SSD #1 School Board Member District 1
School board members oversee the care, management, and control of schools. This includes hiring, firing, and overseeing superintendents, who manage the day-to-day affairs of the district. They also set levies to fund the district and create school policies. Learn more here: https://www.lwv.org/blog/voting-local-matters-why-vote-school-boardIf your candidate didn’t fill in the guide below, visit the Secretary of State’s Candidate Filing site to find contact info (https://candidates.sos.mn.gov/). If you reach out, ask candidates to complete their Vote411 Voters Guide from LWVMN!
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Abdul Abdi
(NP)
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Ben Lattimore
(NP)
Why are you running for the Minneapolis school board and what are your qualifications for this position?
If you are elected, what are your priorities as a school board member?
How would you balance issues concerning school safety, discipline, and student and teacher mental wellness?
The "Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act" is the state’s mandate on how to teach reading. How should the district assess its impact on students’ reading skills across the district? Specifically, what should the indicators of the success of this reading mandate be for Minneapolis students?
Given reduced enrollment and substantial federal funding reductions in education, health, and social protections, how will you fill the funding gap, particularly for disabled and underserved students?
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My “why” for running for Board is similar to why I transitioned careers from the corporate world to teaching high school Business Ed back in 2020: a desire to positively impact kids. Around the time I filed, reports were all over the place about the financial standing of MPS. One day it’s a $40 million projected deficit for 2026-27, then the next day: $50 million. Several senior district finance personnel were placed on leave. As someone with a business background, I wanted to step up. I also have seen firsthand, as a teacher in the classroom, the negative impacts an overreliance on tech has had on our students. I want to reduce the emphasis on tech in the classroom, which should improve student math/reading scores, and enrollment as well.
My priorities as a school board member are to #1 - Stop the current “transformation” school closure plan proposed by the district (they have no specific, concrete data supporting how this plan will help with enrollment, cost savings, or test scores); #2 - Address the deficit by improving finance/accounting governance at the district level and improving advocacy at the state Capitol (MN ranks just 24th nationally in K-12 per pupil spending; moving up to just 17th would cover the entire deficit).
School counselors are massive for student mental health. MN is ranked 48th in student-to-counselor ratio. Only ~50% of the state’s 2200+ schools have a full-time counselor. Professional orgs recommend a ratio of 250:1, but in many districts counselors are responsible for more than double that. I support Senate File #3892 (only if the mandate is funded). The best thing we can do for safety is for the state House to pass the gun control bill that Republicans stalled on during the last session.
The READ Act required MDE to partner with the U of MN to identify specific “structured literacy” instructional tools that are evidence-based. The U of MN posted a list, with literacy tools ranked by level of alignment. For 2026-27, MPS is using UFLI for K-2, which is great (graded “high alignment”). But for K-5, MPS is using “Arts & Letters” from GreatMinds, which was not evaluated by the partnership. I would pivot away from this tool in favor of one with evidence of strong literacy instruction.
The district’s finances can be improved, without needing to close schools, because of three main drivers: 1) address finance/accounting governance issues (provides additional reimbursements, as well as avoids fines); 2) improve state legislature advocacy (brings the district more per-pupil dollars, as MN ranks 24th in K-12 funding); and 3) improve math/reading test scores (min. 10% to meet state average) as this will bring more of the 55,000 K-12 youth living within district boundaries to MPS.
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