Tales out of School  An exit interview with former Minneapolis
school-board member Bill Green  After eight years of occasional
triumphs, trying times, and tough decisions, Minneapolis school-
board member Bill Green decided not to run for reelection. When
Green was first elected to that most thankless of political
positions in 1992, the district was reeling from a financial
scandal wrought by former superintendent Bob Ferreira. In May of
1996, Green made headlines by assigning a failing grade for
leadership to the Public Strategies Group, a private consulting
firm led by Ferreira's successor, Peter Hutchinson. By contrast,
he has always been an ardent supporter of current superintendent
Carol Johnson, whom he helped to recruit.  While Green was chair
of the board from 1996 to 1999, demonstrators in support of the
Minneapolis NAACP's education desegregation suit against the
State of Minnesota disrupted school-board meetings by shouting
and banging on drums. The protesters also referred to Green and
the two othe