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!
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.
Parents United for Public Schools is an organization that helps Minnesota families become effective advocates for their schools. In this week’s legislative update they wrote about “the power of parent advocacy”:
Necessary legislation was not completed, leaving the two schools in the position of being shuttered in the coming year.
However, the story is not over by a long shot AND if you want proof that parent advocacy works, look no further. …
House Education Policy Chair Mariani, Rep. Isaccson, Rep. Ward, Rep. Fischer and Sen. Marty came to the board meeting to discuss the current situation. The legislators were there because of these families. Not because the families had threatened or pouted but because they had consistently led the charge for the rightness of continuing the state’s vision.
While we are very proud of our efforts, we were saddened that on the final days of session, the Senate could not avoid the consequences of the behind-the-scene tactics of a few senators. Since the end of the session, parents and students came together to debrief the session and talk about what we learned.
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.
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.
Seven hours ago we expected Harambee to get language in the waning hours of the legislative session. The Governor had met with all parties and hammered out an agreement. The Senate had agreed to insert the language for Harambee and the House agreed not to insist on corresponding language for Crosswinds. However, this did not happen.
When the final bill of the session came to the House floor from the Senate, it did not include language for Harambee.
As a result, Roseville does not have the ability to run the Harambee program as it had proposed.
BUT THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY FOR HARAMBEE!
It is now up to the EMID board, but Roseville and the board will have to explore alternative ways of facilitating a turnover of governance. There are ideas about this, but they are in the earliest stages of being worked out.
Of course, this makes it clear that especially Harambee parents will want to come to the board meeting on Wednesday 5/29 at Harambee.
Sincere apologies for the earlier post stating that Harambee would be OK. Given the agreement the Governor had worked out, we just could not imagine the result we saw tonight.
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.
Come and Meet Saint Paul and EMID board member John Brodrick on Friday, May 17, 4-8 pm, IBEW Hall, 1300 Conway Street (east of Johnson Parkway).
Food, beverages, Brodrick stories, and a surprise. FREE, open to all DFL delegates, alternates and the public. This is a drop-in event, come when you can, say hi, stay a while, no need to stay for the whole event.
This is an old school political event – in a Union Hall, free (although we are not too proud to accept donations), fun (believe it or not, DFLers who care about our schools are actually fun people – if you love Saint Paul, you will see a cross section of the city; geographically, ethnically, by age, by gender, by race; be careful there may even be an East Side – West Side – Best Side argument about a football game from the 70’s, or a tennis match from 2013 – everybody who comes to this event shares one thing – they love Saint Paul, and our schools – all right that was two things). If you have never met School Board Member John Brodrick, (welcome to the DFL caucuses) or if you see him once a week, you will enjoy this event – a great candidate, great DFLers; people who care about our schools and community; who want every child to be successful will attend. Join us for politics that is fun, friendly, engaging, and because it is about our kids and our schools, politics that is important.
John is the only candidate running who has been DFL endorsed. As John puts it, “I have been a Democrat from Humphrey to Wellstone, to Vote No Twice and Turn the Ballot Over and Vote Yes For Kids.”
At the board meeting last night the EMID board acknowledged that the April 1 deadline it had set for Perpich to get legislative authority to take over Crosswinds is no longer in effect. As a result, Perpich and South Washington County now have the remainder of the legislative session to seek authority to take over the Crosswinds building.
Last night the EMID board heard from their attorney that the Minnesota Office of Management and Budget (MMB) has changed its position on the requirements for handing off the Crosswinds and Harambee facilities. They are now requiring that the Minnesota Legislature approve any transfer of these buildings before MMB will approve these transfers. As a result, MMB is not authorizing EMID to transfer the buildings until the Legislature has acted.
While Roseville and Perpich each have legislation currently being considered that would provide the proper authority, the same is not true of South Washington County. It is expected that one of the Washington County senators (Kent or Sieben) will probably introduce such legislation soon. At that point there will be two competing proposals for Crosswinds in the legislature and the EMID board will have to wait for the dust to settle before making any further moves to transfer the building.
In other news from the board meeting, Shari Thompson reported that teachers now have until April 15 to pick from a list of over 900 jobs EMID has identified as available for them in member districts. Teachers will sign up for these positions in order of seniority.
Sue Mackert gave an update on the Perpich-Crosswinds bill noting its broad bipartisan support and saying that she feels very good about its chances of passage. The Perpich-Crosswinds bill has been assigned to the House Capital Investments committee and will likely be heard there the week of April 2, when the Legislature returns from their holiday break.
South Washington County board member Jim Gelbmann also felt compelled to launch a defense of himself from apparent charges of conflict-of-interest that were hounding him at the Legislature, where he is employed as a committee administrator. He provided documentation showing that he has no financial interest in the outcome of the Perpich-Crosswinds decision and said that he had approached his boss at the Legislature and declared his conflict-of-interest as soon as the Perpich-Crosswinds bill was introduced.
Three parents testified to the board. Leslye Taylor described family activities at the Legislature and asked the board to stand in support of its own action. Susan Larson shared a packet of media articles and letters to the editor, noting that the question of the transfer of Crosswinds was getting broad attention in the press. Eric Celeste pointed out the muddy waters stirred up by South Washington County’s actions at the Legislature and asked the EMID board to take no further action until after the Legislature completes its deliberations.
The EMID Board will get an update on the progress of legislation to allow Perpich to take over Crosswinds at its next board meeting, this Wednesday (3/20), 5:30pm at Harambee.
The board packet agenda also includes a discussion of EMID employee placement and resolutions on unrequested leaves of absence for staff.
Some families who have been present for hearings at the legislature plan to share observations with the board during the open forum.
This will also be an opportunity for families to catch up with Sue Mackert, of Perpich, who will be providing the board with an update.
While we expect this board meeting to be relatively drama-free, it is important to realize that the board has, as recently as two months ago, changed its agenda dramatically during the meeting itself. Until the Crosswinds situation, in particular, has completely resolved, it is important for as many families as possible to attend board meetings and witness their actions.
