Category Archives: Crosswinds

A Big Week for Crosswinds!

Next week will be a big week for Crosswinds, there are three events that are very important for our community and we hope you can join us at as many as possible!

Tuesday, 7/9: House Education Policy Hearing at 11am.

The House Education Policy Committee will hold a hearing at Crosswinds about integration policy for Minnesota from 11am-2pm on Tuesday. This will be a chance for this committee to hear about the successes and failures of integration policy here in EMID and at Crosswinds. It is very unusual for a legislative committee to meet like this outside the legislative session and we are incredibly privileged that Chair Carlos Mariani has decided to make Crosswinds the venue for this important hearing. Testimony will include U of M law professor Myron Orfield, former EMID board chair Bruce Hagerty, our own Bryan Bass, and many others including students, parents, and teachers.

Wednesday, 7/10: Special EMID Board Meeting to consider Crosswinds at 5:30pm.

The EMID Board will hold a special July board meeting on Wednesday to consider a proposal from the Perpich Center for Arts Education to manage the Crosswinds program next school year. This would require that the EMID Board leave Crosswinds open, as they decided to do for Harambee, and contract with Perpich to run the school, similar to the contract they agreed to a few weeks ago for Roseville to run Harambee. This is a last chance to keep Crosswinds open next year. The board will have a work session at 5:30pm and start its regular meeting at 6:30pm. Public testimony is welcome at the start of the regular board meeting.

Thursday, 7/11: Crosswinds Carnival!

The Crosswinds Carnival will be a great chance to spend time with the whole Crosswinds community on Thursday! For students the fun will start at 2pm, but everyone is welcome to join in after school from 4-7pm. Please make sure your student has a signed permission slip allowing them to stay after school that afternoon if you plan to join us or to pick them up later.

Harambee Looking Good for Fall

The EMID Board met yesterday and approved a plan by Roseville to operate the Harambee school next year. Because of the legislature’s failure to act earlier this year, the EMID board decided to delay its closure of the school until 2014, keep the school open, but hand all operational responsibility over to Roseville. The net effect for families should be that Harambee will pretty much feel as it always has. For the most part the staff won’t change (though they will become employees of Roseville), transportation will continue to be provided, and the year-round schedule will continue. Kathy Griebel plans to continue as principal. See 0:34:55 in the video of the meeting below for the Harambee discussion with Roseville Superintendent John Thein.

The situation for Crosswinds will be addressed at a special board meeting next month (7/10, 5:30pm at Crosswinds). While some board members asked that the meeting include options for both Perpich and South Washington County to take over Crosswinds, one board member reminded them that they had received a copy of an email from 833 Superintendent Keith Jacobus stating that South Washington County had no interest in running an integration program at Crosswinds next year. Since an integration program is the only option allowed to Crosswinds without legislation, EMID Superintendent Janet Mohr confirmed that only Perpich was preparing a plan to run the school in the Fall. That plan will be presented and discussed in July. See 1:55:30 in the video of the meeting below for the questions the board raised when considering calling the special meeting.

Video of the entire meeting is available on YouTube and includes many items not discussed in these notes.

EMID Superintendent Resigning

The EMID Board meets again on Wednesday 6/19, 5:30pm at Harambee.

The packet for next week’s EMID Board meeting held a surprise for those reading closely: EMID Superintendent Janet Mohr is leaving us to become the Executive Director of the Board of School Administrators on 8/1. Even though she will have served for less than 18 months, she is actually the longest serving superintendent EMID has had since Carl Wahlstrom left the position in the summer of 2010. Since then we had Brenda Cassellius for six months, Jerry Robicheau as an interim for one year, and now Jan is leaving after a brief stay. This highlights the chaotic nature of EMID governance, if nothing else (note WMEP has been in the news lately as well). More about Jan’s departure can be read on page 38 of the packet.

The EMID board plans to consider Roseville’s proposal for Harambee at the meeting next week. However, the agenda does not include a discussion of Crosswinds and Perpich. Instead, the board plans (see page 41 of the packet) a “special board meeting” on 7/10. This special meeting will include consideration to amend the resolution closing Crosswinds and consideration of a management agreement for Crosswinds.

If you have not already done so, please sign our EMID Families petition asking the board to allow Crosswinds to stay open under Perpich leadership next year!

This means the week after July 4th will be a very busy week for Crosswinds. We are anticipating a hearing of the House Education Policy Committee on 7/9, a meeting of the board on 7/10, and the Crosswinds carnival on 7/11. Stay tuned!

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.

Legislators push for Crosswinds at unprecedented board meeting

Last night’s EMID board meeting at Harambee was an amazing experience for those who were there to see it. In addition to an hour of family testimony, five legislators spent well over an hour sharing their perspective on the legislative session and the options for next steps with the EMID board.

Many family members testified about the lessons they learned during the session. These included the fact that we learned the buildings were bonded to host integration magnet schools, that the legislature must approve conveyance to any other party by a 60% vote, that Minnesota supports integration in the form of a renewed integration plan, that hidden processes impede democracy, that we can talk to our elected officials, and that families will not give up their efforts to save our schools. The final testimony was the reading of a letter from Dan Shulman, lead attorney in the lawsuits that led to the creation of integration districts in the 1990’s, stressing that Minnesota law still demanded integrated education and the actions of the EMID board might put everyone back in court once again.

Superintendent Thein of Roseville assured the EMID board that with their support Roseville would make sure Harambee opened in September to welcome students back. The EMID board voted to support the efforts of Roseville and there was a lot of confidence that, one way or another, Harambee would remain open.

Representatives Peter Fischer (Roseville), JoAnn Ward (Woodbury), Jason Isaacson (Vadnais Heights), Carlos Mariani (Saint Paul), and Senator John Marty (Roseville) shared their view of the session with the board. Rep. Isaacson said, “taking care of Crosswinds School died in the Senate… just so we are clear about this it was attempted in several times in several ways and it didn’t go through… I’m going to tell you what’s not going to happen: South Washington will not receive that school, period… we have the backing of the Speaker on that.” Rep. Mariani connected the situation at EMID with the wider support of integration exemplified by the new integration legislation. Sen. Marty asked for all the parties to work together to find a solution for Crosswinds. Rep. Fischer described the lengths the House had gone to in negotiating with the Senate, sharing the accountability language and a whole set of questions he’d like to see answered. Rep. Ward spoke from her work in education about the importance of a variety of schools for diverse students and families. All of the legislators very firmly asked the board to find a way to keep Crosswinds open for the 13-14 school year.

The clear, consistent message from these five legislators was that the board should do for Crosswinds/Perpich what they were clearly so willing to do for Harambee/Roseville.

Rep. Mariani also told the board he planned to hold a hearing of his House Education Policy Committee at Crosswinds in July (probably on 7/9). In many ways, this meeting felt like a preview of that hearing, though with the roles of board and legislators reversed.

The board did finally make a “consensus” decision to allow Superintendent Mohr to investigate with Perpich and MDE the feasibility of running the Crosswinds program next year. If this looks possible, the board will hold a work session on 6/12 to learn the details of the proposal.

Some (poor quality) audio recordings of the meeting are available. Part One includes the families testimony and the description of Roseville’s efforts on behalf of Harmabee. Part Two includes the exchange of the legislators with the board.

A video of the discussion between legislators and the board is also now available.

EMID Board meeting Wednesday, 5/29

The end of the legislative session left both Harambee and Crosswinds stranded without permanent arrangements for their futures. While it is quite likely that EMID, Roseville, and the Minnesota Department of Education will come to some kind of arrangement for Harambee to stay open next year, the situation for Crosswinds is much less hopeful. The EMID Board meeting this week will be your chance to voice concerns and hear what the board is planning. The meeting will begin at 5:30pm on Wednesday (5/29) at the Harambee School.

The board packet is available and includes a “legislative update” for which “a legislator or lobbyist will be at the board meeting to update the board on the 2013 legislative session…” No board action is anticipated in the board packet, but we have heard of considerable activity by the board and administration to make arrangements for Harambee. We have also heard from multiple legislators who plan to attend the meeting, so this update could be quite illuminating.

EMID Families will meet in Harambee’s Community Cultures room at 5pm, ahead of the board meeting, to answer questions to the best of our knowledge and help families who would like to testify to the board plan their testimony. If you have questions, feel free to stop by before the board meeting starts.

Harambee OK, Crosswinds not so much

After an extraordinary afternoon of negotiations between House and Senate facilitated by the Governor himself, we learned that special legislation will be offered this evening to allow the transfer of Harambee to Roseville. Although there will be no legislation to allow Perpich to take over Crosswinds this year, neither will any other entity (such as South Washington County Schools) be allowed to take the building. Sue Mackert of Perpich said the Governor’s Office and others will work on a path for Crosswinds after the session ends tonight. Perpich wants to try again next year.

Dozens of EMID families heard the call to come to the Capitol this afternoon. Unfortunately, this mostly amounted to waiting for a press conference that has not taken place even now. But some of us did get to see Representatives JoAnn Ward, Peter Fischer, and Jason Issacson head into a meeting with Governor Dayton to request his help. Dayton called Senator Sieben, who later joined the group for negotiations. Harambee, which was left without legislation when misinformation at the Friday night education conference committee made it seem none was needed, quickly found a path to success in these negotiations. Crosswinds, which has generated severe opposition among many Washington County legislators, was more difficult to resolve.

While families were distressed to learn Crosswinds will close after all, some were heartened by the news that no other school system could take of the building this year. Certainly rebuilding Crosswinds a year from now will be much more difficult than simply continuing the program would have been, but it does offer hope to some families who may return once the school is open under new management, and it offers the state an opportunity to recover some of what made the school so special for Minnesota.

Still, it was devastating to learn we are losing the school. We will have to make this last quarter something very special!

Much of this will be the topic of discussion and decision making for the EMID board next week. If you want to learn more about next steps for Crosswinds and Harambee, join the board on Wednesday 5/29 at Harambee.

House Leadership Press Conference at 2:30pm TODAY

UPDATE, now looking like the press conference is more likely between 3 and 4pm. Note, as a House event, we have no control over this one.

The Minnesota House leadership is holding a press conference about Crosswinds and Harambee at the Capitol today at 2:30. Please meet in the Capitol Rotunda at 2:15 to join up with other families, students, and teachers. Now is the moment! Come to the Capitol if you can. Bring your signs.

Please spread the word.

The House is very upset at the manipulations of the Senate against Crosswinds. Let’s help them make a strong showing!

Last Chance to Save Crosswinds, SUNDAY 11am

The legislature did NOT include Crosswinds in the education omnibus bill, dooming our state-of-the-art $26M east metro integration magnet school to lie empty and disbanding our fine teaching staff and families. We are coming together one more time to ask legislators and the governor to do everything possible before the legislative session ends to continue this important integration magnet program.

Please join us TODAY (for most of you), Sunday at 11am, in the State Capitol just outside the Governor’s Office. Students from theater and orchestra will be present, Mr. Bass and some parents will hold a press conference. We need to ask for action to save Crosswinds.

See our press release for more details.

Looking to the Education Omnibus Bill

As you probably heard this evening on the news, the Minnesota House defeated the bonding bill, HF270. Until yesterday, the language supporting the Perpich takeover of Crosswinds was part of this bonding bill. Both the team working to get Roseville support for Harambee and the team working to get Perpich support for Crosswinds are now focussed on getting this supporting language into the education omnibus bill (HF630/SF453).

The education omnibus contents will be determined by the Education (E-12) Conference Committee which may meet later tonight or tomorrow. In any case, we are down to the wire. Now would be a great time for calls asking your legislators to support Crosswinds and Harambee in the education omnibus. They will be there late into the night tonight, and all weekend. But the sooner you call the better. Make sure to leave a message if their staff does not answer the phone, make it very clear you support the Perpich plan to govern Crosswinds.

The members of this conference committee are Senators Wiger, Torres Ray, Stumpf, Johnson, and Dahle, and Representatives Marquart, Mariani, Brynaert, Morgan, and Urdahl. If any of these folks are your own legislators, please make an extra effort to call them tonight expressing support for Crosswinds and Perpich.

We also had stories in the Pioneer Press and the Woodbury Bulletin growing out of our press conference yesterday. The facts are a bit dated since this is now moving so swiftly, but it was very good to see the coverage.

Thanks for all that you are doing to keep our schools serving future Minnesota students!