When AAOP Program Director Chong Vang heard that his favorite high school teachers were being laid off, he immediately sought to investigate.
Minneapolis Public Schools had announced that they were in a $33 million deficit and in order to cut back on their expenses, they decided to they needed to cut back on curriculum — and teachers. (1)
For Patrick Henry High School, that means it would be a $1.9 million dollar cut; the Japanese Language and Hmong language programs, along with several International Baccalaureate classes would no longer be available. (1)
Vang joined the school board meeting in March to learn more about the budget cuts and to voice his opinion on the cuts to the language programs. There, he ended up co-facilitating actions to help frame the messaging for their demands. (2)
The demands included an ask to restore funding to Patrick Henry and its crucial programs. If the school board could not restore the funding, organizers wanted to be sure that the school board knew there were community members able to hold them accountable and to demand changes.
AAOP Community Organizer Pashie Vang joined in the school board meeting on April 10th to testify as well, wanting to provide concrete examples as to how Patrick Henry’s program has helped her.
The school board ended up voting 5:4 to restore partial fund of about $400,000 to Patrick Henry. A total of $6.4 million was restored city-wide.
Though this partial fund restoration allowed PH to restore programming, it did not save many teacher’s jobs.
Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Ed Graff released this statement on April 20, clarifying where the $6.4 million was allocated from. In the statement, he also wrote that the final school board vote will be in June.
(1) Minneapolis Schools Brace for Cuts
(2) Patrick Henry High School Faces Budget Cuts
(3) BTO Budget Letter