Stunning end to a long career: North Minneapolis charter school names interim leader after firing founder

This story comes to you from Sahan Journal through a partnership with MPR News. Use the audio player above to listen to a conversation between Sahan Journal education reporter Becky Dernbach and MPR News host Nina Moini. This conversation was produced by Aleesa Kuznetsov.

The board of north Minneapolis charter school Harvest Best Academy named Emily Peterson, the school’s chief administrative officer, as its interim executive director Tuesday night.

But some parents pushed back on the board’s decision to oust the school’s founder, Eric Mahmoud, who had been on leave since March 7. The decision last Friday came after a second former student sued the school over sexual abuse by a teacher.

The new lawsuit alleges Mahmoud failed to stop a prominent teacher’s sexual abuse of a student in 2017. The teacher, Abdul Wright — the 2016 Minnesota Teacher of the Year — has been criminally charged in that case. He has pleaded not guilty; the case is ongoing. 

The lawsuit, filed by the former student, alleges that Mahmoud refused to take action as required by law when the student’s father raised red flags about Wright’s behavior with his 14-year-old daughter. The father presented Mahmoud with extensive evidence of text messages and 3 a.m. phone calls to his daughter, but Mahmoud did not report his concerns to authorities or take action against Wright, according to the lawsuit. The father ultimately sought out a restraining order from Wright and reached an agreement limiting his communication with his daughter.

Reached by phone Friday, Wright declined to comment on the lawsuit. Mahmoud did not respond to a request for comment.

The new lawsuit came on the heels of a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that schools can sometimes be held liable when teachers sexually abuse students. That case involves another former teacher in the Harvest Network of Schools, Aaron Hjermstad, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting four boys and facing additional charges for 12 more assaults. 

The civil case, which is ongoing, alleges negligent hiring: The Harvest Network hired Hjermstad without checking his references, which might have revealed evidence of sexual misconduct at a previous school.

Several parents at the meeting expressed dismay about the charges against Hjermstad and Wright. But they stressed that Mahmoud was not responsible.

Teto Wilson, whose grown daughters attended the school, emphasized the good Mahmoud had done for the community, and questioned whether the board had considered the community impact of their decision. Wilson recalled how Mahmoud had helped parents adjust their bus schedules, and how he had brought kids to Washington, D.C., to see Barack Obama inaugurated as president.

“It’s truly unfortunate that people that have ill intentions would come to an institution like this and prey on kids. Eric didn’t do that,” Wilson said. “And did he make a mistake and allow for the teacher to remain? I would say yes. But has he also protected thousands of kids over 40 years they’ve been in this institution?”

A 40-year history

The ouster represents a stunning end to the 40-year tenure of one of Minnesota’s most celebrated charter school founders.

Mahmoud was once widely seen as holding the keys to strong educational outcomes for Black children in a state known for racial disparities. He and his wife, Ella, founded the day care Seed Early Learning Academy in their home in 1985; at the request of parents, the couple founded a private school called Harvest Preparatory Academy in 1992. 

Harvest Prep got its big break when it caught the attention of Prince, who invited the Mahmouds to Paisley Park to give a presentation on the school to his aides. Prince then made a $200,000 donation. 

By the late 1990s, the school was seen as a model for educating Black children. Mahmoud attributed the school’s success to high expectations for students, long instructional days, parent involvement, and a back-to-basics approach of reading groups and math memorization. 

Harvest Prep became a public charter school in 1999. Over the years, Harvest Prep and Seed Academy expanded to become a network of schools, including a partnership with a short-lived Hennepin County boarding school, gender-specific programs for boys and girls, a program focused on the Somali community, and a new school called Best Academy that opened in 2009. 

In 2012, 82 percent of Harvest Prep’s students were proficient in math and 77 percent were proficient in reading — outperforming the state’s white students as well as wealthy districts like Edina and Wayzata. That year, Minneapolis Public Schools, hoping to replicate these results, signed an agreement with Harvest Prep to open four new “mastery schools” within the district. 

Mahmoud was inducted into the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Hall of Fame in the summer of 2012 during a conference with a keynote address by then-renowned comedian Bill Cosby. He dreamed of tripling Harvest Prep’s footprint over the next decade, bringing enrollment to 3,800 by 2025. 

The Harvest Network of Schools encountered some difficulties during those halcyon years, too. The schools’ authorizer and the Minnesota Department of Education questioned some of the schools’ financial practices. 

In a series of critical articles, the Star Tribune reported that Mahmoud earned a higher salary than the Minneapolis superintendent — and that he had been convicted in a mortgage fraud case in Georgia. But the state ultimately decided Harvest Prep did not need to repay funds associated with the defunct boarding school, and the school continued winning awards and accolades. 

In 2016, Abdul Wright was named Minnesota Teacher of the Year — the first Black man and first charter school teacher to win Minnesota’s top teaching honor. Mahmoud had recommended him for the prize.

But test scores were falling. So was enrollment. Harvest Prep and Best Academy merged to become Harvest Best in 2018, citing a desire to improve student performance and “return to greatness.” In 2020, the Mastery School revealed it might have to close, citing financial troubles; it consolidated with Harvest Best in 2021.

Today, Harvest Best operates an in-person school as well as an online school, Wakanda Virtual Academy. The two schools combined have about 800 students. Last year, Harvest Best’s math scores were on par with the state average for Black students, and slightly above the state average for Black students’ reading scores. Harvest Best test scores are still well above Minneapolis Public Schools’ scores for Black students.

Parent pushback

Taheera El-Amin said she was considering pulling her child from the school over the board’s decision. She said she had been working with Mahmoud on some concerns at the school, and she asked Peterson what her role would be going forward.

“Would you go to the length and extent that he went to to be there for the parents as he would?” she asked.

“Mr. Mahmoud has huge shoes to fill, and I will do everything I can to fill those shoes,” Peterson replied. She said that though she had not been with the school for 40 years and was not the founder, she had the “utmost respect for him and the work that he has done within the community.” 

But some of the parents’ questions could not be so easily answered. The main question: Why?

Board Chair Ezra Hyland explained that due to privacy laws, he could not detail how the board made its decision to remove Mahmoud. He said that the board had conducted an investigation and made sure the process was fair. But parents in attendance at Tuesday’s board meeting did not find that satisfying.

El-Amin said that she had known the Mahmouds her whole life, and that her grandmother hand-sewed the school’s original uniforms.

“I have never seen a family go to the lengths that these people have gone to make sure that our children were in a position to be fed, to be educated, to be loved, to be heard, to have pride,” she said. 

“What are we to tell our children that have built a rapport with Mr. Mahmoud, this man that has shown them what Black excellence is about, and shows genuine care and concern for these brown babies?”

Keisha Buskey suggested that parents should have been consulted before making a decision to fire Mahmoud.

“I have nothing but great things to say about him,” she said. “I just want to know, why weren’t we considered?”

DeAndra Knighten, a parent board member, explained the process from her perspective. She told them she’d been a parent at the school for 19 years and a board member for 12.

“This is not a decision that came easily. I cried about it too. I had many, many sleepless nights about this,” she said. “As a parent, as someone who takes this position extremely seriously as a parent representative, what I’m asking is that you trust me in that we had to do what was going to be best for this school.” 

Nothing about Mahmoud’s history with the school was taken lightly, she stressed. “If I didn’t know what I know, I would probably be sitting here, too, talking about, what the hell is wrong with y’all. Why did you do this? Why did you do that?”

“Then give up some answers,” one of the parents said.

“Legally, we can’t,” Knighten said.

Hyland stressed that the school board’s commitment was to the longevity of the institution — not to any one leader.

“There are times you have to make painful decisions,” he told Sahan Journal after the meeting. “We can only pray that with time, healing will come, and understanding.”

In coming weeks, the board would draft a job description and begin a search process for a permanent executive director, he said.

“Our mission has not changed,” he said. “If we keep doing the good job, then we believe that people will continue to send their children. The biggest thing we can do is to assure the community that the safety of the children is priority, and that’s the first step.”

Sahan Journal data reporter Cynthia Tu and criminal justice reporter Katrina Pross contributed to this story.