Some of you may know the former chair of the EMID board, Bruce Hagerty from South Saint Paul. It turns out he signed our petition last week! Here’s what he had to say…

I will support points 4 and 5 of your petition and look forward to working with you to see that school closure is the last possible alternative under consideration.

Sincerely,
Bruce Hagerty

As a reminder, our petition states…

We petition the EMID school board to:

(1) Slow down and consider the costs of closing Harambee and Crosswinds for the well-being of children of color – indeed, of all children – in the east metro area.

(2) Carefully consider the implications of this decision on the Office of Equity and Integration.

(3) Return to the original mission and vision of integration upon which the joint powers agreement was first founded, which includes explicit attention to cultural understanding, rather than constraining their assessments to a narrow definition of academic achievement.

(4) Give serious attention to parent, teacher and community concerns that have been raised and seek substantial public input in planning.

(5) Consider the large number of alternatives to school closure that have been raised.

Finally, we deplore the EMID school board’s recent pattern of secrecy and non-disclosure, and request that they proactively communicate with parents, teachers and students and develop clear transparency in both their meeting schedule and their agendas.

We are preparing the signatures from the online petition for presentation to the board at tonight’s meeting (Wednesday 9/21). If you sign after we present the board with the petition, we will share your signature at the October board meeting.