Jean Lubke, Executive Director of EMID, wants to let everyone know that the EMID board will mark the conveyance of the schools at their meeting tomorrow. Please join the board if you can! The meeting is at Crosswinds and starts at 5:30 on Wednesday.
The EMID Board will have a small celebration with the leaders of Perpich, Roseville, Crosswinds, Harambee, and our legislative advocates at the beginning of the Board meeting on Wednesday (5/21) at 5:30. You are most warmly welcome.
Please extend this invitation to the EMID Families and anyone else who has helped with this change.
The EMID Board will meet on Wednesday at 5:30pm on 12/18 at Crosswinds School. As usual, the board will welcome public comment at the start of the meeting. The board packet for December indicates that the board will, among other things, discuss their legislative agenda and the withdrawal of South Washington County (ISD 833) from the collaborative.
The next board meeting is on Wednesday 11/20 at 5:30 at Crosswinds.
This month’s board packet includes the legislative agenda the EMID board plans to discuss:
We support the conveyance of Harambee Elementary School to ISD 623 Roseville Public Schools for the continued purpose of serving as a multi-district integration school effective July 1, 2014.
We support the conveyance of Crosswinds Arts and Science Magnet School to Perpich Center for the Arts for the continued purpose of serving as a multi-district integration school effective July 1, 2014.
We support the continuation of EMID as an Integration District supporting the East Metro Area.
We request adequate and continuing integration funding supporting the student, staff, and family shared services to support integration and equity across the member districts.
We request flexibility in budgeting to provide more opportunities for professional development and organizational support (versus 80% student service, 10% professional development, 10% administration) in order to make systemic changes.
If the board does adopt this agenda, we will be in a strong position to finally get conveyance of the schools to their new partners in 2014. Please join us at this meeting to urge the EMID board to speak with a unified voice on this very important agenda item.
The EMID Board will be meeting at Crosswinds from here on out. The next board meeting is on Wednesday 10/16 at 5:30 at Crosswinds.
This month’s packet is in two parts (part 1, part 2). There are two items of note for families:
EMID has signed a contract with Kris Amundson to provide lobbying services. They have expanded the contract from previous years to include building conveyance.
There is a full EMID report in the packet which includes data on student achievement.
While Crosswinds and Harambee are of to a fantastic start this year, we are still counting on the EMID board to support their work during this transitional year. According to the board packet, the EMID Board will be getting an update on the schools, considering models of parent engagement, and discussing changes in the management contract with Perpich for Crosswinds. This meeting will be on Wednesday, 9/18 at 5:30pm at Harambee. Please join other families there and let the board know we continue to care about our schools and expect their support of that work.
If you would like to be involved in EMID Families organizing, we will be having a meeting of our own prior to this board meeting. All are welcome at 3pm on Sunday 9/15 at 3pm. We will be gathering in conference room B of the Stafford Branch of the Washington County Library.
The EMID Board voted to keep the Crosswinds School open next year under the management of the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Since the legislature did not authorize conveyance of the building, this required EMID to reverse its earlier closure of the school and enter into a management agreement with Perpich. This is very exciting news since it means that all students are welcome to attend Crosswinds next year!
Since we are sure that many families have many questions about this development, EMID Families has invited Perpich to join us for a meeting at Crosswinds this coming Sunday (7/14) at 2pm. The short version of (most of) the answers is “it will work like it has worked in the past,” but Perpich is very interested in answering your question and making it possible for everyone who wants to stay at Crosswinds to do so. Please join us Sunday to learn about next steps.
The testimony from both families and the board tonight was very moving. We recorded it and the audio and video should be available tomorrow. Please check our wp.clst.org/emidfamilies website for an update with pointers to these recordings. Meanwhile, read the stories in the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune.
On 10 July 2013 the East Metro Integration District Joint Powers Board questions Sue Mackert of the Perpich Center for Arts Education about a management contract for the Crosswinds Arts & Science School, hears public testimony in favor of the plan, and votes to approve it. Crosswinds is an inter-district integration, arts, and science magnet school which will now continue to provide services to families in “east metro” of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
EMID Board Work Session
Sue Mackert presents answers to questions prepared by the EMID Board (0:00:13)
Q&A between the board and Perpich representatives (0:42:08)
(this video includes the seven minute break between the work session and the special meeting of the board)
Perpich will present a management contract to keep Crosswinds open next year to the EMID Board this evening. This meeting of the board will be at Crosswinds. The board will interview Perpich about its proposal during a work session starting at 5:30pm. The regular board meeting will start with a public forum at 6:30pm and then feature a decision by the board about whether to allow the Perpich contract.
This is our last chance to keep Crosswinds open for the 2013-2014 school year. Over 260 signatures were gathered on a petition to ask the board to allow Perpich management of the school. Many current Crosswinds families indicated that they are eager to stay for next year, even if Crosswinds has to be rebuilt by Perpich. Tonight will tell.
Thank you to all who participated in the EMID Families petition to the board over the past several weeks. We collected 269 signatures on a petition that asks the board to approve a management plan with Perpich:
The East Metro Integration District (EMID) is considering a management agreement with the Perpich Center for Arts Education to allow the Crosswinds Arts & Science School to stay open for the next school year. We petition the EMID school board to:
Allow Crosswinds to remain open under Perpich leadership beginning in the 2013–2014 school year.
We also took this opportunity to survey those of you with students at Crosswinds, and 87% of those who responded to that survey said they planned to stay at Crosswinds if Perpich was allowed to manage the school next year!
A report with the full results is available on our petition page.
Please don’t forget this is a big week for Crosswinds. We need families to come to these events and demonstrate that we stand with Crosswinds. Join us for as many of these events as possible, all of them will be held at Crosswinds:
Tuesday, 7/9: House Education Policy Hearing on Integration at 11am.
Wednesday, 7/10: Special EMID Board Meeting to consider Perpich management of Crosswinds at 5:30pm.
Next week will be a big week for Crosswinds, there are three events that are very important for our community and we hope you can join us at as many as possible!
Tuesday, 7/9: House Education Policy Hearing at 11am.
The House Education Policy Committee will hold a hearing at Crosswinds about integration policy for Minnesota from 11am-2pm on Tuesday. This will be a chance for this committee to hear about the successes and failures of integration policy here in EMID and at Crosswinds. It is very unusual for a legislative committee to meet like this outside the legislative session and we are incredibly privileged that Chair Carlos Mariani has decided to make Crosswinds the venue for this important hearing. Testimony will include U of M law professor Myron Orfield, former EMID board chair Bruce Hagerty, our own Bryan Bass, and many others including students, parents, and teachers.
Wednesday, 7/10: Special EMID Board Meeting to consider Crosswinds at 5:30pm.
The EMID Board will hold a special July board meeting on Wednesday to consider a proposal from the Perpich Center for Arts Education to manage the Crosswinds program next school year. This would require that the EMID Board leave Crosswinds open, as they decided to do for Harambee, and contract with Perpich to run the school, similar to the contract they agreed to a few weeks ago for Roseville to run Harambee. This is a last chance to keep Crosswinds open next year. The board will have a work session at 5:30pm and start its regular meeting at 6:30pm. Public testimony is welcome at the start of the regular board meeting.
Thursday, 7/11: Crosswinds Carnival!
The Crosswinds Carnival will be a great chance to spend time with the whole Crosswinds community on Thursday! For students the fun will start at 2pm, but everyone is welcome to join in after school from 4-7pm. Please make sure your student has a signed permission slip allowing them to stay after school that afternoon if you plan to join us or to pick them up later.
The EMID Board met yesterday and approved a plan by Roseville to operate the Harambee school next year. Because of the legislature’s failure to act earlier this year, the EMID board decided to delay its closure of the school until 2014, keep the school open, but hand all operational responsibility over to Roseville. The net effect for families should be that Harambee will pretty much feel as it always has. For the most part the staff won’t change (though they will become employees of Roseville), transportation will continue to be provided, and the year-round schedule will continue. Kathy Griebel plans to continue as principal. See 0:34:55 in the video of the meeting below for the Harambee discussion with Roseville Superintendent John Thein.
The situation for Crosswinds will be addressed at a special board meeting next month (7/10, 5:30pm at Crosswinds). While some board members asked that the meeting include options for both Perpich and South Washington County to take over Crosswinds, one board member reminded them that they had received a copy of an email from 833 Superintendent Keith Jacobus stating that South Washington County had no interest in running an integration program at Crosswinds next year. Since an integration program is the only option allowed to Crosswinds without legislation, EMID Superintendent Janet Mohr confirmed that only Perpich was preparing a plan to run the school in the Fall. That plan will be presented and discussed in July. See 1:55:30 in the video of the meeting below for the questions the board raised when considering calling the special meeting.
Video of the entire meeting is available on YouTube and includes many items not discussed in these notes.
