School board director Chris Stewart keeps the heat on Burroughs position statement

Chris Stewart maintains he can't talk about the April 17 conversation he had with Cadotte, citing personnel issue constraints. But people connected with the school contend Stewart used the word 'racist' to refer to the school's position on a contentious plan to close school buildings and overhaul the student population of others. They also say Stewart likened the statement to hanging a swastika on the school's walls. The argument led to an investigation that culminated with the school board suspending Cadotte for ten days without pay. Stewart won't say what language he used during the conversation, but is adamant that the school's position needs changing.

"I have very little tolerance and very little patience for accepting, in 2009, that we are going to let stand or give benefit of the doubt a statement that has the word 'preferable' in it when you're talking about children," Stewart said.

Although the confrontation with Stewart sparked the investigation, the school board ultimately suspended Cadotte for unrelated reasons. Neither Cadotte nor any of the four others who were present during the dispute are talking publicly about it. But parents and other advocates for the school who've spoken to the witnesses defend Cadotte and say Stewart was out of line. They say Cadotte is readying a challenge to the school board's accusations. Roger Aronson, an attorney with the Minnesota Association of Elementary School Principals, told the school board the charges against Cadotte amount to a lack of dotting "i's" and crossing "t's". He says the suspension is severely out of proportion.

Stewart sidesteps the question of whether he used the strident language others attribute to him. But he boils down his position to a cool-headed question for Burroughs parents.

"It comes down to one basic question: are you open minded enough to read this statement and see how it might be perceived as offensive by certain people," he said. "It's a very simple question that I ask of the community."

The dispute is over a statement issued by a school advisory panel made up of parents and staff about pending changes to student boundary lines. The changes aim to break up concentrations of poorer, minority students and better integrate schools with mostly white students that are more successful academically. The statement, overwhelmingly approved by Burroughs parents, expresses a desire to rejuvenate an existing program that incorporates Spanish-speaking kids. It says, in part:

"The way to improve is to build upon our current strengths, not to undertake dramatic changes that may be appropriate to other parts of the district." It goes on to say that "keeping these students and the staff who serve them is preferable to replacing these students with another group of students to address the identical issues of diversity and achievement."

Stewart and some others in the administration contend the statement is a de facto exclusion of black students. He said his contention is with the statement itself and not the Burroughs parents or staff who drafted and support it. In the next breath, however, he said those who defend it are, in his words "not prepared to interface with integrity on this particular issue."

"There needs to a be real firm response that in 2009 that's just not acceptable," he said. "You do not have the right to establish preferences based on anything."

Kip Wennerlund is a parent of two Burroughs students and co-chair of the school's advisory board that drafted the statement. He said Burroughs parents are willing to discuss problems with the statement's wording, but faulted Stewart's approach as confrontational and is distracting all parties from the important work that needs to be done.

"It says nothing about excluding anyone else," Wennerlund said. "No matter how many times they try to say it does, it doesn't make it true. People at Burroughs would be happy to talk about what more we could do to address issues of diversity. But it's hard to get to that point with anyone who's called your principal, your school community, racist."

Wennerlund is also a supporter of Cadotte, and said the principal's suspension appears to be retaliation from the district administration over the altercation with Stewart.

Stewart's position has garnered support from black community leaders, mostly in north Minneapolis. But he risks alienating many others in the fertile band of voters in the south and southwest part of the city. He rejected any worries about re-election saying policy decisions that bow to those who traditionally go to the polls has resulted in a few select schools that are--in his words--"inoculated" against substantial change while the achievement gap between whites and minority students persists.

"If you have direct access to all media outlets, to all legislators, to the power base of Minneapolis, if you write the most checks to every politician in the city, if you just expect to get access to power at all times, I'm probably not your board member and I'm OK with that," Stewart said.

Burroughs parent Wennerlund said what Stewart misses with this reasoning, is that he's the one in power and Cadotte is paying the price for standing up for his school.

Stewart came under fire--including calls for his resignation--right after his election in 2006 for his involvement with a web site that parodied then 5th Congressional Independence Party candidate Tammy Lee using coarse race-baiting language. Among other things, the site sarcastically stated Lee was the best person to replace Martin Sabo because she was white and the site contained links to the Ku Klux Klan and made other white supremacist references.

Art Hughes

Art Hughes (email art@adhughes.com) is a freelance journalist in Minneapolis.