On January 25, the EMID Board voted to allow Perpich Center for Arts Education to take over governance of Crosswinds if they can receive approval from the Minnesota Legislature by April 1. The Perpich Center for Arts Education is now working very hard to convince the Minnesota Legislature and Governor to give it the authority and funding it needs to run the Crosswinds Arts and Science School. Your voice is critical to this effort, your own state representative and senator need to hear your support for the Perpich proposal.
Please write letters to Governor Mark Dayton and Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. Let them know what Crosswinds has meant for you and your student and ask them to support the Perpich proposal which will continue to Crosswinds program. Please also write letters to or meet with your State Senator and Representative. Let them know that you are a constituent and why you believe Crosswinds is important.
More information, including addresses and a tool for finding out who your representatives are can be found on our “Contacting your Representatives” resource page.
Hear are some copies of letters I sent to the Governor, Commissioner, and my House Representative as samples of letters you can send.
Leslye Taylor
Dear Governor Dayton,
At the end of last month the Eastern Metro Integration District (EMID) voted to close its magnet schools: Harambee and Crosswinds. Roseville District Schools was awarded governance of Harambee and the Perpich Center for Arts Education was awarded governance of Crosswinds if it can gain authority to govern and attain access to appropriations as established by the legislature to meet the needs of student populations by April 1. Please grant full governance to Perpich for the reasons listed below.
As a parent of an 8th grade Crosswinds student, I have been educating myself over these last 2.5 years through our unmatched educational community experience, and I continue to educate myself on the issues at hand so that I can serve as a resource for you and your team. These are important decisions in our state as we honestly look at reaching out to serve all populations of students, our community in our state, and viable participants in the global community we welcome our students to play their unique part in now and in the days to follow. I believe Perpich can continue on with the work that was initiated at Crosswinds. They not only speak of their interest to keep our program intact, but their track record shows that their governing allies with a school serving all populations.
I would like to provide some history for you as this is a primary issue for me and I can act as your lens into this issue. A state of the art 25 million dollar property was created with the express purpose to found a school based on integration. Urban and suburban children were bussed to this place set apart where an experiential model could begin to take form. Crosswinds grew under the fine leadership of Anne Anderson and others wherein the staff who subscribed to the ideals of integration could begin to learn of it as they were teaching an integrated population. This creative team which has developed over the years, learned how to teach to varying populations all in one classroom addressing different learning styles which has informed each of our children in their tolerance and acceptance of others. If we were in a school of just “our kind” we (and I say we, because the learning hasn’t stopped at the children, it’s spilled over on to interested parents and families) would learn in a framework that is familiar and comfortable. But we were drawn to something more, to learn side by side with other cultures in the way each of our populations has grown to learn. This incorporation of learning styles is slightly different to a preteen, but becomes vastly different as we grow older if this isn’t the way we’ve learned and lived. One of our students testified to this effect last year when he said essentially, ‘Why are you making such a big deal of integration? This is what we know! And I and possibly other adults thought, because this isn’t how we grew up and we want you to continue to grow in your formative years in this way. In a few impassioned words I’ve often heard from others in my varied community, and I subscribe to as well, ‘We cannot go backwards.’ People have died for this cause and I live for this cause. I have watched Perpich’s interest to save a program that has successfully served an integrated community.
I would share some facts relative to recent media coverage in our midst. Open enrollment has propagated segregation. Segregation is more than the color of one’s skin; it’s also about learning styles that engage abilities and disabilities so that a child can learn successful interventions. Crosswinds has been a school of choice and in that choice all manner of integration has prevailed. The lab that I spoke to earlier has provided a resource for key teacher training at the U of M. With Perpich’s statewide reach, this could be available to many more university and college students interested in learning to teach all populations in our state.
I have many more stories to tell and I look forward to being in touch. I don’t want to share them all at once, so stay tuned. Thank you for reading and thinking about my words. I look forward to continuing to talk with you. Please feel free to contact me at any time.
Most Sincerely,
Leslye Taylor
433 Woodhill Drive
Roseville, MN 55113
Leslye@taylormadecreatives.com
651-343-8511
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Dear Commissioner Cassellius,
It’s been awhile since we’ve been at a meeting together and I look forward to being available to you in any way I can be of service relative to this issue that is in front of us — and I’m right in the neighborhood from your office.
At the end of last month the Eastern Metro Integration District (EMID) voted to close its magnet schools: Harambee and Crosswinds. Roseville District Schools was awarded governance of Harambee and the Perpich Center for Arts Education was awarded governance of Crosswinds if it can gain authority to govern and attain access to appropriations as established by the legislature to meet the needs of student populations by April 1. I would ask your assistance in supporting this new governance so that the fine school community we have built over the years can continue for our children and families and this educational program isn’t interrupted for the students.
As a parent of an 8th grade Crosswinds student, I have been educating myself over these last 2.5 years through our unmatched educational community experience, and I continue to educate myself on the issues at hand so that I can serve as a resource for you and your team. These are important decisions in our state as we honestly look at reaching out to serve all populations of students, our community in our state, and viable participants in the global community we welcome our students to play their unique part in now and in the days to follow. I believe Perpich can continue on with the work that was initiated at Crosswinds. They not only speak of their interest to keep our program intact, but their track record shows that their governing allies with a school serving all populations.
The creative staff/teaching team that has developed over the years, learned how to teach to varying populations all in one classroom addressing different learning styles that has informed each of our children in their tolerance and acceptance of others. If we were in a school of just “our kind” we (and I say we, because the learning hasn’t stopped at the children, it’s spilled over on to interested parents and families) would learn in a framework that is familiar and comfortable. But we were drawn to something more, to learn side by side with other cultures in the way each of our populations has grown to learn. This incorporation of learning styles is slightly different to a preteen, but becomes vastly different as we grow older if this isn’t the way we’ve learned and lived. One of our students testified to this effect last year when he said essentially, ‘Why are you making such a big deal of integration? This is what we know! And I and possibly other adults thought, because this isn’t how we grew up and we want you to continue to grow in your formative years in this way. In a few impassioned words I’ve often heard from others in my varied community, and I subscribe to as well, ‘We cannot go backwards.’ People have died for this cause and I live for this cause. I have watched Perpich’s interest to save a program that has successfully served an integrated community.
I would share some facts relative to recent media coverage in our midst. Open enrollment has propagated segregation. Segregation is more than the color of one’s skin, it’s also about learning styles that engage abilities and disabilities so that a child can learn successful interventions. Crosswinds has been a school of choice and in that choice all manner of integration has prevailed. The lab that I spoke to earlier has provided a resource for key teacher training at the U of M. With Perpich’s statewide reach, this could be available to many more university and college students interested in learning to teach all populations in our state.
Thank you for reading and thinking about my words. I look forward to continuing to talk with you. Please feel free to contact me at any time.
Most Sincerely,
Leslye Taylor
433 Woodhill Drive
Roseville, MN 55113
Leslye@taylormadecreatives.com
651-343-8511
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Dear Representative Isaacson,
My name is Leslye Taylor and I live in your district, in Roseville. As one of our new district House Representatives, I look forward to getting to know you.
I note the Joint House and Senate Education Finance Committee Hearing is taking place this Thursday morning. I see the Integration Revenue Program is on your agenda.
My daughter is in 8th grade and has been attending Crosswinds Arts and Science Magnet School in Woodbury. It is a school in the Eastern Metro Integration District that has been a collaboration of 10 districts comprised of urban and suburban students who were bussed to this beautiful state funded building to learn and grow in an integrated setting. The integration dollars have played a key part in the development of this unparalleled educational program for the students, a learning laboratory for the teachers, with an extension to U of M students for experiential, integrated teaching and learning, and an opportunity in the days to come to provide a model for the state as our lab reaches out beyond our current governing district.
I am sorry I will not be able to be at this committee meeting as I just had a bunionectomy. However, I would like to set up a meeting with you to talk about something that is dear to each if our hearts: public education and the value of schools that serve our myriad populations successfully.
EMID decided to close both of the schools in its district – Harambee, the elementary school, and Crosswinds, the middle years school, that my daughter has been attending. The integration program and populations it served are unmatched as a school of choice. The Perpich Center for the Arts has been awarded governance
if it can gain authority to govern and attain access to appropriations as established by the legislature to meet the needs of student populations by April 1.
Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent matter.
I will follow up with a call to your office this week to set up an appointment with you.
With Sincerity,
Leslye Taylor
433 Woodhill Drive
Roseville, MN 55113
651-343-8511