Dear Minneapolis,
Thank you for your engagement in our work. Thank you for your belief in the promise of education.
Our world is changing as a result of the global pandemic and increasing awareness of existing structural racism and resulting disparities. As we navigate what this means for each of us, with our unique paths, histories, and different levels of positional power and privilege, we stay centered on the schools and families we serve.
We believe in great schools and the inspiring leadership of the school leaders we support. We believe in providing families with information that empowers them to advocate for their children. The work of Great MN Schools matters today, more than ever, and we're making progress toward ensuring more children have access to a great school.
We're proud to work alongside our team, alongside the leadership teams of our portfolio schools, alongside our community partners, and each of you. Together we are changing what is possible for students in Minneapolis—one school at a time, one family at a time—toward a larger goal of changing the systems, policies, practices, and beliefs that stand in the way of educational equity.
This year we surrounded each of the portfolio schools with a variety of supports—from a COVID-19 technology fund to tailored counsel on reopening plans—to ensure students were provided with high-quality learning experiences, despite a global pandemic. And building off of Minneapolis School Finder, we created a set of online resources to support parents and a ‘How to pick a school’ guide so that families can better find a best-fit school for their child.
Great schools defy dominant beliefs and expectations of what’s obtainable for children from low-income backgrounds and children of color. Large scale change can only come once we’ve addressed the belief gap and shown what’s possible. This is a powerful motivator as we focus on our strategy to support and increase the number of schools that work.
At Great MN Schools, we believe that great schools are the cornerstone of a just and thriving community. By focusing on school quality, we're working to create educational equity and to change the everyday and lived experiences of students in Minneapolis.
In partnering with promising schools—guiding their improvement and growth, strengthening students’ learning experiences, and advancing educational outcomes—we are working toward a goal of 5,000 students attending high-performing schools in the portfolio by 2025. Complementing that is our support for additional schools on their path to becoming high performing—and serving another 5,000 students.
We remain committed to our city and hopeful about the future and the impact of our work. We thank you for your commitment, too, and support as we make progress together.
In community,
Jennifer Stern
CEO, Great MN Schools
Alberto Monserrate
Board Chair, Great MN
Schools; CEO and Co-founder, NewPublica
We’re building a portfolio of high-performing schools that demonstrate what’s possible.
Our school-centered approach starts with identifying schools with strong leaders and culture, and helping them diagnose their strengths and gaps. We facilitate the development of a strategic roadmap, and surround schools with support to ensure the implementation of strategic interventions and evidence-based solutions.
And we build community partnerships to support underserved families’ ability to navigate K-12 systems and advocate for their children through new tools and resources. This work will lead to families choosing better options for their child, and stronger family-school relationships and stronger schools.
And as we collectively work to transform the experiences for those underserved and historically marginalized, we’re committed to education as crucial path toward equity and racial justice.
Toward more schools that work, growing our portfolio of schools & strengthening community partnerships.
Our portfolio of schools is on the path toward becoming high performing
Effectiveness of Great MN Schools team
(school survey, 4.75 rating out of a 1-5 scale)
Great MN Schools' portfolio schools had a noteworthy 11% increase on TNTP's Instructional Culture Index (6.1 to 6.8—against a national school average of 7.6). The index is an independently validated predictor of student performance and effective teacher retention, and is reflective of progress toward schools' success plans.
The Great MN Schools team understands how schools work, and they're focused on helping our school improve.
Helen Fisk, Director, Global Academy
School leaders accessed best-in-class capacity building & strategic interventions
Good-to-Great progress
Completed the strategic improvement planning process and funded for implementation:
- Hennepin Schools
- Hiawatha Academies
- Hope Academy
New City School completed the strategic improvement planning process and Friendship Academy of the Arts completed a School Quality Review, as they prepare proposals for implementation funding.
Schools that completed year one of implementation:
- Global Academy
- KIPP MN
- New Millennium Academy
- Northeast College Prep
- Prodeo Academy
Four school networks funded
for year two of implementation (following completion of their improvement planning process).
We completed “focused reviews” with Bellwether Education Partners to inform due diligence, more deeply understand progress made and support schools in continual improvement as they planned for year two of implementation.
Performance of Great MN Schools portfolio schools during COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, Minnesota schools did not administer spring Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs).
Daily attendance
91% daily student attendance during distance learning.
1/3 of Mpls public school students were absent or unable to complete school work because they lacked a device or paper packet. (Pioneer Press, April 2020)
Student engagement
95% of students connected at least weekly with a teacher.
61% of charter school parents reported their children had one-on-one interactions with their teachers at least once per week. (Education Next, July 2020)
Family engagement
Our portfolio schools and their teachers got in touch with 98% of their students and families.
49% of teachers in schools with higher concentrations of low-income students said they were able to get in touch with students/families. (RAND Survey, June 2020)
Teachers validate instructional culture is strengthening at our schools
Measuring school culture, a predictor of student performance
School culture is a leading indicator of school quality, and teachers are the primary vehicle of student learning. If teachers are supported and engaged, students do better. This connection between culture and learning is why our portfolio schools provide their teachers with access to the TNTP Instructional Culture Insight Survey—access that we make possible.
The tool gives leaders concrete feedback on the aspects of school culture that matter most for teacher and student success.
The survey measures:
Diversity, equity & inclusion
Academic opportunities
Instructional planning
Peer culture
Evaluation
Family
& community
Workload
Career planning for teachers
Observation & feedback
Overall experience
Three of the Insight Survey's many questions are independently validated predictors of student performance and effective student retention, and together form TNTP’s Instructional Culture Index. The Index is universal—applicable across various learning models, subjects and grades, and state lines—and is considered a summative measure of a school’s talent management practices.
The Index is calculated from the percent of teachers who “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” with these three questions:
- Teachers at my school share a common vision of what effective teaching looks like.
- The expectations of effective teaching are clearly defined at my school.
- My school is committed to improving instructional practice.
We closely examine the Index scores across our portfolio schools (schools, too, identify other measures they prioritize, depending on their specific goals). Our portfolio schools have improved their scores over time, which is a valuable predictor that they are moving in the right direction. (Teachers take the survey at the start of the year, at mid-year, and at the end of the school year.) While this is a formative tool, not evaluative, we compare the schools’ scores over time based on fall results, so they can identify areas to improve before mid-year.
As a growing school, we use the results of the TNTP Insight Survey to evaluate where our work is most effective at meeting our mission, and where we need to bring our team into tighter alignment. The survey is anonymous, and allows team members to share candidly about what they see working in our school, and where they see opportunities for growth and improvement.
John Trevino, Middle School Principal, Prodeo Academy
As a growing school, we use the results of the TNTP Insight Survey to evaluate where our work is most effective at meeting our mission, and where we need to bring our team into tighter alignment.
John Trevino,
Prodeo Middle School Principal
19 hires for portfolio schools resulting from our Teach MSP teacher candidate sourcing initiative with TNTP
Co-developed and published the ‘Talent Playbook’
We shared open-source tools and resources of key talent-ready lessons and practices with schools across the city, particularly single-site schools that don't have dedicated talent leads and those serving greater than 40% of students living in poverty.
Thirty-plus schools gained access through webinar trainings and/or
one-on-one support. Participants reviewed existing talent practices and set clear goals for their next hiring season. See Talent Playbook.
Partnerships toward more schools that work
Local community organizations and small businesses that helped distribute Minneapolis School Finder:
Copies of Minneapolis School Finder distributed:
Visitors who explored MinneapolisSchoolFinder.org:
9 partner organizations completed trainings on Minneapolis School Finder and the ‘How to Pick a School’ companion piece to better support fami- lies as they navigate schools:
Between March and June, 512 unique visitors accessed online tools and resources that we aggregated for community partners to promote families’ access to critical needs and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
No. of commonly spoken languages in which the resources were offered:
- English
- Español
- AF-Somalii
- Hmoob
Impact of COVID-19: Distance learning reflections
Impact of COVID-19: Distance learning reflections
By: John Trevino, Middle School Principal, Prodeo Academy
At Prodeo Academy, we examined our core practices, exploring their true purpose, function, and value in the broader context of educating kids. We identified what was important and uncovered ways to keep the same energy and spirit to those practices, and we tossed the rest to maintain a laser-sharp focus on the most important things.
For example, distance learning removed the core functions of advisory as a place to go upon arrival, check in on homework, share announcements, and ask questions. But we needed to keep students’ connection to a trusted adult and point person at school. So every student received a well-being check-in once a week beyond all of the academic support.
Early mistakes lead to positive changes
When we started distance learning, we gauged success on the number of students completing all of their work every day. Homeroom teachers were tracking down students, and it was overwhelming. Thanks to early team feedback and collaboration, we created a “Students of Concern” initiative with our dean of students, Lamont Gilbert.
Students below 60% work completion in two or more classes were mentored—determinedly—by Lamont. They became his own little advisory. When kids know there’s someone who notices their absence, they’re so much more invested. In three weeks, we cut the number in half.
Through this, Lamont uncovered resource gaps to solve. The COVID-19 technology fund that Great MN Schools established was critical to our ability to immediately equip students with the tools they needed to successfully engage in remote learning. Great MN Schools’ support meant that we could stay focused on instruction and student engagement.
Reducing student under- performance rates by half
Leadership was a big piece of Prodeo’s success as schools shifted to distance learning; John focused on culture and building systems to fit their new reality. He and his team held high expectations for student engagement, and students responded by achieving at a rate similar to in-person school. John was able to leverage his learning from the Relay National Principals Academy and the larger Prodeo leadership team to execute quality instruction in a crisis situation.
Sheilah Kavaney, Director, Great MN Schools
Emphasizing school culture remotely
Part of our school culture is ensuring kids feel celebrated for their hard work and effort. To recreate that online, we implemented several activities:
- Daily “shout-outs” where teachers recognized and shared examples on Google Classroom of high-quality work and high school-ready habits that were core to the courses, like using supporting arguments in writing.
- A weekly “Work Completion Raffle” for students who completed 100% of their work.
- A “Student of the Week” profile posted on Instagram.Families are also a critical part of our school culture. Throughout this experience, I am being careful to recognize the distinction between family engagement and dependence on families.
We value our families so much, and we want them to know that if they need to be taking care of others, we have the responsibility of educating their children.
Continuing high expectations in distance learning
Our goals:
- Have at least 75% of students complete 100% of work in each course, every day. (Our overall average was 71%. But we also wanted students to keep up the strong academic habits we instill.)
- Have at least 50% of students use catch-up day to submit a high-quality revision in response to teacher feedback.
- Have an average of 75% course mastery, which was a tougher goal to reach (see chart below).
We’ve met some of these goals, some we’re still working on, and I’m really proud of the work we did this spring and have continued since then. Our phenomenal leadership team and teachers kept me grounded and focused on student learning.
As school leaders, it was often difficult balancing doing what was best for kids with having reasonable expectations for teachers. But at every turn, our team stepped up, and it paid off in big ways. We appreciated the support from Great MN Schools, as we were able to stay focused on instruction and plan for the next school year, drilling down on our priorities and implementing what we learned this spring.
Performance in 5th & 6th grade distance learning
Performance in 5th grade distance learning
Performance in 6th grade distance learning
Global Academy:
Positioned for greatness
Global Academy: Positioned for greatness
By: Helen Fisk, Director, Global Academy
For our school leadership team, Good-to-Great was the most intense planning we have ever done—planning work that Great MN Schools funded. Bellwether Education Partners was incredibly true to the culture and spirit of our school.
We appreciated that Bellwether didn’t come in with a plan they tried to impose on us. Instead they built the strategic plan around who we are.
Until this plan, we had a ‘strategy wish list,’ but no vision and no tools to get to “great.” Our school is comparable to some of the best schools serving this population in the state. But that’s not good enough. After a really strong academic trajectory when we started, we stalled around 50-60% proficiency. We want to—and need to—do better for our kids.
Global is a public charter school that serves 430 students, 86% of whom are Black or African American,
in grades K-8.
The Great MN Schools-ANet learning walks to Chicago and Denver have been incredibly helpful. They showed us examples of schools that were where we are now a few years ago—and now are at 80-90% proficiency. ANet has given us the tools and analysis to dive into academics and implement the changes we need to make, such as interim assessments that give us actionable data to help teachers adjust their instruction quickly.
We’re already seeing the Good-to-Great work showing up in sustainable ways. For example, we developed an intensive instructional planning rubric to ensure all students receive grade-level—and rigorous—content. This is positively affecting student work, including writing like we’ve never seen before!
At Global Academy, all students take art class and learn Arabic, and can participate in a college prep program (International Baccalaureate). The school has received multiple awards, including:
- Great MN Schools: Changing the Odds (2019)
- Star Tribune: Beating the Odds (2010-2019)
- Minnesota Department of Education:
High Quality Charter School Award (2017, 2018)
Raising the bar at Hope Academy through Good-to-Great
Raising the bar at Hope Academy through Good-to-Great
By: Russ Gregg, Head of School, & Nathan Ziegler, Upper School Principal, Hope Academy
We have had a history of academic success with our students; our graduation rates consistently surpass 95%.
But when we drill down into MAP data by subgroup, there’s a significant gap in performance between white students and students of color. In math, the percentage of white students scoring at or above average on NWEA is 95%, compared to only 56% of students of color. Similarly, in reading, 96% of white students and 65% of students of color score at or above average. We need to do better for all of our students, and so we leaned into the ideas presented in TNTP’s research as we prepared for our work with Great MN Schools.
'The Opportunity Myth' is real and we are perpetuating it at Hope Academy.
Conscious of TNTP’s national study that examined the quality of students’ academic experiences in schools—and its effect on their long-term success—our staff was challenged to ensure that our students, especially students of color, those from low-income families, those with mild-to-moderate disabilities, and English language learners would have access to the critical resources for learning. They include: grade-appropriate assignments, strong instruction, deep engagement, and teachers with high expectations. We knew we could do better.
Working to raise the bar of expectations
We have internalized the importance of high expectations for students and teachers as a matter of equity. This was a shift in thinking for some of our team who value equity, but had not reflected on how we may have been lowering the bar for what we expected for our students of color.
The Good-to-Great work identified that the biggest risk for our change and growth was our instructional leadership. We had instructional leaders with 20 or 25 direct reports. But Great MN Schools facilitated our work with Bellwether, TNTP, and ANet to build the skills and capacity of our leadership team around strong standards-based instruction. As a result, we added an academic operations person and four instructional leads so that we could reinforce best practices.
Bellwether got to know us deeply. Rather than see the things that were valuable to us—like our faith-based practices—as challenges, they honored them and saw them as part of our success. Because of the trust with Bellwether, we were far more willing to listen when they came back with hard truths about our school. For example, we have been proud of the fact that our students spend more time than most ‘on-task.’ But Bellwether asked us if they were spending time on the right task. It was a hard conversation for our team, but a necessary one to realize that we needed to adjust the work our students are doing to improve.
Hope Academy Has:
550
Students in grade K-12
- 69% are eligible for Free and Reduced-price lunch
- 46% are Black/African American
- 26% are Latinx
- 24% are white
- 22% are English language learners
- 11% have IEPs
Preparing for our fall reopening
Great MN Schools offered us the chance to work with Bellwether and ANet again, as we prepared for our fall reopening. They stressed three priorities:
- Define guiding principles—this proved helpful in decision-making, as we filtered difficult decisions through these principles.
- Focus on rigor to accelerate learning and make sure that students continue to receive and have access to grade-level content and instruction.
- Regular communication—we gave families and staff weekly updates, and conducted a parent survey.
An email that we received from a Hope Academy parent attests to how valuable this advice proved to be:
I am sure you are getting a thousand of emails with questions so sorry to fill up your inbox more. I want to say thank you to the entire planning team for all their efforts. I have heard from many friends at various schools and Hope's plan far exceeded anything I have seen or heard! You were extremely thorough and made it so easy to understand.
The communication you have provided last spring and going into this year has been the best I have ever experienced at Hope. I truly appreciate it. With so many other stressors and unknowns in our world we have felt well cared for by our school through good communication. And our thank you extends beyond the planning team as I know all staff and teachers have put in so much extra effort these past several months. Thank you again! We are praying for all of you as this school year begins.
Thank you.
And when we rolled out our fall reopening plan, Fox9 News developed this news story.
We appreciate Great MN Schools’ continued belief in our work and our efforts to provide a remarkable education to the youth of Minneapolis. We are grateful for their partnership and for the help that Bellwether and ANet were able to provide to ready us for the fall—and for our future.
As an independent school, Hope Academy is not required to follow state standards. But the leadership team realized that its approach was not serving all of its students so, holding a high bar, they decided to build their own comfort around what high standards look like.
And Great MN Schools allowed them to work with Bellwether and ANet to build the skills and capacity of their leadership team around strong standards-based instruction.
Melissa Long, Director, Great MN Schools
Ensuring more kids have access to schools that work is a collaborative effort
Ensuring more kids have access to schools that work is a collaborative effort
There’s an abundance of direct service organizations doing great work, and they’re looking for guidance on how to best support families with navigating K-12—from school enrollment decisions to advocating for their children within schools.
Consider, from our partners at Learning Heroes, 67% of parents feel more connected to their child’s day-to-day education now than ever before (explore the national survey results).
During a series of feedback sessions, community organizations shared that, while they found Minneapolis School Finder to be a great tool, they needed more training on how to most effectively use it with their families.
Our strategy is grounded in trainings and capacity-building for community partners. A few highlights from the year...
Sharing resources to families engaged in distance learning
During the pandemic we curated and shared resources—translated across commonly spoken languages—specific to meeting the basic needs of families and ensuring student learning, including:
• BrainPOP
• GoNoodle
We connected with 129 staff from organizations across Minneapolis that engage underserved families. This outreach resulted in 500-plus unique webpage visitors between March and April.
In this initial effort, 15 applicants have been accepted and we’re excited to hit the ground running.
Launching Minneapolis Education Ambassadors
We’re engaging up-and-coming leaders so they can learn about K-12 problems and solutions, and Great MN Schools tools and resources to help address them. These leaders will then be in a better position to engage their networks and communities to help build citywide awareness and consensus of key systems changes.
Education systems reform will take the collective effort of individuals and organizations across our community. Great MN Schools is well positioned to serve as a catalyst for change as part of our community partnerships work.
Covid-19: Ensuring access
to critical resources & learning
COVID-19: Ensuring access to critical resources & learning
When schools first shut down this past spring—along with much of our community’s business, services, and functions—we were deeply concerned about the impact this would have on students’ learning and general well-being.
Parallel to launching our COVID-19 technology fund for schools to support them in their efforts to pair families that are underserved with access to technology to facilitate student learning, we saw an opportunity to pitch-in through the curation and distribution of high-caliber learning supports for students.
In response to the pandemic, we witnessed (and participated in) an immediate community-wide effort to ensure families had information on how to access food and internet.
Working with local and national partners, we created an online resource hub for our community partners to utilize in their work with families. We also sent frequent emails—available in English, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish—to 130 community organizations, providing updates and deeper nuance on how to best utilize tools that can help schools and families facilitate distance learning.
We shared best-class virtual learning supports, such as Khan Academy, as well as resources, such as the Readiness Check from Learning Heroes, that helped families understand how school shut downs were academically impacting their child.
Strengthening governance through cohort pilot
Strengthening governance through cohort pilot
School leaders and staff find great value in peer-to-peer cohorts and the collective problem-solving around common challenges they encounter. We created a pilot to extend that experience to public charter school board leaders, who have few opportunities to engage with their peers.
Schools boards play a critical role
in ensuring accountability, execution, and measurement against a strategic plan to meet student-learning benchmarks.
Great MN Schools engaged Education Board Partners, which focuses exclusively on strengthening nonprofit boards in education and has done extensive work to support schools that partner with city-based education champion organizations like Great MN Schools.
Twelve board leaders from eight school networks participated in these sessions:
1. Understanding good governance
2. Board’s role in academic achievement
3. Governing in a crisis
4. Governing with equity
Agendas and topics evolved to address what was on board chairs' minds, with the pandemic and schools switching to distance learning.
1. Understanding good governance
2. Board’s role in academic achievement
3. Governing in a crisis
4. Governing with equity
Agendas and topics evolved to address what was on board chairs' minds, with the pandemic and schools switching to distance learning.
This cohort work complements a broader school board development strategy. This includes Board Bank, which helps recruit and source potential board candidates to build out the capacity and leadership of school boards, as well as year-long capacity-building support to individual charter school boards provided by CharterSource, a local organization specializing in charter governance.
Given the overwhelmingly positive response to the pilot, we are continuing the cohort virtually in the 2020-21 academic year.
The board leadership training has connected me with other charter school leaders to share resources about successes and opportunities. It enabled me to reflect on the challenges our school faces and bring back ideas on how to approach them.
Chonburi Lee, Board Treasurer,
New Millennium Academy
There’s so much coming at us right now and so much uncertainty, for our entire school community. Good-to-Great helped us to create a new instructional learning leadership team structure; it has helped our school navigate really difficult times and position teachers to provide the best instruction they can.
Carl Phillips, Executive Director,
Northeast College Prep
10,000+ people accessed Minneapolis School Finder last year
Community partnerships:
Cities that have large numbers of high-performing schools share common solutions.
Building support for solutions that advance more great schools
Building support for solutions that advance more great schools
Following stakeholder interviews and a citywide public opinion poll, we updated our strategic priorities this year.
In addition to increasing the number of high-performing schools and supporting families' ability to navigate K-12 systems and advocate for their children, we set out to engage the Minneapolis community around proven solutions to dramatically improve schools across our city.
We recognize that the best ideas often come from our allies in this work. We were thrilled to have 20 diverse civic leaders join our “Three Meeting Task Force” to:
- Help us think through objectives and potential initiatives
- Articulate and design opportunities for partners and other stakeholders to engage in it
There was resounding support to actively address the belief gap in Minneapolis and, as a foundational step, deepen the understanding of the role of the Minneapolis Board of Education and increase engagement in election process.
As we closed out the fiscal year, we:
- Put in place a “MPS elections kitchen cabinet,” consisting of former educators, civic leaders, and former Minneapolis elected officials
- Developed a strategy for engaging in board elections,
focusing on elevating proven solutions among candidates and voters - Established a coalition of community organizations to collaborate on election strategies
Key findings from our citywide poll:
- Assessing Minneapolis’ belief gap: 35% think that any student can be successful in school if they study/work hard
- 77% believe there’s a large disparity in performance and quality between schools in Minneapolis
- 32% strongly agree that our city’s schools are failing students from diverse cultural or ethnic backgrounds
- 54% of parents trust that their child is receiving grade-appropriate curriculum
- 64% of parents would attempt to switch their child’s school
if they found out their current school was not higher performing
Introducing school performance frameworks to our city
Introducing school performance frameworks to our city
U.S. cities and school districts from Denver to New Orleans and Washington, D.C., to Chicago use multi-measure school performance frameworks as an important component of their efforts to effectively close opportunity gaps.
And while our Minneapolis School Finder is progress toward defining school quality and empowering families with contextualized, comparable information on our city’s schools, there’s more that we can do.
In March, we were thrilled to have 150-plus educators, funders, and advocacy and community partners join us to learn from other cities. Frameworks empower communities to define, measure, and manage school quality, together, as educators and policymakers, families, and advocates.
Retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari kicked off the event, making the case to amend our state's constitution. They reaffirmed that all children should have the right to a quality education and that how we define quality will be instrumental.
Our guests from Bellwether Education Partners, the D.C. Public Charter School Board, and the Prince George's County Board of Education explained how frameworks are action-oriented tools that provide information on school performance across a variety of measures, and the instrument to continuously improve a system of schools and accelerate student outcomes.
Dramatic improvement is possible in Minneapolis—it stems from a keen focus on measuring and managing for school quality.
We look forward to applying lessons learned, coupled with broad local stakeholder feedback, to offer a holistic, well-rounded rating in Minneapolis School Finder.
The work of defining and measuring school quality is absolutely instrumental in taking our amendment and putting it into practice.
Sheilah Kavaney, Director, Great MN Schools
OUR TEAM
Board of Directors
Alberto Monserrate, Chair – NewPublica
Stan Alleyne, Vice chair – Vitals Aware Services
Tad Piper, Treasurer – Piper Sandler (retired); Piper Family Fund
Alvin Abraham – To Educate All Children
Rob Albright – Albright Family Foundation; Alternative Strategy Advisers
Rosita Balch – Hennepin County
Becky Erdahl – Carolyn Foundation
Al Fan – MN Comeback (previous Executive Director)
Ethan Gray – The City Fund
Aimee Guidera – Guidera Strategies
Bernadeia Johnson – Mankato State University
Pat Ryan – Ryan Companies
Phil Soran – Flipgrid (retired); Compellent Technologies (retired); Xiotech (retired); Soran Foundation
Sandy Vargas – The Minneapolis Foundation (retired)
Ben Whitney, Chair (pre-merger); Investment Committee Chair – St. Catherine University School of Business
Former MN Comeback and Great MN Schools board members
Beth Finch – CharterSource
David Nelson – Carlson Family Foundation
Mithra Irani Ramaley – City Year
Carolyn Smallwood, MN Comeback chair – Way to Grow
Chris Smith – Kipsu
Staff
Jen Stern – CEO
Cay Adams Kimbrell – Director of Talent
Osman Ahmed – Director of Community Partnerships
Nouf Al-Masrafi – Operations Coordinator
Nicholas Banovetz – Chief of Staff
Morgan Brown – Director
Karn Engelsgjerd – Director of Development
Sheilah Kavaney – Director
Rosie Lais – Senior Manager of Projects & Analytics
Melissa Long – Director
Kristen McKittick – Director of Development
Funder Advisory Council
Julie Baker
Jane McDonald Black
Jason Brandenborg
Beth Finch
Jim Hield
David Nelson
Patrice Relerford
Julia Silvis
Chris Smith
Amy Walstein
FISCAL YEAR 2020 SPENDING
89% of our budget was invested into school support—schools that enroll students historically underserved (42% English language learners, 82% FRL, 91% children of color)—as well as ecosystem and community supports.
OUR FUNDERS
We're grateful to the many individuals, families, foundations, and corporations for their help moving us toward a more just, thriving, and equitable Minneapolis.*
Anonymous
Albright Family Foundation
Susan and Richard Anderson Family Fund
The Julie and Doug Baker, Jr. Foundation
Terry Becker
John and Joan Brooks Fund
Carlson Family Foundation
The Carolyn Foundation
City Fund
David Winton Bell Foundation
Mary Dolan | The Longview Foundation
Douglass Brandenborg Family Foundation
The Dryer Family Foundation
Becky Erdahl
Beth and David Finch
Frey Foundation
Alysa and Nicholas Gardino
General Mills Foundation
GHR Foundation
The Graves Foundation
Aimee and Bill Guidera
Bruce Hendry
Hixon Properties
I.A. O'Shaughnessy Foundation
JAB Foundation
The Joyce Foundation
LRE Foundation
Dave and Kathleen MacLennan
Bob and Polly McCrea
McKnight Foundation
Lucy Mitchell | The Longview Foundation
David and Leni Moore
John W. Mooty Foundation Trust
The Mortenson Family Foundation
Marcia Page
James A. Payne
The Tad and Cindy Piper Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation
Prospect Creek Foundation
Paul and Mary Reyelts
Ann and Pat Ryan
Sauer Family Foundation
Mike and Pam Sime
Smikis Foundation
Chris and Nell Smith | The Longview Foundation
Soran Foundation
Ed and Valerie Spencer
SPS Commerce
Turner Family Foundation
USBank
WEM Foundation
Ben and Mary Whitney Fund
Eleanor and Fred Winston | The Longview Foundation
Wollan and Fan Family Fund
*The generous investors listed have made investments greater than $1,000 from 7/1/19 through 6/30/20
Now more than ever...
We should rally behind the critical, shared work of more great schools to rewrite the future for students, families, and our entire community.
Great schools matter—they change lives.
In partnership,
Alberto Monserrate
Chair
Stan Alleyne
Vice Chair
Ben Whitney
Investment Committee Chair
Tad Piper
Treasurer
