Please join us for our next EMID Families group meeting. We will meet at Crosswinds in the health/cooking room (first floor, straight back, under the stairs). We will start at 7pm. Amy’s older kids can provide childcare, but Amy asks that you let her know if you will need this service.
Get an update on the 622 timeline, the Mahtomedi plans, EMID board actions and more!
Notes from the EMID Families meeting on 25 June, attended by Eric (taking notes), Bill, Julie, Kim, Amy, and Jeff.
Coordination Update
Eric reported on an update received from Kathy and Carl.
The Mahtomedi study group (or task force?) will be chaired by Ann Capeder, a former Harmabee staff person. They have a Crosswinds family in mind (perhaps already invited) to be part of the task force. They will be looking for further input from EMID families. The first (closed) meeting of the task force is on 7/10, we can expect to hear more after that. Questions about the progress of the task force, for now, should be directed to Ann at acapeder@mahtomedi.k12.mn.us. Amy will contact Ann for some basic background.
Spring Lake Park Schols (District 16) has sent a “letter of intent” to the Minnesota Department of Education indicating that they will become part a voluntary member of the EMID collaborative. While this letter makes it possible for students from 16 to join EMID in the 08/09 school year, practical logistics make it more likely that the first students from this new member district will join us in 09/10. EMID anticipates further action by the Spring Lake Park board in July.
No real details on the 622/Mounds View progress. No letter of intent has been filed by Mounds View with MDE, that we know of. But that does not mean much since to join 622 for the 09/10 school year the letter would not have to be filed until next summer. All we’ve heard is that they intend to spend the year in conversation with 622.
The group did ask Eric to try to find a time we could meet with Carl before the end of the school year. Eric will try to put this together.
622
There is some question of whether a Mahtomedi collaboration with 622 would force Mahtomedi to allow open enrollment throughout their district. EMID is apparently a very special animal and a 622 collaboration with other districts may have side effects that EMID collaboration does not bring about. In any case, we all felt woefully uninformed about the rules guiding such things and agreed that we needed to learn more before we could understand the implications of rumors like this.
There is still some interest in helping a candidacy for the 622 board along. No one present at our meeting is considering a run, but we were all interested in hearing from potential candidates and some in the group offered to help with initial strategizing. It was noted that a run for school board is a very serious matter, so we hope anyone considering this is weighing the full requirements and consequences.
Legislative
We are still planning a mid/late November learning session open to all EMID families. This would help us all understand the integration rules and the laws under which EMID operates more fully. Bill is shepherding this task.
The group, though, felt that some information was needed more urgently than the November time frame and asked Bill to pull together a meeting this summer which could at least inform a smaller group of us about the laws, rules, and opportunities. Bill will work on that.
Marketing
Not much to report on the marketing front. EMID staff did not call on our services to approach any other districts. We reiterated our readiness to help with things like the St. Paul school fair downtown or other marketing opportunities. We discussed whether some things (like advertising) could be undertaken on our own, but decided that it was best to let Carl and EMID staff guide us as to their needs in this regard.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting of the whole group will be on the last Wednesday of September, 9/24.
Meanwhile we anticipate two special meetings during the summer: one with Carl and one to provide some insight into the integration rules and issues. Dates to be announced later for those.