened with losing her job, Minneapolis theater teacher, Crystal Spring, learned today that her position at Washburn High School has been fully restored. Spring’s friend and supporter, Minneapolis writer and teacher Shannon Gibney, spread the word this afternoon on Facebook.

Earlier this afternoon, Crystal Spring received a voicemail message from Steven Barrett, Executive Director of HR Operations at Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), stating that she is removed from administrative leave effective immediately, and that her status is now as an active MPS employee. The voicemail included a personal apology from Barrett.

“I want to thank you, this community, for standing up for me,” said Spring, in response to the decision. “Thank you for the texts and letters and phone calls and messages of supporters—I read and listened to every single one. The community’s voice helped make this change. You ensured that I didn’t lose my livelihood, my career, my life’s passion.”

Barrett had sent Spring a letter on June 8, informing her that she was slated for termination, due to her arrest on May 19. On that date,  police rounded Spring up for allegedly interfering with another arrest; Spring has said she was simply observing that arrest, as the man involved was calling for help.

Questions have been raised about how the Minneapolis Public Schools’ Human Resources department found out about Spring’s arrest–which occurred at night, off school property–and why the district would attempt to remove a teacher without due process, and, seemingly, without allowing the criminal justice system to first decide her case.

As soon as word of Spring’s situation hit social media, a vocal and growing community of supporters rallied on her behalf. Students, colleagues, parents and other devotees of Spring’s work have been planning to show up at tonight’s regularly scheduled school board meeting to demand answers from the Minneapolis schools.

As of now, those plans are in flux, with interested people being told to check Facebook for further updates.

Organizers are still deciding if they will go forward with the rally planned at the school board meeting tonight, if it will instead be a celebration, etc.

A quick look at the reaction to this news, on the Facebook event page for tonight’s rally, shows a determined but relieved crowd:

This is a wonderful happy ending for a bad situation that no one needed to be put through. I hope Mr. Barrett and the school board will address what happened and how they will ensure such an ordeal doesn’t occur again.

FANTASTIC! Strongly encourage the rally to go ahead to demonstrate the power of our community! Let them hear this lesson.

Great job! But… I would like to see MPS define more specifically what activities would constitute grounds for discipline (including termination).

Should we still show up and lift up the message that students and their community want more teachers like Crystal Spring?

Tonight’s school board meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at Minneapolis’s Davis Center headquarters.

Celebrated Minneapolis Teacher Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

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June 13, 2016

The Minneapolis Public Schools unleashed a fresh round of outrage on June 8, when district administrators informed popular Washburn High School theater teacher, Crystal Spring, that she was being terminated. (This action came just a few weeks after the district honored Spring as one of six Washburn teachers who have had a “significant impact on students.”)

Crystal Spring

Although the case is still unraveling, sources say Spring was faulted for “conduct unbecoming a teacher,” after she was arrested by Minneapolis police in May. The police say Spring was interfering with an off-campus arrest on May 19; Spring maintains that she was cooperating with police and simply bearing witness to their arrest of an African-American man who was calling for help.

The district moved to fire Spring before her case was decided in court (some have speculated that Spring’s “crime” may have been not reporting her arrest to the district). Acting presumptively, Minneapolis Human Resources director, Steven Barrett, sent a scolding, June 8 letter to Spring, according to Minneapolis writer and teacher, Shannon Gibney:

Spring’s termination letter was signed by Steven Barrett, Executive Director of HR Operations at MPS, and CC’d to Washburn High School Principal Rhonda Dean, Mike Leiter, MFT; Human Capital; and Employee Relations.

In the letter Barrett writes, “…the District became aware of your arrest on Thursday, May 19, 2016. In that incident, you allegedly approached police officers involved with taking someone into custody. You parked your vehicle near the incident and confronted the officers on several occasions despite being told to step back. You then proceeded to follow the officers across the street and began to confront witnesses who were being interviewed by the officers, telling them not to cooperate with the officers and accusing the officers of being racist. Witnesses at the scene corroborated the officers’ account of your behavior. You were arrested and charged with obstruction of legal process and disorderly conduct.”

“This behavior is especially troublesome on multiple levels,” the letter continues. “You had no connection to the parties involved in the police action. You did not know the circumstances of why the police were taking someone into custody. Yet you determined that repeatedly confronting the police officers, and shouting accusations about the officers to potential witnesses to the police investigation, was necessary.”

Barrett’s letter makes it sound as though he was there the night Spring was arrested. If he was not there, then would he know, any more than Spring, the “circumstances of why the police were taking someone into custody”? Could he know for certain that Spring “repeatedly” confronted the officers, and shouted “accusations” about them to “potential witnesses”?

How does Barrett know that Spring was not doing the right thing by attempting to document the actions of the Minneapolis police?

Questions like these matter less than the devoted community of students, colleagues, and supporters that rose up quickly on Spring’s behalf, demanding she be reinstated. A headline-worthy Facebook event, called “MPLS Teacher FIRED for Cop Watch!,” burst to life, along with a planned rally for the June 14 Minneapolis school board meeting, where Spring’s official status was to be presented to board members.

Then, on June 12, the district buckled under mounting pressure (and action by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers). According to Gibney, Minneapolis officials agreed to place Spring on leave rather than fire her:

MPS sent the following text to Spring and her union rep late this afternoon (June 12): “After reviewing the matter with the Superintendent and senior staff, we are pulling Ms. Spring’s discharge off the board agenda. We will place her on administrative leave pending adjudication of the charges.”

Placing someone on administrative leave pending the outcome of a legal matter is provided for under district policy. Union leadership viewed this as a positive development in the case.

Acting superintendent, Michael Thomas, is also said to have asked for a chance to further review Spring’s case before deciding her fate. Still, Spring’s supporters are planning to turn out for the June 14 board meeting to protest the district’s seemingly hasty and confounding actions. A sampling of comments on the above-mentioned Facebook event page reveal a stunned community:

It is the phrase “behavior unbecoming for a teacher” that gets me. For an urban teacher who must continually be aware of diversity, culture, inequality and social justice, I think Crystal’s behavior was courageous.

…Why are they accepting only the police version of events in making their decision? I presume it’s because MPS, like many public institutions, is so afraid of further scrutiny of its own shortcomings that it expects its employees to be in complete solidarity with all government agencies. What’s next–firing teachers who get arrested as part of a peace demonstration or other public protest? 

Even if the police report were true, and she was vocally challenging an arrest, how is political/social activism unbecoming conduct for a teacher?!

If the district wants to close the achievement gap, this is the worst thing to do. Crystal Spring’s black box program is the SINGLE BEST THING THAT COMBINES STUDENTS OF ALL BACKGROUNDS I’ve seen as a 13-year MPS parent. She treats all students equally according to who they are. Fire her for a MISDEMEANOR? Outrageous.

Scene from Washburn’s Black Box theater, via TPT.

Gibney’s full account of Spring’s story–complete with a statement from the Minneapolis schools–is scheduled to be published in the City Pages today. For an overview of Spring’s work at Washburn, watch this video from a recent Twin Cities Public Television program. In April, the station featured Spring’s Black Box Theater, which she describes as a “social justice theater program based in youth voice.”

But it is clearly more than that. One student’s Facebook message might just say it all:

Crystal Spring has done too much for me and everyone else in the social justice community for me to not go and pour my heart out to that board…I’ll be there on Tuesday. We love you, Ms. Spring!

No grant, no guru, no outside funding source. My work is entirely funded by my very kind and generous readers. Thank you to those who have already donated!

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