Author Archives: Eric Celeste

MinnPost: Integration issue stalls at Capitol

Beth Hawkins writes in MinnPost: “Integration issue stalls at Capitol.” She notes Garofalo’s buck-passing and the Kersten testimony:

According to the Pioneer Press, Kersten got the chance last week to air her views before the state Senate Education Committee. The task force, meanwhile, has been unable to get the same lawmakers who appointed half its members to take up the report.

New in this story is news that Rep. Mariani, who was also a task force member, is drafting a bill:

Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, echoed Thomas’ sentiments. “There should be a hearing,” he said. “The clock is ticking. We have a committee deadline coming up in three weeks.

“This is a pretty significant task,” he continued. “We’re talking about $100 million. We’re talking about racial equity, which is a very important topic, and integration, which has a rich history in this state.”

Mariani is having the panel’s proposal drafted into a bill, which he plans to introduce later this week. He has no guarantee the committee will hear it.

Documents to review for EMID Community Council on 3/3

Dr. Robicheau shared three documents this week that those attending the Community Council meeting this week should take some time to review. Two of these documents are a result of an analysis of the data that was collected at the February 4 Community Council meeting. The first document is a listing of the major themes from the discussion that was held during small groups. The second document is a draft of strategies that are recommended to address the overarching themes. According to Robicheau, this is a draft document that is still in its development stage. The third document is the Guiding Change document approved by the School Board last December.

The next Community Council meeting is this Saturday, March 3, from 8:30am-Noon at Harambee. Everyone is welcome, even if you were not able to attend the first meeting.

During this Community Council meeting Robicheau will be asking participants to respond to and discuss the following questions regarding the draft strategies:

Do the draft strategies address the overarching goals; a) close the racially predictable achievement gap, b) foster an integrated learning environment?
Do the draft strategies reflect the values of EMID?
Do the draft strategies honor the Guiding Change Document approved by the board?
Do the draft strategies honor the input from the February 4 Community Council?
Do you see any gaps in this document? What recommendations would you offer?

Everyone in the EMID community is welcome to both meetings, whether you have “signed up” for the Community Council or not. However, if you have not yet signed up it would be very helpful if you let either your principal, Dr. Robicheau, or Sharon Radd know you plan to be there. The administration is trying to get a good count so they can have the space prepared adequately.

Update: On Thursday March 1 Robicheau shared these further docTable 6 Small Groups 2-4.pdfuments from the first Community Council meeting. “This is the feedback from the flip charts complied at the February 4th Community Council meeting. Each document represents one tables notes.” These additional documents may be a response to criticism leveled at the process from some participants stating that the “themes” shared earlier (above) did not seem to represent the output from the first meeting.

Pioneer Press: Minnesota’s integration program supported by religious leaders

Megan Boldt covers the ISAIAH press conference in the Pioneer Press today: “Minnesota’s integration program supported by religious leaders.” She focuses on the fact that Rep. Pat Garofalo is trying to pass the buck to MDE:

Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, said last week that he expects the state Education Department to flesh out a proposal legislators can act on this session.

Legislature’s court. Spokeswoman Charlene Briner said the department fulfilled its statutory obligations, which included naming six members to the task force, convening the first meeting, offering support to the task force and delivering the report to the Legislature.

“I’m not certain exactly what Rep. Garofalo is referring to when he says he’s waiting for more details from the department,” Briner said.

ISAIAH asks the Legislature to hear the integration task force report

ISAIAH, a network of congregations acting as members of this democracy to reclaim a powerful role in determining the future of our communities, our state, and our country, will hold a press conference this morning to call the legislature to hold a hearing regarding the Integration Revenue Replacement Task Force recommendations. They plan to celebrate the bi-partisanship shown in the report, recognize the example it sets for governing from a place of mission and values, and note that integration and achievement should include equity at its core.

Speakers at the event will include task force member Helen Bassett of WMEP and Robbinsdale schools, Kathy Griebel of EMID, Sarah Gleason of St. Joan of Arc, and Pastor Paul Slack of New Creation Church in Minneapolis.

Tuesday, February 28, 11am
Room 181, Minnesota State Office Building

ISAIAH also provided a detailed response to the task force report.

Take the EMID budget survey by tomorrow!

Please don’t forget to fill in EMID’s budget survey by tomorrow, Monday 2/27. Do it right away if you can, it is only one page long and EMID needs your input. More information about the survey at the Crosswinds website:

Our commitment to quality teaching and learning remains steadfast. At the same time, we recognize the fiscal crisis we face is very real and difficult decisions will have to be made. Your feedback as we balance our commitment to quality instruction and fiscal demands is essential.

Pioneer Press: Overhaul of Minnesota school integration in limbo

Mila Koumpilova writes in the Pioneer Press today: “Overhaul of Minnesota school integration in limbo.” In the story she notes that the Legislature and the Minnesota Department of Education differ about who should take the next step with the integration task force recommendations.

Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, said Friday that he expects the Education Department to flesh out a proposal legislators can act on this session. But the department says the ball is in the Legislature’s court.

Koumpilova also exposes some of the tensions emerging from members of the task force.

[Kersten said,] “If the Legislature does nothing, the integration program goes away, and I think that might be the best outcome.”

Kersten added that her Center for the American Experiment report, a year in the making, is completely independent of her service on the task force. …

Myron Orfield, a fellow task force member, said Kersten’s views set her apart on the task force. “Everyone but her felt there were benefits to integration,” he said.

It is odd that the Legislature has already had Kersten testify about her own views but has failed to hold any sort of hearing about the actual task force recommendations.

“You have something that’s so rare in this day and age – a bipartisan recommendation with more than a supermajority,” said committee co-chairman Scott Thomas, an equity coordinator in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district. “The response has been absolute silence.”

Augsburg College Public Debate: Integration Funding

Augsburg College Symposium on Modeling Constructive Public Debate will focus on Integration Funding and will debate the recommendations the integration task force faced. The two speakers will be Bill Green (who voted for integration funding) and Peter Swanson (who voted against). It will be a really unique chance to hear more about the task force’s insight into this issue.

The debate will take place today Wednesday, February 22 from 4:00pm-5:30pm at Augsburg College in the Foss Center in the Hoversten Chapel.

You can contact Katie Radford if you have any questions or need directions 651-503-4116.

Legislative Action: AMSD Day at the Capitol, 3/8

EMID is part of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts (AMSD) and AMSD has invited EMID families to join its “Day at the Capitol” on Thursday, March 8.

The event starts at 8:15 in the State Office Building basement observing the House Education Reform Committee and ends at 2pm after observing the House Education Finance Committee. In between there is time for meeting your legislators, an overview of education issues in the 2012 session, and Q & A with Minnesota’s education leaders featuring Minnesota House and Senate members and representatives from MDE.

Please consider joining in this event. It is a great way to be in touch with your representatives. RSVP with Alice Seuffert, senior policy advocate for AMSD 651-999-7327.

MPR: Task force recommends greater oversight, guidance for school integration efforts

Tim Post reports for MPR: “Task force recommends greater oversight, guidance for school integration efforts.” Post interviews several members as he describes the recommendations of the task force.

Swanson was one of two members who voted against the task force’s final report, primarily because he thought it lacked detail.

But he said the group worked well together, despite opposing views on integration and could have done an even better job if it had more than 10 weeks to finish the report.

Despite the quick turn-around time, the report should be useful to lawmakers, task force member and Republican State Sen. Pam Wolf said.

EMID board begins search for new superintendent

Last night the EMID board received a letter of resignation from Interim Superintendent Jerry Robicheau, stating that he planned to leave the position on 17 March 2012. The board, however, did not want to be left without a superintendent and approved a motion to accept his resignation “on March 17, 2012, or as soon as a replacement is appointed, but no later than May 1st.” Some wanted to keep him on longer, but member Gelbmann pointed out that “slavery had been abolished” and they really could not compel Robicheau to stay.

The board appointed a special superintendent search committee consisting of John Brodrick, Kitty Gogins, George Hoeppner, Byron Schwab, and Lori Swanson, to supervise the search. Dr. Robicheau repeated a few times that he was sure they would find suitable candidate by March 15. In fact, he made it very clear he had just the right person in mind, someone fully qualified and who had already expressed interest.

Harambee teacher Denise Dzik and Crosswinds parent Eric Celeste both pleaded with the board during open forum to consider Kathy Griebel for the position. Currently Harambee principal, Kathy was nearly chosen by the board in 2010 for the position and clearly meets the requirements of the “Profile of Leadership” that was developed then and which has guided EMID searches since then. However, in over an hour of discussion of this matter, the fact that there is such a qualified internal candidate was never once mentioned by any board member.

The special search committee plans to meet in the first week of March to review candidates selected by Dr. Robicheau. The full board will meet early on March 21, conducting public interviews of the candidates starting at 4:30pm that Wednesday. If they are successful at finding a candidate they approve of, they could appoint that candidate later that same day at their regular board meeting.

In other matters, the board also tabled a discussion of capturing school levy funding from member districts for EMID. Right now, the EMID budget does not allow any integration funding to be spent on EMID schools, leaving the schools with only state “backpack” money from each pupil. No other district in Minnesota tries to run schools with only backpack money, and indeed at EMID this would lead to closure of the schools in the 2013-2014 school year (the year after next). EMID is not allowed to raise levies, but the joint powers agreement by which it operates allows the EMID board to capture levy dollars generated by EMID students for EMID schools.

Financial support for students attending the EMID School District shall be comparable to that from which the would have benefited if they had attended Member District schools. …each Member District shall transmit to the EMID School District pupil-based state aid and local tax levies received by the Member District. [From Article Twelve of the EMID Joint Powers Agreement revised January 2012.]

Still, the board refuses to use this power and some member districts insist it is unfair to share levy dollars with EMID. The most likely scenario to come to pass would be that each member district would match the lowest levy among the members (Saint Paul Schools’ $646 per pupil levy) providing $500,000 additional revenue to EMID. However, some board members raised important questions about the fairness and long-term predictability of this method of assessing levies. In the end, the board put this decision off for another day.

It should be noted that members of the board again expressed their discomfort with the arrangement EMID has made to allow ISD622 students to “open enroll” in EMID. These students only bring “backpack” dollars with them and since ISD622 is not a “member district” there will never be any way to collect levy dollars from them. Of course, the board itself approved this arrangement in 2008 when ISD622 pulled out of the collaborative.

The board also made committee assignments for the coming year. Those can be found on our EMID Families school board page.

Oh, and if some of you noticed the “good news” item on the board agenda, that ended up being an opportunity for Dr. Robicheau to allow our principals to highlight good news from the schools. Only Kathy Griebel was present to do so, and among other things she highlighted the talent show held at Harambee recently. If you have not seen the faculty’s “flash mob” version of Thriller from that evening, take a look!