Mpls. school board adds five new members

The Minneapolis School Board will add five new members and make some history Tuesday night.

The board is growing in size, from seven to eight members. That expansion is the result of a voter-approved referendum in 2008 that also required some members to be elected from districts, instead of citywide.

Five of those seats were on the ballot last November and all five winners were newcomers: Jenny Arneson, Rebecca Gagnon, Richard Mammen, Alberto Monserrate, and Hussein Samatar.

All five will be sworn in at the start of Tuesday's meeting. At that time, Samatar will become the first Somali-American to hold public office in Minnesota, and likely the nation.

The change also means four people are departing the board; Tom Madden, T. Williams, Peggy Flanagan and Chris Stewart.

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