October 13, 2015
Push has finally come to shove, and tonight, at the regularly scheduled Minneapolis school board meeting, a resolution regarding Reading Horizons will be presented to the public.
This is monumental. I don’t know exactly what the resolutions will say, but my guess is Reading Horizons will be shown the door, even though the Minneapolis Public Schools has already spent over $1 million on the Utah company.
I have heard that Reading Horizons’ CEO was scheduled to appear at tonight’s board meeting, with the intention that he would apologize to Minneapolis employees and families, over the offensive and utterly confounding “Little Books” his company packaged up and sold to MPS.
Now, ominously, sources say the CEO will be at the meeting, but will not be publicly addressing anyone.
If Reading Horizons gets sent back to Salt Lake City, it won’t be because of “Lazy Lucy” or the company’s apparent belief that Christopher Columbus discovered America, although that is reason enough in the eyes of many who’ve been tracking this story.
Instead, it will most likely be because MPS employees appear to have violated numerous policies regarding the Reading Horizons deal.
Here are two of the most obvious potential violations, committed in what MPS officials have described as a rush to provide explicit phonics instruction to every K-2 student in the district:
I. Purpose: “Every student deserves a respectful learning environment in which their
racial and ethnic diversity is valued and contributes to successful academic outcomes.
Minneapolis Public Schools is committed to identifying and correcting practices and
policies that perpetuate the achievement gap and institutional racism in all forms…”
“Adult behaviors must not contribute to achievement gaps or create barriers to success.”
II. Definitions: “”Institutional racism” means the collective failure of a public or private
organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of
their race, color, culture or ethnic origin which can be seen or detected in practices,
processes, systems, attitudes and behavior. It looks beyond individual acts of prejudice
to the systemic biases that may be built into institutions. These systemic biases
discriminate against and disadvantage people of color through unwitting prejudice,
ignorance, thoughtlessness or racial stereotyping.”
III. G. “The District shall promote the diversification of its vendor and supplier corps in
accordance with law and district policy.”
IV. I. “MPS Board of Directors, Superintendent and employees will work with students
and families to identify barriers to achievement and opportunities for academic success”
And this one:
II. A. 6. All purchases of good [sic] and services shall consider the advantage ofimproving the district’s ability to do business with diverse vendors or providers, and theability to engage the Minneapolis community in doing business with the district. Diversityof subcontractors and suppliers shall be considered under this value as well.IV. A. All employees of the District charged with making purchases of goods and serviceson behalf of the District shall follow the district procedures, and all applicable law anddistrict policies for such purchases. Willful failure to do so may result in disciplinary action upto and including termination of employment.
Here is, perhaps, further evidence of a purchasing policy violation. A Minneapolis parent requested a copy of the “Exhibit A” addendum to the purchase agreement between MPS and Reading Horizons. Emails between the parent and the district’s data request office indicate that district employees initially could not locate Exhibit A in their system, but eventually found it.
The document raised new alarm bells with the parent who requested it, for two reasons: 1) it was not signed by a Minneapolis employee, and 2) it looks like MPS has committed to a five-year deal with Reading Horizons, worth what appears to be $2.3 million, overall.
These two policies, alone, would seem to provide enough ammunition for school board members looking for a clean way out of the Reading Horizons disaster.
Meanwhile, district officials keep insisting that, despite the horrible upset Reading Horizons has caused for many community members, the company’s phonics curriculum is as good as gold, and too important to scrap.
Who will win out, the community or district officials? Tonight’s board meeting should provide an answer to this.