I drove to downtown Minneapolis this afternoon to pick up- what I thought would be- complete information about the decision to hire Pacific Educational Group to provide diversity training to the districts of the West Metro Education Program.  Instead, I was provided with a copy of the 2009-2010 contract that was signed by WMEP on 9/7/09 and which I blogged about here and is available online, and an accounting for money paid to PEG from WMEP since September 2008.  That amount, added to the new contract amounts to $269,326 that WMEP has spent with PEG.

Pacific Education Group (PEG) is the organization I've blogged about here, here, here and here.  PEG provides diversity training based on the central concept that white racism, white institutional power, and white priviledge are to blame for the achievement gap.  Teachers, staff members, administrators, and school board members are lead through "Courageous Conversations" focusing on their own experiences with race.  If they are white, then they are made to realize their own inherrent racism.  The racism is realized, the achievement gap closes....or so goes the promise of PEG.

I had expected to see multi-year contracts, meeting minutes, perhaps email correspondence and an initial RFP.  There should be some documentation as to who made the decision to hire PEG.  I assume at some point PEG made a call into the area and some administrator introduced them into the schools here.  They are a for-profit company, surely they made a sales-pitch at some point.  How were they hired?  Was there ever a Bid process for this consulting company?  I guess I'll have to clarify my request and try again.

It's also unclear if there's been more money spent since WMEP numbers were only provided since 2008, but Robbinsdale Schools informed me that they once served as the fiscal agent for WMEP and had paid three PEG invoices on behalf of WMEP back in 2004 and 2005. 

Here's the breakdown of all school districts in WMEP (with the exception of Columbia Heights, where I haven't received a reply)

• Hopkins has spent $239,864 with PEG which includes the budget to send twleve staff members to the Summit for Courageous Conversations (SCC) at the Hyatt in Baltimore October 11-14
• Minneapolis has spent $176,497 with PEG
• Eden Prairie has spent $53,259 with PEG which does not include the cost to send staff to SCC, although Superintendent Melissa Krull is in the program as a presenter 
• St. Louis Park has spent $20,159 with PEG which does not include the cost to send seven staff members to SCC, who are mentioned in the program
• Richfield Schools has spent $7,337 with PEG
• Edina has spent $805 with PEG which includes sending one staff member to SCC although the program for the event mentions Edina students as presenters
• Robbinsdale has spent $405 with PEG
• Brooklyn Center, Wayzata, and St. Anthony/New Brighton Schools have spent $0 with PEG and have no plans to send any staff to the CCS

For the amount of money spent, is there any accountability?  What are the results?  What results were promised by the vendor before winning nearly $800,000 worth of business from Minnesota taxpayers?

Why the disparity in the amount spent between these very different school districts? 

There is an office here in Minneapols- the only office outside of their San Francisco headquarters- even though this company has contracts around the country, Why? 

At the Summit for Courageous Conversations next week, 1/7th of the breakout sessions offered are presented by Minnesota school districts and/or the consultants from the Minneapolis PEG office.  

I'll have more on this story as I get more information.