Star Tribune
What to know about Sonia Stewart, one of two finalists for superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools
The Minneapolis school board on Monday interviewed Sonia Stewart, the first of two superintendent finalists, kicking off a packed week set to end with the naming of the next leader of the state’s fourth-largest school district.
Stewart, currently the deputy superintendent of Hamilton Public Schools in Chattanooga, Tenn., met with the public for several hours before the board interview and detailed her experiences and priorities.
The other candidate, Lisa Sayles-Adams, will meet with the public and interview with the board on Wednesday. Sayles-Adams is the superintendent of Eastern Carver County Schools.
The school board will meet on Friday to choose the final candidate, and a start date will be determined after the contract is negotiated and approved.
Here’s what to know about Stewart’s background and track record as a school leader:
Experience: Stewart spent 13 years working in schools in Nashville, Tenn., where she served as high school principal, high school administrator, math teacher, basketball coach, and then as executive officer of organizational development for the district.
In 2020, she joined Hamilton County Public Schools as a community superintendent. About two years later, she became deputy superintendent of the district, which serves 44,000 students across nearly 80 schools that span metro, suburban and rural areas.
Stewart, 49, was also a finalist for superintendent of Green Bay Area Public Schools in early 2020.
“Turning around” struggling schools: In 2018, Stewart published a book chronicling her years as a principal of Nashville’s Pearl-Cohn High School, a high-poverty school serving primarily Black students. In the book, she writes of the challenges — violence and economic disparities chief among them — in the school and surrounding community, and she details how she led the teenagers to better academic outcomes and improved the school culture.
Gini Pupo-Walker, a former school board member for Metro Nashville Public Schools, said Stewart did “really, really transformative work” during her time as principal of Pearl-Cohn. She said Stewart brought in new staff, offered more advanced courses and boosted enrollment. During Stewart’s time there, the school earned some of the highest ratings for showing the largest rates of growth in test scores, Pupo-Walker said.
As a community superintendent in Chattanooga, Stewart oversaw the district’s struggling schools, including several named by the Tennessee Department of Education as the most consistently low-performing.
“She’s very knowledgeable in the work of turning around schools and growing student success — that’s where she really shines,” said Tiffanie Robinson, a school board member for Hamilton County schools.
Under Stewart’s leadership, the district recently earned the highest score possible for academic growth year over year, though the district’s students scored below state “growth expectations” in math.
Colleagues’ reviews: Hamilton County school board member Joe Smith called Stewart a “talented and creative visionary,” but said he sensed she never truly felt at home in Chattanooga, which he described as very conservative.
Robinson said Stewart has not shied away from her commitment to diversity and inclusion and works to keep the focus on students.
“We’ll be sad if we lose her but Minneapolis will be very lucky,” Robinson said.
Jeanette Omarkhail, the president of the Hamilton County Education Association — the union representing the district’s teachers — said Stewart has been a collaborative and responsive partner with the union.
“She is visible and she is accessible,” Omarkhail said. “Even if she is facing some challenges, she handles it in a way that allows for collaboration. She’s not a ‘my way or the highway’ leader.”
Why MPS?: Students, parents, community and board members on Monday repeatedly asked Stewart, “Why Minneapolis Public Schools?” and “Why now?”
Stewart said she knows the district’s challenges — declining enrollment, a looming fiscal crisis, a district transformation plan that could include closing and consolidating schools, a recent data breach — but if the community is willing to take on those challenges together, she’s ready to lead.
And she’s motivated by its mission to “provide a high quality, anti-racist, culturally responsive education for every Minneapolis student,” which she repeatedly referenced in the “100-day entry plan” she presented to the board.
“That mission statement and strategic plan is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she said. “That aspiration isn’t everywhere. It’s why I’m here.”
Her entry plan:
Stewart said she would spend her first months meeting with students, parents, administrators and community partners.
“The first step is really listening to stakeholders and the second piece is taking action,” she said.
She also plans to review curricula and the district’s academic standards and wants to conduct a “root cause analysis” to find out what is contributing to longstanding achievement gaps between white students and students of color.
More about Sonia Stewart:
Stewart grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., and attended a predominately white elementary school, where she said she wasn’t allowed to take the standardized test as a student of color. She began her interview with a story about the teachers who built barriers and those who created opportunities for her.
“It takes one person sometimes in the lives of a child to change trajectories,” she said. “This seat I’m in now — I have an enormous responsibility to change kids’ trajectories.”
Stewart and her husband of 28 years, Rayna, have four adult children. She enjoys reading, hiking, sports and traveling.
A recording of Stewart’s interview with the board is available online at https://mps.eduvision.tv.
Staff writer Liz Navratil contributed to this story.
After months of maintenance problems and safety concerns in downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments, city officials condemned the building, forcing dozens of tenants to abruptly relocate to hotels this week.
On Monday afternoon, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the 11-story building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold.
To make repairs, the building’s water must be shut off — a move that would leave tenants without boiler heat and fire sprinklers, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in a Tuesday email to state Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represent the area.
After determining heat and water could not be restored quickly, Tincher wrote: “There was no other option than to conclude the building was not safe for residents to stay.”
Property manager Halverson and Blaiser Group (HBG) agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Tincher said. City staff worked with Ramsey County’s Housing Stability team and Metro Transit to help 71 residents pack and move.
Before then, the building belonged to downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, Madison Equities. After the January death of the company’s founder and longtime principal, Jim Crockarell, the dire state of the group’s real estate portfolio became apparent.
The Lowry Apartments, the sole property with a high concentration of low-income housing, quickly became the most troubled. Residents reported frequent break-ins, pest infestations, inoperable elevators and more, to no avail.
Star Tribune
Metro Transit allocated $12 million to boost security, cleanliness on Twin Cities light rail and buses
They will be soon. With more money to spend, Metro Transit plans to bring on 40 more this year. With their ranks growing, TRIP agents, clad in blue, have recently started covering the Metro C and D rapid transit lines between Brooklyn Center and downtown Minneapolis.
The big investment in public safety initiatives comes as Metro Transit is seeing an uptick in ridership that plunged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been slow to recover. This year ridership has been a bright spot, the agency said.
Through October, the agency has provided 40.1 million rides, up 7% compared with the first 10 months of 2023. In September, the agency saw its highest monthly ridership in four years, averaging nearly 157,000 rides on weekdays, agency data shows.
At the same time, crime is down 8.4% during the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, according to Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth. However, problems still persist.
On Nov. 29, Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was fatally shot on a Green Line train in St. Paul. Just a week earlier, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Earlier this year, a robbery attempt on the Green Line in St. Paul left a passenger shot and wounded.
“Our officers are spending time on the system and sending a clear message to everyone: Crime will not be tolerated on transit,” Dotseth said. “And we will work to ensure those commit those crimes are held accountable.”
The ACLU of Minnesota has sued Otter Tail County, its sheriff and correctional officers at its jail, alleging unlawful punishment of a man known to them who has serious mental health issues.
Ramsey Kettle, 33, a member of White Earth Nation and lifelong Otter Tail County resident, was jailed in February on charges that were dropped two months later. The ACLU says that the sheriff’s office attempted to cover up the mistreatment, but a whistleblower working at the jail reported the abuse to the state. A 46-page lawsuit was filed this week in U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
“Mr. Kettle was subjected to extreme, punitive treatment in violation of his constitutional rights and standards for basic human dignity,” the ACLU said in a statement. “Otter Tail County officers, with approval of the acting jail administrator, kept Mr. Kettle locked up in solitary confinement for days without food, water, or appropriate medical and mental health care.”
Otter Tail County spokesperson Shannon Terry said in an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune that “Due to the impending litigation, Otter Tail County has no comment or statement at this time.” Terry did confirm that Kettle was released from custody April 24, when the charges were dropped.
Kettle was immediately placed in solitary confinement after he arrived at the jail Feb. 9, the lawsuit says. Jail staff didn’t assess Kettle’s poor mental health, which the ACLU says was well-documented and known to officers. The ACLU says Kettle “exhibited increasing signs of physical and mental distress” and officers allegedly “laughed at him, mocked him, and left him to suffer.”
Kettle had been booked at the jail multiple times before. In March 2022, he was convicted of making terroristic threats and sentenced to two years. On the day he was scheduled to be released from Rush City Correctional Facility after serving his full sentence, he was charged in Otter Tail with four counts of aggravated witness tampering stemming from the conviction.
“Rather than going home on February 9, 2024, as he had anticipated for nearly two years, he was transferred to Otter Tail County Jail to await trial on these new charges. The new charges were unfounded and intended solely to keep Mr. Kettle incarcerated,” the lawsuit states.
District Judge Johnathan Judd dismissed the charges as lacking foundation.
