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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 02/09/2012 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2011 7:00 P.M., 125 EDEN PRAIRIE CENTER Office of Housing and Human Services COMMISSION MEMBERS: Pam Spera (Chair), Peter Huck(Vice Chair), Linda Crawford, Gayle Sanders, Robert Rozanski, PG Narayanan, and Zina Nourkadi STAFF: Molly Koivumaki, Manager- Housing and Community Services; Heidi Wojahn, Recorder STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Ramla Mahamud, Camrie Vlasak GUESTS: Janet Jeremiah—Director, Community Development Susan Berg—Resident Jeff Strate—Resident Sheila Kihne—Resident Vicki Peller Price - Resident Kim Ross —Resident Ashley Anderson— St. Mary's University Luke Teigland I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Spera called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Commissioners Sanders and Narayanan, and Student Representative Mahamud were absent. Crawford arrived at 7:05 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Huck moved, seconded by Rozanski, to approve the agenda. Motion carried 4-0. III. PRESENTATIONS A. EDEN PRAIRIE MANIFESTO —Susan Berg Susan Berg said seeing the Manifesto printed in the Sun newspaper rekindled her interest in the document. At the time it was created it served its purpose,but upon rereading it there were things that bothered her. While it is still a valuable document, it conjured up a negative reaction in her. She believes it could be changed slightly to have a more positive impact on readers. HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES February 9, 2012 Page 2 Berg distributed and reviewed her suggested revisions with a couple options for the introductory general purpose statement. The group described in the beginning seems too broad. The proposed statement could end after the word "citizens" to make it less complex. In the original version, she favors the alternative wording of"welcoming", "celebrating" or"being supportive of instead of"fostering" when describing roles and responsibilities in terms of diversity in our community. The three bullet points should be the main focus of the document rather than having the list of protected classes first. The list causes readers to routinely gloss over those words or stop altogether due to familiarity with the standard verbiage. It is mundane legalese people tend to ignore. In addition, listing the classes centers on our differences —the things that separate us —which is negative. It is important to include the list of classes,but not get hung up on it. Putting the bullet points first places the primary focus on positive statements about what community leaders intend to do. This is also an opportunity to expound on how we can work together to transcend these differences. The statement on intolerance should stand alone, and the document should be signed by the current mayor or whoever is involved in the group listed at the beginning. If the Manifesto is just going to hang on a wall, it should be left as is. If it is to be a living document, then it should be changed to be more positive. This can be done with relatively minor revisions. Regardless, a statement at the bottom should remain intact in keeping with Dr. Jean Harris' intentions and to keep her memory tied to the document. Berg's changes preserve all of Dr. Harris' original elements; they are just reconfigured. Looking ahead, a decision needs to be made on how the document is to be used. Rozanski asked Berg's opinion of ending the legalese statement after the word "security". Berg said she thought simple and short was better but predicted some people may get upset if the protected classes are excluded. Vicki Peller Price stated she was on HRDC when the original document was created and does not think it is a good idea to change the Manifesto. Berg replied her impression was it was written as a response in the face of intolerance in the City. It is a good document and accomplished what it was supposed to at the time. It should remain unchanged if it is intended to be used only as a historical document. However if it is to be used for something else, it should be about what the City is trying to accomplish and not about what the City is not going to stand for. It should be presented in a light that is beneficial to all. B. RECOMMENDATIONS RELATED TO IMPACT OF SCHOOL BOUNDARY CHANGES - Jeff Strate Jeff Strate, former HRDC Commissioner, said he was prompted to speak tonight because of effects the controversial school boundary changes have had on the community. His kids are in the Eden Prairie school system,but he has been relatively uninvolved in district politics. He was invited to attend a tribute for former Superintendent Dr. Melissa Krull organized by the Somali community. Of his own accord, he photographed and videotaped half of the meeting. The negative reaction to his video was somewhat surprising to him, so he talked to school officials and friends to gain insight. In the process he became acquainted with various related websites, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES February 9, 2012 Page 3 Facebook accounts, and blogs. A lot of what he read was well-written and thought- provoking, but embedded in some of it was comments he considered to be prejudiced or racist in nature. Representative samples of what he found were included in tonight's handout. Nobody at the District, City or Commission level, or people posting on these websites was responding or trying to put a stop to the caustic language and that puzzled him. He wrote a letter to the editor asking how anyone can vote for people who are being supported by folks who harbor this type of language. He also posted a satirical video about it and designed a public reading of some of the comments he'd discovered. He was banned from doing the reading at one venue which reinforced his belief this type of behavior and writing is often defended. He learned from school district officials and the Somali community that people were being shouted down and booed during discussions about the school district rezoning. He talked to other people of color who told him they would no longer attend meetings because they didn't think it would do any good. He sees this as a challenge in Eden Prairie. Strate stated affordable housing was another reason for his presence at the commission meeting. In his packet was an article from the Eden Prairie News for which Koivumaki was interviewed. Strate lives near Section 8 housing and knows about affordable housing because he is engaged in helping various people weigh in on the formation of a Comprehensive Guide Plan (CGP). A CGP is the MET Council's plan requiring cities within the seven-county metro area to tell the MET Council their future development plans. Although Eden Prairie has done a good job of planning, it is a City concern to consider housing as an aspect of clustering people. It is impossible to integrate everyone, but what happened to Forest Hills (where there was a lot of affordable housing near the school) was affected by the City's housing project. The district rezoning tried to make accommodations so there wouldn't be an uneven number of low-income students at any one school. His two recommendations for action are: 1) Recommend to the City that it investigate, evaluate and select ways the City (on its own and in partnership with other organizations) can effect on-going programs and policy to reduce prejudice and defacto housing segregation and promote cross-cultural and economic class, ethnic and racial understanding empathy 2) Recommend to City Council that it reconfirm by resolution its support of the Eden Prairie Manifesto. Perhaps this could be done when the Human Rights Awards are announced. For recommendation #1, he'd like something to be done to help folks like him understand more effectively what it is like to be a minority in this community. It needs to be something more than just having a charismatic speaker talk at a dinner. There is further information in his packet about initiatives in other cities along the lines of what Eden Prairie could do in this area. The community can use a higher level of positive conversation about what it is like to have a large immigrant population. Crawford stated support of Strate's first recommendation. It is her understanding there will be new housing built along Highway 62. She would like to see that housing be more indicative of the overall population than a high concentration of immigrant residents. Housing units need to have a multi-cultural face otherwise problems of defacto segregation will continue to exist. Rozanski asked Strate how the government HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES February 9, 2012 Page 4 would address that. Strate said he doesn't know if the City can do much beyond making housing affordable. Integration cannot be forced, but a greater understanding can be prompted by a multi-layered collaboration. Other cities are making efforts. If Eden Prairie decides to do something, it will be even better. The idea is not to turn people off or get them irritated,but rather to be productive beyond the school district. Peller Price said there is an expectation from Housing and Urban Development and other agencies to fulfill a quota. Her questions are: 1) Where will it go? and 2) Will it be lumped all together or will there be a mixture? Sheila Kihne stated she was involved with the schools long before the boundary changes came about. There were Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the issue and it does a disservice to generalize. The issue goes much deeper than Strate is suggesting. Nourkadi reported attending a going-away party for Krull. She was saddened by the motives of others for attending. It doesn't matter what people's backgrounds or beliefs are—what is important is treating one another with human dignity. People should not use the media and internet to vent and we cannot teach our children this way. There needs to be a more civilized way of communicating and sharing beliefs with one another. Leaders should sit down at a table to discuss matters in a respectful manner. Agreeing to disagree is civilized. We need to work together. There should be more positive, not negative. She thanked everyone for being at the meeting to express their point of view. IV. MINUTES MOTION: Rozanski moved, seconded by Huck, to approve the November 10, 2011 minutes. Motion carried 5-0. V. NEW BUSINESS None VI. REPORTS FROM STAFF None VII. OLD BUSINESS None HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES February 9, 2012 Page 5 VIII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS A. LETTER FROM SCHOOL DISTRICT - Crawford Crawford expressed concern about a letter she received in today's mail. The letter states Oak Point Intermediate School (OP) did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the 2010-11 school year according to federal guidelines and explains low- income families are eligible for Free Supplemental Education Services from State of Minnesota approved vendors. She said the letter targets low-income children as the reason for the failure of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) at OP and she questioned Jeanne Femrite (one of the authors of the letter) as to whether this was indeed true or not. Femrite informed her this was not the case. It is Crawford's opinion the same information (that there are services available and a tutoring list) should be provided to other socioeconomic groups who are performing poorly. It's not right to send a letter to one group without talking to the other groups who are also responsible for the low scores. Not making NCLB raises flags about test scores from Forest Hills (FH). FH was isolated as being a problem in the school system. If the reason to change boundaries was due to test scores at one school, then something is still wrong because OP scores come from children all over the district. The School Board should take a look at what's being sent out and be more mindful of children who may be low-income but are performing way above the norm. For example, Crawford's own family is low-income but both of her kids are in the Gifted and Talented program. Responding to Strate's comment about not knowing what it's like to be a person of color, Crawford said for state test scores African Americans are unfortunately and unfairly linked to immigrant students. The African Americans she's spoken to in Eden Prairie are upset because their students are performing well,but it appears that they are not because the statistics are skewed. It isolates a whole group of people based on the color of their skin. Rozanski said he appreciated Crawford's sensitivity about the phrasing of the letter although he interpreted it differently. He saw it more as informational and didn't view it as biased. Crawford stated her concern is that people who were upset about the boundary changes will see this and blame the free and reduced lunch kids for not making scores when in fact, that's not the case. Rather the letter should have been addressed to "all families who have kids who are struggling in school". Nourkadi stated the term "low income" is preferable to "free/reduced lunch" and is concerned people will know which kids are receiving free and reduced lunch. Crawford said the letter is under the purview of HRDC because many children falling into the low-income category are children of color. Huck asked what the response was to Crawford's concerns. Crawford said Femrite told her if people were concerned they could call her. Spera asked if she thought the legislature should make the program available to everyone regardless of income. Crawford said absolutely if kids from all socio-economic classes are struggling. HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES February 9, 2012 Page 6 Kim Ross said when a school doesn't make AYP, it's because a cell of kids didn't make progress for a number of years. A couple of kids who perform poorly can pull down achievement for the whole cell which is the problem with NCLB. What the letter is saying they have to do is prescribed by federal law. Ten states were recently granted the right to waive NCLB; Minnesota is one of them. Not making AYP is not necessarily a reflection on the entire school failing. Crawford stated it was not her intention to imply that but rather to shed light on the fact there are kids from every socioeconomic class who are failing. Spera added it was an unfortunate sequence of sentences inferring low-income children are the sole problem. B. OTHER/CLOSING COMMENTS Rozanski gave an update on Fire 20/20. The program has been delivered to all firefighters and they are moving into the next phase. Down the road, he is hoping HRDC will be involved more. Ross said anything HRDC can do to help the community have a conversation to bring people together and raise awareness is a good thing. Huck said everything discussed tonight seems to come down to how we can talk to each other. He thought Nourkadi nailed it. Starting with a positive tone in the Manifesto is a good place to begin. Like Rozanski, Huck first viewed the OP letter as factual; when he heard how Crawford interpreted it, he agreed communication needs to be more thoughtful. We should keep moving forward and encourage people to listen. Strate added one of the points he had hoped to make was different kinds of people read into things differently. The comments he singled out as being racist or coded racist language are probably being made by people who don't realize the effects their words have on others. They don't understand how someone else might take this language or the booing or shouting. We can make some real positive progress but it won't happen just from HRDC. It has to be across the board with churches and other organizations. Spera thanked the guests and speakers for attending and their input. Everybody has good intentions and goals. Commissioners must consider how goals can be achieved. IX. FUTURE MEETINGS/EVENTS The next HRDC meeting will be Thursday, March 8, 2012, 7 p.m. at Eden Prairie Center, Room 125. X. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Crawford moved, seconded by Rozanski, to adjourn. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Spera adjourned the meeting at 8:25 p.m.