Author Archives: Eric Celeste

Town Hall Meeting featuring the Commissioner Cassellius, 4/20

Concerned about the direction of the education omnibus bills at the Capitol?

A town hall meeting featuring the Commissioner of Education, Brenda Cassellius, is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, at 4 p.m. at Washington Technology Secondary, 1495 Rice Street in St. Paul. The Commissioner along with other elected officials will be attending to discuss issues related to education and education funding for the next biennium. This information session will be followed by a Q & A.

Wednesday, April 20, 4 p.m.
Washington Technology Secondary, 1495 Rice Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55117

Legislative Update

As you may be aware the Minnesota State Legislature has put forward education bills which would significantly impact integration programs in Minnesota. If these bills are passed it would have a detrimental effect on EMID. As members of the EMID community it is very important for legislators to hear our voices. We encourage you to contact your elected officials and the state leaders making these decisions to let them know why Crosswinds and Harambee are important to you and your children.

Read on for more details. Continue reading →

EMID Board still considering nature of parent involvement in super search

We’ve been trying to get a handle on how parents will be involved in the EMID Superintendent search and just not had any clear answer. Interim Superintendent Robicheau has indicated that there would be involvement, but the Board hasn’t finalized the process yet. That should happen at the April board meeting, so we hope parents can show up and voice their support for parent involvement in the search process.

The April meeting of the EMID Board will be at Crosswinds and start at 5:30pm on Wednesday April 20. Please plan to attend, if you can.

10,000 voices for one Minnesota

A few weeks ago I shared with the mailing list a wonderful testimony by Grant Stevenson, the pastor heading up ISAIAH these days, to the House Education Finance Committee. I’ve included that message “below the fold” here, but what I really want to let you know about is ISAIAH’s Leadership Action Day on Saturday (April 9) from 9am – 2pm. Lunch is included if you RSVP right away to Amity.Foster@isaiah-mn.org.

The main event is from 11am to 1pm and will engage legislative leaders from both parties in a dialogue about how we might work together to create a path that leads to health, racial equity, opportunity, and shared growth. ISAIAH has invited Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, House Speaker Kurt Zellers, Senate Minority Leader Terry Bonoff, and House Minority Leader Paul Thissen to join in this dialogue.

Details are in this PDF flier. Continue reading →

Parents United Leadership Summit

Do you miss Brenda Cassellius? Here’s a chance to see her in her new role as Minnesota’s Commissioner of Education! On Monday (April 11) Parents United is holding its all-day Leadership Summit. The morning is full of training (Brenda, Peter Huchinson, Karen Balmer, and Mary Cathryn Ricker will be presenting) followed by lunch an lobbying at the capitol. See the Parents United site for more details, register now!

Garofalo proposes to kill integration funding

Rep. Pat Garofalo included a plan to kill all special funding for school integration as part of the education “omnibus” bill that he plans to put before the house. There will be hearings about this bill at the capitol on Monday 3/21 at 9am. There was a brief article in MinnPost. Shari Thompson writes “House Representative Pat Garofalo, chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, announced that the House’s main education finance bill includes the elimination of integration revenue. The full bill will be posted sometime over the weekend possibly as early as this evening. Testimony is being taken on Monday. Superintendent Mark Robertson from the Northwest Integration Collaborative will be testifying on behalf of the metropolitan area integration collaboratives.”

Clearly, testimony from parents, or even just our presence in the room, would be very helpful. If you would like to testify please contact Aaron Solem (aaron.solem@house.mn; 651-296-5524). If you would like to organize to testify, please feel free to use our list families@emidfamilies.org.

This is a big deal, since EMID is founded on integration funding.

Jerry Robicheau Appointed the Interim Superintendent for EMID

Those of us who served as parent members on the advisory task force during the Superintendent search process last time will remember Jerry as part of BKB Associates. He is a professor at MN State University, Mankato, and has quite a record of accomplishment in education. He can be reached at jerry.robicheau@mnsu.edu; 507-389-5091. He will serve as Interim for the next several months until a new permanent Superintendent can be hired. He will be spending 25% time on the job. For the record, Dr. R. will NOT be part of the contracted BKB search team, and will have input into the search process only as appropriate to his role as Interim Superintendent. The vote to appoint was unanimous.

Brenda Cassellius leaves EMID to become Commissioner of Education, 1/3

Last Friday Dr. Brenda Cassellius announced that she would be stepping down as EMID’s superintendent in order to become Minnesota’s Commissioner of Education today. As she wrote in her blog:

This means I will lead the Department of Education, with responsibilities for operations and policymaking for all aspects of education — from implementing No Child Left Behind and supporting PreK-12 learning, to community ed and higher education. This is an unexpected honor and I am humbled to have been asked to serve our great state in this role.

Her sudden departure from EMID leaves a lot of balls in the air. In combination with the departure of EMID’s longtime board chair, families and EMID staff and administrators will have their hands full trying to keep the district on course.

The EMID Board announced that it will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, January 5th at 5:30pm at Harambee to discuss the appointment of an interim superintendent.

UPDATE: Brenda later clarified that higher education is actually not part of the portfolio of the Department of Education. That role actually belongs to the Office of Higher Education.

High School Options, 12/9

I attended the high school options fair at Crosswinds last week and found it a helpful and energetic event. I was there both to check out options for my eighth grader and to share our experience with Avalon School with parents and students. While a few of the other charter schools I would have expected were missing from the event, the member districts were well represented. I’m not sure of numbers, but the event also felt reasonably well attended.

The event last week was aimed mostly at Crosswinds 10th graders, but I also learned that Crosswinds is planning a high school Open House for its own 8th graders this week. I have yet to get a ParentLink, but it did appear on the calendar this weekend and Principal Bass just confirmed it with me this evening. “We are calling it an Open House for 8th graders to explore the 9/10 option at Crosswinds. There should have been a Parent link that hit homes on Friday. Also, our 8th grade parents will be phoned by our 8th grade teachers to personally connect on Monday or Tuesday evening this week.”

So if you have an 8th grader, try to set aside Thursday (12/9) evening (no time on the calendar, but likely 6:30pm) to see all the reasons your soon-to-be high schooler would have a great time in 9th and 10th at Crosswinds.

EMID Board Meeting, 11/17

Just in case you were eager for the next EMID Board meeting, it’s tomorrow: Wednesday 11/17 5:30pm at Harambee.

The agenda includes the Superintendent’s report (which will include an update on her “90-day Entry Plan,” an item called “Restructuring of Leadership Team,” and an update on the “High School Transition Fair”), a report on EMID’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” under No Child Left Behind, and the first reading of new EMID policies on harassment, bullying, and hazing.

The full (two part!) PDF board packet for the meeting can be found here: part 1, part 2.