Saturday June 15, 2024
Students at East African Magnet School with their certificates during a school assembly
It was a lively Friday afternoon as students, parents and teachers gathered together in the gymnasium for the last quarterly awards ceremony at East African Magnet School in St. Paul. East African Magnet School, located on the corner of Edmund Ave. and Arundel St. in Frogtown, is the nation’s first school dedicated to educating children of East African origin.
Students were called up by their grade and with the accomplishment that they were being recognized for. The ceremony came one day after the school’s fifth grade graduation, all serving as a marker to the end of the school’s first school year.
Saint Paul Public Schools reached out to Dr. Abdisalam Adam, a veteran educator in the district, to open a school dedicated to the district’s large Somali population following decades of declining enrollment and requests from parents.
Dr. Adam’s lifelong commitment to learning began at a time when he lived in the countryside of the Somali region in Ethiopia. His older brother, having returned from travels, took it upon himself to take Adam back with him to Nigeria where he would be educated.
Years later, Adam would travel to Saudi Arabia and receive his bachelor’s degree in English, which then took him to the United States in 1991.
Once settled in, Adam moved to Minnesota where he began a career in education, first at Al Amal School in Fridley, eventually finding himself at SPPS in 1997. There he began working as an English as a Second Language teacher and liaison with parents. Now, 28 years later, Adam has finished his first year as the principal of East African Magnet, a reality he and others could not envision decades ago.
Though the school was first announced in May of last year, the desire to see a culturally inclusive school in the district had been around for years. Prior to opening the school, Adam had worked as an assistant principal at Highland Senior High for five years. where he worked closely alongside parents to hear their comments and concerns regarding the education of their children.
The Somali Parent Advisory Council, an affiliate group of district parents that meets bimonthly to discuss district-wide needs for students, had raised the proposition of an East African school time and again according to Adam. This request for a culturally responsive school had reached the school’s superintendent, Joe Gathard, and school board members.
“Whenever there’s a meeting, they always express the desire for cultural language and state that our children are losing their language,” Adam said. “When they have a report at the end of the year, they will always add the language and culture piece.”
Recognizing this need from parents, the district tasked Adam with laying the groundwork for creating a school. He began this journey by first conducting a feasibility study to help gather the information and data needed to operate the school.
Between February and May of 2023, Adam spoke with parents and other educators from across the city and state to learn more about what it would take to launch this school. They found that there were roughly 1,400 students that qualified for the services of the school, but many families had opted to enroll their children in charter schools.
Dr. Abdisalam Adam serves as the principal of East African Magnet School./ Photo by Chris Juhn
East African Magnet School currently has around 220 students enrolled while offering pre-K through fifth grade. There are about 20 licensed teachers working in the school, most of them having transferred from other districts. Over half of the teachers identify as East African.
Maryan Aden is one of those educators who had left her position at another school to help lay the foundation at East African Magnet. She spent over 12 years working in charter schools, with six of them being in the classroom. Aden currently works as a learning lead where she assists teachers by helping incorporate culturally relevant lessons in their curriculum.
During her last few years at her previous school, Aden became an instructional coach helping facilitate professional development for other teachers and helping them map out their coursework.
As the first school year comes to a close, Aden reflected on the first days at the school. “When I first walked into the building, [I knew] there was a lot to do,” she stated.
In helping set the school up for success, Aden knew they had to put together a schedule code, a curriculum code, and a reward system for students to incentivize their learning. Students receive language and cultural classes once a week in a rotational system.
Aden works to answer questions from teachers and other educators who often seek to find literature or coursework relevant to the academic and cultural development of their students. Aden and other East African teachers work with their colleagues throughout the day to answer these questions and ensure that students are set up for success through collaboration.
“We have an open door policy where they’re more than welcome to come and ask me a question,” she said. “The same with Dr. Adam, same with our counselor Mohamed, the same with the social worker. So it’s just having the key people being licensed.”
Abdirahman Abi arrived at the school on Friday to witness his daughter Ayaan win an award for her excellence in school. He had heard about the plans to open the school last year and followed up on more information hoping to enroll his children.
“The main reason why we came is to celebrate the culture and instill those values in our children.” he said of the songs and skits performed by students at the assembly. “You saw their performances today.”
Abdirahman Abi with his daughter Ayan shortly after she received an award at the school assembly / Photo by Chris Juhn
Idil Sheikh Ali had also heard about the school’s opening through word of mouth, though she had known Dr. Adam for some years. Her older children attended Highland Senior High while Adam was there as an administrator, so she was confident that any school he operated would benefit her children.
“They’ve learned about their language and culture very well along with their other studies in arithmetic,” she said. They’ve put in a lot of time and effort into our kids. They welcome the parents often to feel engaged. Whenever we need to get in touch with staff we’re able to connect and be heard.”
Dr. Adam remarked that in all his years of teaching, he hadn’t seen parent involvement at this level until he worked at East African Magnet.
As the school year comes to an end, Adam and his team of educators look to expand their efforts in the new school year as they take the lessons of the past year forward with them. They plan to offer sixth grade in the coming school year and already have plans to add an additional 100 students, which would require that they move.
Aden is excited to have her daughter enrolled as a kindergartener this upcoming year and building upon the success of the first year. “We’re going to start the year very strong because we have a solid foundation.
“We’re going to build on that. We’re going to focus more on training the teachers, especially when it comes to social/emotional learning, building the confidence of the kids even more.”