The following recordings are community testimony at the board meeting on 21 September 2011. More notes of the meeting are also available.
Dan Larson, Curt Sward, Eric Celeste, Zander Sellie, Greg Prince, Mary Jacobson & Austin, Kelly DeBrine, Mike Boguszewski, Abby LeBlanc, Stacy, Nate Celeste, Sam Larson, Shannon Hannagain, Fred LeBlanc, Youth Executive Board, Kathryn Marget, Jessica McKnight, Mary Rose Amundson, and Lauren Schlenker.
Sue Mackert, the Executive Director of the Perpich Center for Arts Education, joined The Crosswinds Community Partnership on Monday night (9/12) to talk about the opportunity Perpich represents for 10th graders looking for a pathway beyond Crosswinds. The conversation also merged into a Q&A about Perpich’s interest in possibly picking up the management of Harambee and Crosswinds from EMID. Read on for some notes from this conversation.
We have learned that the Perpich Center for Arts Education is expressing interest in taking over Harambee and Crosswinds and is in conversations with EMID and the Minnesota Department of Education about the idea. The Perpich Arts High School is currently an 11th and 12th grade destination for a number of Crosswinds graduates. Perpich also has a significant statewide professional development component to its mission. While we don’t know very much about this proposal yet, it does sound like a potentially exciting opportunity for our schools and interesting expansion of the Perpich mission.
It also appears this might fit under the second of the three options the EMID board is currently considering: “transfer governance of schools to different operator.” If you like the idea of Harambee and Crosswinds continuing under a Perpich Center for Arts Education umbrella, please encourage EMID board members to consider this option.
You can read about Perpich at http://www.mcae.k12.mn.us. We will keep you posted as we learn more!
At the EMID Board meeting last night (24 August) the board actively considered shutting down EMID schools after the 2011-2012 school year finishes. A couple parents were at the meeting and the board did pull back from the brink, but this is still a very real threat to our schools. Read more about the meeting below, in a note that Susan Larson sent to our mailing list. We will, of course, post updates on EMID Families! Continue reading
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.
[Thanks to Jeff Syme for sharing these notes. …Eric]
Very interesting meeting tonight, and very long… 5:30 to nearly 8:30, and then an hour-long work session on strategic planning. All 10 Board Reps were present as well as a dozen parents and additional staff. Here is a quick summary for those who couldn’t attend. (One man’s opinion from 10 pages of notes, but please talk with many others to gain the broadest insight on all these affairs.)
The headline is: Nothing was voted on or off the table, and the next four weeks will be crucial. Read on for the details. Continue reading
[Please note: these are not official minutes, they are just the jottings of one parent with a bit of ranting thrown in. I hope they may be helpful to parents who were not able to attend the meeting tonight, but please don’t treat this as in any way official or the last word. Ask around and talk to other parents for a more complete picture. …Eric]
First, what I consider the headline of tonight’s meeting: Dr. Cassellius Wants to take 11-12 at Crosswinds Off the Table.
A lot else was talked about, but the meeting really heated up when it became clear that Brenda would, as Superintendent, ask the EMID Board this Wednesday to cancel plans to consider adding 11th and 12th grade to Crosswinds. She considers it a matter of “capacity and effort,” and thinks “we would have a really difficult time building a solid high school program.” She is also concerned that we have not, even in years of trying, been able to maintain enrollment numbers from 8th to 9th grades. Her vision for EMID, she made very clear, is as a preK-8 set of schools. While she has not ruled out 9th and 10th at Crosswinds, those grades are also clearly not part of her vision for the district. When asked about the span of IB Middle Years from 6-10 she said there were approved IB Middle Years schools that were just 6-8.
Needless to say, this was a revelation to many of the parents at the meeting and generated significant conversation. I heard a lot of disappointment and distress, a few even questioning whether Crosswinds could survive as 6-8. I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear any parent support for this vision, but frankly the meeting got quite (appropriately) emotional and I don’t know that anyone sympathetic would necessarily have stepped up to offer their support. The clarity with which Brenda stated her case was actually quite courageous, but it was certainly not what this site council wanted to hear.
If you want to be a part of this conversation, you should consider attending the EMID Board Meeting this Wednesday (9/15) at 5:30pm at Harambee.
Aside from that very big news, there were many other tidbits from this meeting. Read on to see a list in roughly the order they were discussed
Continue reading
Some parents have gotten an email notification that interviews for Crosswinds Principal candidates will be on Thursday 9/16 from Noon to 4pm. All are welcome. Please RSVP, details below.
Patty Sargent, Crosswinds Site Council parent member, writes with the following update about a meeting with the Washington School principal to consider merging Crosswinds 9-10 with Washington 9-12. Note, she is asking for participation from both Crosswinds and Harambee parents, please let her know if you are interested!
The EMID Board packet for next week’s board meeting includes a “Summary of Vision and Organizational Changes” from Dr. Brenda Cassellius, Superintendent of EMID. The board meets at Harambee on Tuesday 8/24 at 6pm and we urge parents who care about this issue (or anything else on the board agenda) to attend. Cassellius is recommending that 9th and 10th grades be removed from Crosswinds.