Category Archives: Activity

Crosswinds Arts Night and Bake Sale, 12/19

Crosswinds will be celebrating the arts on Thursday, December 19, from 7-8:30pm. Come see the Orchestra, Theater, Art, and Band programs all celebrate the best of Crosswinds. And there will be a bake sale as well! Here’s the flyer.

Contact Torria at 651-379-2603 or torria.randall@crosswindsmn.org if you are interested in volunteering at the event or donating baked goods to the bake sale.

Also, if you are a current Crosswinds family, there will also be a chance to learn more about the Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports (PBIS) program starting at 4:30 the same Thursday evening.

Sign our Crosswinds petition

We have heard a board member say that the families who come to board meetings are a small fraction of families attending the schools and don’t represent the feelings of other families. Please sign our petition to let the EMID Board know clearly that there are many families and friends of Crosswinds who believe the school should stay open under Perpich leadership. If you want to see Crosswinds open next year, please sign our petition today, so we can share your signature with the EMID board next week.

EMID Families T-Shirts!

To celebrate summer and the work we have ahead of us for Crosswinds and Harambee, EMID Families has decided to produce two limited edition t-shirts. These will be great to wear to the legislative hearing we expect to host at Crosswinds in July, or to various year-end events around the schools.

These t-shirts will only be on sale for one week, until Monday 6/10! Get yours while they last!

You can get a yellow shirt that declares “Integration for Minnesota. Watch us grow!” for $12, or a very special black shirt that just shows off the dandelion symbol for $14.

Yellowshirt Blackshirt

Thanks to Carrie Dickson for coming up with the dandelion theme EMID Families has adopted to let everyone know we won’t be stopped and plan to spread our story.

Please note, these shirts will only be printed if we reach a total minimum order of 25 yellow shirts or 10 black shirts by June 10th, so order now. If you choose the “free shipping” option, then Eric Celeste will deliver the shirt by hand to a future EMID Families or Crosswinds meeting for you.

Support Our Teachers

Our Crosswinds and Harambee teachers are facing difficult choices as they approach an April 15 deadline for signing up for new positions in member districts. This is particularly painful for Crosswinds teachers, who do not yet know if it will even be possible to continue at Crosswinds next year, and so they must choose positions elsewhere just in case.

During the parent-teacher conferences this coming Monday and Tuesday, April 8 and 9, we would like to ask you to help feed our teachers! Let them know we care by helping to provide dinner on these two conference evenings. Torria and Bryan are planning the meals and they could use your help. Please contact Torria (651.379.2603, torria.randall@emid6067.net) if you can help provide portions of either of the following meals:

  • Monday, April 8, Soup, salad, build your own sandwiches
  • Tuesday, April 9, Italian spaghetti, salad, French bread

If you can’t bring food, but still want to help, please donate to this Razoo fundraiser. You are also welcome to donate cash to Torria at the office.

Also, when you attend conferences on Monday and Tuesday, keep an eye out for a banner where you will be able to write out your own message of care and encouragement for our wonderful teachers!

Give to the Max TODAY for Crosswinds and Harambee!

The fourth annual “Give to the Max Day” is a day for Minnesotans to come together to raise as much money as possible for nonprofits in 24 hours, all day long on Thursday, November 15, 2012. This is a great and easy way to show your support for our schools.

Help Harambee Win $1000

What if you could help Harambee School win $1000 just by giving 10 bucks? Give to the Max Day is today, so you can.

Donating is easy, just click here for Harambee! Your contribution will support school-wide initiatives, family events, field trips, and other educational opportunities. You can use this quick link for donating: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Harambee-Elementary

Last year we raised $1780 on Give to the Max Day. Of the total, $665 was directed to the fifth grade class trip to Audubon. With your support, we were able to fully fund the cost of six students to participate in this amazing experience. We were also able to provide field trip buses for two entire grade levels!

Joe’s Sporting Goods, our very generous neighbor, has offered Harambee a two to one challenge grant for Give to the Max Day. If we can raise $2000 for Harambee, Joe’s Sporting Goods will match with $4000! What an amazing offer. Don’t let this opportunity pass us by.

Give to Crosswinds Too!

Donating to Crosswinds is just as easy on Give to the Max Day, just click here for Crosswinds! Or use this link: http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Crosswinds-Arts-And-Science-School

Help support the orchestra, theater, field trips, intersession, and many other activities of Crosswinds!

What is GiveMN?

GiveMN.org is the smart way for you to discover, support and engage with the charities that are right for you. The online giving platform allows you to easily find organizations that match your giving goals, support them through secure credit or debit card donations, receive automated tax deductible receipts through email, and conveniently track and record your donations in a single online location.

As you consider your charitable end-of-year giving, please consider participating in Give to the Max Day today. GiveMN is easy to use, and your gift to Harambee and/or Crosswinds will make a huge difference to our ongoing work.

Also, remember that you can use GiveMN to make donations any time. Today is a special day, but these links can be used every day to support our schools.

A Conversation Concerning Race, 3/5

The Saint Paul Foundation has been offered a grant by the Kellogg Foundation to conduct conversations concerning race, providing training for community members so that we can better function as a multi racial team in our combined work and service together. We have set up such a “workshop conversation” at Crosswinds for staff and parents and community members from Harambee, Crosswinds and any other interested members.

Leslye Taylor, the mother of a Crosswinds 7th grader, has already gathered over 20 people to take part in this conversation. But there is still room for more! If you would like to participate, please email Leslye as soon as possible.

The conversation will be at Crosswinds on Monday, March 5, from 5-8pm. It will be a potluck dinner, more details will be shared when you RSVP to Leslye.

If you’d like to read a blurb about this endeavor, visit The Saint Paul Foundation. The woman smiling in the front is Sharon Goens, one of the two facilitators we would have opportunity to work with.

Volunteer for the EMID Community Council

If you are interested in being part of the EMID Community Council, please let your school principal know (Bryan Bass at Crosswinds or Kathy Griebel at Harambee). If you do not have a chile attending an EMID school, then please let the Integration Specialist in your district know. Make sure to express your interest before Friday, January 13th.

The Community Council will develop and recommend a final strategic plan to the EMID Board that also can serve as EMID’s new integration plan for the state of Minnesota. It will be made up of parents of student and students attending the magnet schools, parents and community people from the member district, EMID staff, and staff from member districts.

Dr. Robicheau envisions that the Community Council could get quite large, as many as 50 people. Everyone reading the EMID Families list is probably welcome to join. If the group gets to be bigger than envisioned, two groups may be created. The Community Council will probably meet two to three times for two to three hours in the evening between now and the end of February.

Once you have expressed your interest you can expect a personal invitation to serve from Dr. Robicheau. A list of those selected to serve will also be available on the emid6067.org website.

Share your EMID-SOS picture!

We’d like to show the board some of the faces of Harambee and Crosswinds. Send us a picture of you or your family holding an EMID-SOS sign.

  1. Print out our sign or make one of your own.
  2. Hold it proudly while getting your picture taken.
  3. Send the picture to EMID-SOS or put it on our wall at Facebook or on Flickr with an “EMID-SOS” tag.

We will gather these pictures together and make them part of a slide show for the board meeting. By sending us your picture or tagging it “EMID-SOS” you are giving us permission to use your picture as part of our campaign to Save Our Schools.

Thanks for showing support for Harambee and Crosswinds out in the wild!

Nate, Mary, and Eric support EMID-SOS