Category Archives: PCAE

Perpich Center for Arts Education

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!

EMID Families Press Conference at 2:30pm TODAY

Sorry about the short notice, but if you can get to Crosswinds at 2:30pm this afternoon (5/16), please do! After a press conference there, a number of families will also be heading to the capitol. The session ends Monday and the Crosswinds situation has not be resolved! We need to demand the legislature take action to allow Perpich to run Crosswinds. The Crosswinds program must be preserved!

We have learned that some Washington County area state senators are demanding the House strip its bonding bill of Crosswinds related language. They want EMID to run the school for another year if District 833 is not allowed to take the building for its own use. We know that can’t work and we need to let the press and our legislators know how important it is to support Perpich and Crosswinds NOW.

Please join us at Crosswinds. If you are available later in the afternoon, please come to the capitol as well.

16 May EMID Families Press Release (PDF)

Write your Representative in support of Perpich!

The Perpich-Crosswinds language is now part of HF270, the House bonding omnibus bill. That bill is expected to come up for consideration on the House floor this week. Please write your State Representative today to ask for their support. If you are unsure of who your Representative is, please visit the “Who Represents Me” page at the House to find out. Also ask your friends and family members statewide to write to their Representatives. Here is a sample of what you might say:

Dear Representative _________,

I am writing to ask you to support HF270, which is likely to come to the House floor this week. Sections 32, 33, 34, 51, and 52 of this bonding omnibus bill include important language that allow the Perpich Center for Arts Education to take on governance of the Crosswinds Arts and Science School. It is vital, in these days of diversifying demographics, that this important integration program remain open and continue to serve as model for Minnesota. Crosswinds shows that the achievement gap can be closed. It shows that choice can lead to integration with a student body comprised of 50% students of color, 50% receiving free or reduced lunch, and 26% receiving special education services.

As all of Minnesota’s communities are struggling with the biggest achievement gap in the country, I know you want Minnesota to be a leader in education. I know you want children in our community to have the opportunity to practice successful global citizenship, through the innovation that comes with integration.

I urge you to support the Crosswinds language in the bonding bill and to oppose any amendments to that language when it comes to the floor. Please help preserve a model that works for Minnesota.

Thank you for your service to our community,
_______

Please forward this sample letter to friends, relatives, coworkers, anyone you can contact, who would support the effort to keep Crosswinds available in Minnesota.

Our hope is that Perpich, by keeping Crosswinds open, can share the lessons learned at this successful “lab” school with communities statewide. Crosswinds was built with state funds, we believe it should serve as a model for the whole state.

Perpich-Crosswinds bill heading to the Minnesota House floor

The Perpich-Crosswinds bill is now headed to the floor of the Minnesota House, but it looks a little different than it did a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago the House Capital Investments Committee took our stand alone bill (HB592) and made it a part of the House bonding omnibus bill (HB270). It was added to the bonding omnibus bill because the office of Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) determined that any changes to the use of Crosswinds would mean a change in the intent of the bonds that had been used to build Crosswinds, and as such these changes needed the approval of three-fifths of the legislature. Since bonding bills require a three-fifths vote and this had become a bond-related question, we are now part of the bonding bill in the House.

This morning the House bonding omnibus passed the House Ways and Means committee and was sent on to the House floor for consideration. Unfortunately, it will probably wait there until all the other budget bills have been considered before it gets a vote. This means that we probably will not know the fate of Crosswinds in the Legislature until the very end of the session.

Another change in the language makes it very likely that even once the Legislature finishes its work, the final decision will return to the EMID Board. New language in HB270 allows the EMID Board to give Crosswinds to either Perpich or District 833 (South Washington County) “for use as an east metropolitan area integration magnet school.” Furthermore, if EMID wants to do anything other than that with Crosswinds, it must sell the school building “for an amount at least equal to” the cost of acquiring the land and building the school. (HB270, Sec. 51.) These provisions make it possible that both Perpich and District 833 will be coming back to the EMID board this summer for a decision.

The bottom line for now is that things are looking very positive for a Perpich takeover of Crosswinds for next school year, but we are far from done with this task. Stay tuned! We will need your voice raised and your concerns shared with your legislators as this matter heads to the House floor. And we will need you to contact your EMID Board members when and if this matter returns to their domain.

P.S. Though far less controversial, we should note that the Roseville-Harambee provision is also now part of the same HB270 bonding bill.

EMID board gives up on April 1 deadline

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.

An audio recording of the testimony of EMID’s lawyer about the situation and Shari about teachers is available on our website.

EMID Board meets Wednesday 3/20

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.

Perpich-Crosswinds bill passes House Government Operations committee unanimously

The Perpich-Crosswinds bill in the House (HF592) has passed its second committee with flying colors, getting a unanimous vote from the House Government Operations committee this afternoon. The unanimous support of the Government Operations committee follows an all-but-one win in the Education Finance committee, demonstrating the depth of the bipartisan support for Perpich and its plan to take over governance of Crosswinds.

Many EMID families witnessed the meeting, which started at 12:30pm and didn’t get to our bill until nearly 4pm. The committee had a huge workload and plenty was still on its agenda even after our bill. While waiting we heard the committee pass bills for a statewide health plan for schools and an anti-bullying initiative that demanded schools create a healthier more respectful environment. Many of us realized that the things we’d been saying in our testimonies for Crosswinds would apply equally to some of the other bills being heard. Much of that testimony has been gathered in a packet that we are sharing with each committee. Please write to testimony@emidfamilies.org if you would like to add your voice to this packet.

The depth of our bipartisan support is probably why the only effective tactic of opponents in Washington County has been to stall, especially by preventing any hearing in the Minnesota Senate. Sen. Torres Ray has tarnished her reputation as a defender of integration by refusing to give our bill (SF530) a hearing in her Education Committee. This has been especially disappointing since she is sponsoring SF711, the bill to implement the recommendation of last year’s integration task force, in the Senate. However, this past Monday even Sen. Torres Ray told Crosswinds activists “the bill will have a hearing in the Senate, if not in my committee, then in Sen. Wiger’s [Education Finance subcommittee].” Now we have to hold her to that commitment.

Meanwhile, the House bill was referred on to the Capital Investments committee to discuss an issue of state bonding and make sure that the use Perpich intends is close enough to the intent with which the Crosswinds facility was built. We expect that hearing next week, but it is not on the schedule yet. It may be heard along with the Harambee bill (HF833) which also awaits a hearing in Capital Investments.

Please join us in attending the upcoming EMID board meeting at 5:30pm on Wednesday 3/20 at Harambee. We must make sure the board understands the incredible strength of the Perpich proposal in the legislature and does not simply hand the Crosswinds facility to South Washing County schools in April. A number of issues have been raised in the legislature which put South Washington’s claim to the building in doubt, and it should be a very interesting board meeting as the EMID board comes to grips with what has actually been happening in Saint Paul.

Crosswinds and Harambee pass first test in the Minnesota House

Both HF833 (the Harambee bill) and HF592 (the Perpich-Crosswinds bill) were heard in the House Education Finance Committee this morning. After being introduced by Rep. Fischer, testimony for Harambee included Superintendent John Thein, and parents Will Bryan and Mike Boguszewski. The Harambee bill, which primarily seeks support for the transportation needs Roseville inherits with the school, saw only minimal questioning and was passed unanimously on to the House Capital Investment Committee.

The Perpich-Crosswinds bill encountered significantly choppier water, but emerged successful as well. Rep. Ryan Winkler introduced the bill and a couple of amendments. Sue Mackert presented Perpich’s case for the school, Mary Cecconi filled in some history and institutional memory from her time on the Stillwater school board, Bryan Bass described the school’s academics and achievements. The committee questioned these speakers, primarily Sue Mackert, for an extended period. Much of the concern was about the finances of the bill. Some of the questioning was also aimed at understanding what Perpich gains and possibly loses in taking on Crosswinds. A number of committee members seemed to be trying to understand exactly why this issue was before the legislature, what had gone wrong at EMID to land this on their plate? Rep. Mariani reminded members that the legislature’s own actions sun-setting integration aid laid some of the responsibility at their own feet.

After questioning, a number of EMID Families representatives testified for Crosswinds: parents Eric Celeste, Tami Bayne-Kuczmarski, and Dan Larson all testified briefly, and Sam Larson and Nate Celeste represented Crosswinds students. I say briefly because we were each given no more than two minutes! The family testimony helped convey the emotional impact of this decision to legislators. A few tears were shed.

One Woodbury Elementary parent, Joe Ryan, also testified briefly in favor of Perpich.

Then the opponents to Perpich took the mic. Superintendent Keith Jacobus of South Washington County (ISD833) spoke against the bill saying that it would hurt his district financially to continue to send students to Crosswinds. Most disappointing, though, was the final testimony of the morning: EMID and White Bear Lake board member Lori Swanson testified against Perpich. That the only representative of the EMID board who addressed the legislature was opposing the very action the board took in January was yet another demonstration of the dysfunction of the EMID board.

Nevertheless, Crosswinds and Perpich prevailed. On a voice vote with only a single “nay,” the committee passed the Perpich-Crosswinds bill along to the Government Operations Committee. We expect that the Government Operations Committee could hold a hearing on HF592 as soon as this week. We will keep you informed.

In addition to the spoken testimony offered at the hearing, which as I said was extremely limited, the members of the committee all received packets of written testimony. A thin packet of seven letters in opposition all came from Woodbury. On the other hand, the committee received 33 letters of substance and support from across our districts, from parents and teachers and community members. Some of this testimony can be found on our website. Even just in weight, the overwhelming support was clear. Anyone who took the time to even glance at the substance of the letters would be even more impressed. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write to the committee.

Sam Larson and Nate Celeste testifying to the House Education Finance Committee, 2013-03-12

Share written testimony with the House Education Finance Committee

There has been a slight room change for those planning to attend the Perpich-Crosswinds HF592 hearing next Tuesday, see below. But whether you can be present to support Crosswinds or not, you may want to submit written testimony to the committee about your experience of Crosswinds and your reasons for believing that Perpich governing Crosswinds is a good idea for Minnesota. Feel free to reference our talking points, if you need some ideas.

If you would like to share written testimony, it needs to be sent to the committee administrator, Shannon Patrick. Please get your written testimony to her by Monday, 3/11, at Noon so she can put it together into a packet for committee members.

Please include “Testimony for HF592” in your subject heading and send your testimony to shannon.patrick@house.mn.

Feel free to send a copy to info@emidfamilies.org and we will include it as a comment on the website so it can inspire others.

For those of you planning to attend the hearing, please note the slight room change. The Perpich-Crosswinds bill, HF592, will have its first hearing in the House Education Finance Committee on Tuesday (3/12) at 8:15am. This hearing will be in the Basement Hearing Room of the State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Saint Paul, MN.