Category Archives: PCAE

Perpich Center for Arts Education

Testimony at Crosswinds: Transition to Perpich, Meeting Monday 1/14

The testimony tonight at Crosswinds was extraordinary. 36 students, parents, and teachers testified to the EMID Board and every single one called on the EMID board to withdraw governance from the school. Nearly every testimony also indicated strong support for a transition of governance to the Perpich Center for Arts Education. The testimony was beautiful, powerful, and heartfelt; it was also being recorded and we will try to share it as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, an important announcement was made at the hearing: representatives from the Perpich Center will be at Crosswinds next Monday evening, 1/14 at 6:30pm to talk with families and answer questions about their proposal. (They will be available to teachers that same morning.) Given how much support there was for a transition to Perpich governance of Crosswinds, this will be a great opportunity to both learn what Crosswinds under Perpich may be like and how we can help bring this future to reality.

A special meeting of the EMID Board to discuss the options before them will also take place on Wednesday evening, January 16, at Harambee. The decision-making meeting of the board remains on Wednesday January 23 at 5:30pm at Harambee.

So, upcoming meetings include:

  • the Harambee “closure” hearing tomorrow, Thursday January 10, 6:30pm at Harambee
  • the Perpich Q&A session for families Monday January 14, 6:30pm at Crosswinds
  • a special EMID Board meeting on Wednesday January 16, 6pm at Harambee
  • the next regular EMID Board meeting, at which they intend to vote on the fate of the schools, on Wednesday January 23, 5:30pm at Harambee

EMID school closure hearings Wednesday and Thursday

The EMID Board hearing on closing Crosswinds will be this Wednesday at 6:30pm at Crosswinds. The hearing on closing Harambee will be this Thursday at 6:30pm at Harambee. The public is welcome to testify at either or both hearings. Some folks who wish to share the themes of their testimony and get feedback ahead of the hearings will be gathering at 5:30pm at each location, so feel free to show up early if you wish.

You may also wish to write down and share your testimony with the board (their addresses are available on the EMID Families website) or other families (just send a copy to info@emidfamilies.org).

According to board chair George Hoeppner, both hearings will follow a similar format. Superintendent Janet Mohr and Finance Officer Shari Thompson will present information related to the reason we are at the current point. After their initial comments,
there will be opportunity for public testimony.

Public testimony will follow the structure of the open forum at a board meetings. There will be a five minute limit for each speaker.

Mohr and Thompson will then speak a second time.

The board will not have discussion either of these evenings.

If board members can find an evening to meet before their January 23 board meeting, they will try to refine the criteria for selection and discuss options. That date will be made public if it can be found.

Decisions will be made at the EMID Board meeting on January 23, 5:30pm, at Harambee.

EMID school closure hearings next week

As we learned in a letter from Superintendent Janet Mohr just before the holidays, EMID will hold public hearings on the closure of Harambee and Crosswinds next week.

  • the Crosswinds hearing will be on Wednesday, January 9 at 6:30pm at Crosswinds
  • the Harambee hearing will be on Thursday January 10 at 6:30pm at Harambee

These hearings are being called “closure” hearings because for statutory reasons EMID has to “close” the schools in order to hand them off to new management. In fact, we all hope that the schools do stay open under new management, but that is not a certainty.

For Harambee the path forward looks fairly clear. Roseville (ISD 623) has presented a compelling proposal to the EMID board that would keep the school more or less intact, with much of the same staff and program, allowing current students to continue to attend. So for Harambee, “closure” will probably mean “opening next year as a Roseville public school.”

For Crosswinds the path forward is much more complicated. South Washington County (ISD 833) and Northeast Metro (ISD 916) have both made proposals that would essentially close the school as we know it. They would reuse the building for new programs with new staff and new students. However, there is a third proposal from the Perpich Center for Arts Education that would carry Crosswinds as we know it forward with much of the program we know and love and an opportunity for staff who want to stay to keep building a unique and attractive community in the school.

The complexity arises because Perpich is not a traditional public school, it is a stand-alone state agency. As such, it needs to seek legislative authority and funding to take on the management of Crosswinds. This means we cannot know whether Perpich will even be able to take on Crosswinds till the current legislative session is nearly over, in May or June.

The bottom line is that these hearings are very important to the future of our schools. We will walk a fine line of advocating for “closure” (in other words, advocating that EMID withdraw from governing our schools), while also advocating for the continued nourishment and growth of the programs developed at Harambee and Crosswinds by Roseville and Perpich.

If you appreciate the learning environment your families have experienced at Crosswinds and Harambee, it is very important that you share that appreciation with the board at these public hearings. It is very important that the board hear both our support for their decision to withdraw from governance of the schools, but also our expectation that they will work in every way possible to keep our schools open under new management.

In either case, the “closure” will give our teachers an opportunity to apply for jobs in EMID member districts. This means that even if the schools are open under new management next year, there will be significant changes ahead. EMID Families have been through so much over the past few years, it is a lot to ask of you to continue to speak out for these schools. Just know, every voice matters. Thanks for paying attention and sharing your views with the board. If you cannot get to the hearings, please consider writing to the board, their addresses are on our web site.

EMID Families Meeting Sunday, 12/23, 3pm

EMID Families will meet tomorrow, Sunday 12/23, 3-5pm in the meeting room at Caribou Coffee, 3100 White Bear Avenue North, Maplewood.

This meeting will focus on how to support the Perpich option (a.k.a saving Crosswinds as we know it) and on planning for the public hearings on school closure coming up in early January.

At the board meeting this week it became very clear that neither the South Washington (ISD 833) or Northeast Metro (ISD 916) proposals would allow the program at Crosswinds to carry on. Even though the Perpich proposal is in very early stages and would be very difficult to pass (requiring not just our board to approve, but also the Legislature and Governor), it is the only remaining hope for carrying forward the spirit of Crosswinds.

The closure hearings are required of EMID by statute. While we hope the schools will not actually close, from a state perspective EMID is “withdrawing” from the schools. These hearings will be the public’s chance to be heard with regard to this change.

Please join us if you want to help us consider strategy and next steps as we try to save our schools.

EMID Board receives two new proposals for Crosswinds

Last night the EMID Board spent nearly its whole meeting considering proposals for the future of Crosswinds. They heard again from District 833 (South Washington County) as well as hearing new proposals from District 916 (Northeast Metro) and the Perpich Center for Arts Education. The most exciting proposal of the evening was Perpich, so be sure to read more about that below. Superintendent Jan Mohr also shared a “school closing rating scale” to be used to judge the various proposals. It asked that each of these criteria be judged on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (highly satisfied):

  • Proposal represents a political subdivision and meets MMB statues.
  • Proposal is not a legal or financial risk to EMID.
  • Proposal accounts for staff and employees in a responsible manner with consideration to contracts and statue.
  • Proposal’s impact on change to current students and families.
  • Proposal’s timeline for transfer of governance.
  • Proposal aligns to vision of EMID.

Superintendent Keith Jacobus returned from District 833 (South Washington County) without any new details for the 833 proposal from last month. He did stress that it was now clear that District 833 could not commit to the “program” of Crosswinds. In other words, while aspects of what Crosswinds does, like year-round education, IB curriculum, arts and science focus, were attractive to South Washington County, these elements, if continued at all, would probably be parceled out among other schools in the district. There would be “no Crosswinds as a school” that holds all of this program together. In other words, 833 is mostly interested in Crosswinds as a building to fill with whatever program it most needs to meet demographic demands. Jacobus also stressed that 833 would be much more comfortable receiving the building in 2014 than 2013, which is when the EMID Board was hoping to hand off the school.

Superintendent Connie Hayes of Northeast Metro 916 Intermediate School District, brought the 916 proposal for governance of Crosswinds before the board (more details in Northeast Metro 916 makes a proposal for Crosswinds). This proposal did not even anticipate using the whole building. 916 would only be able to use half the building and even that they would need to gut and renovate to meet their needs. Given the amount of investigation that needed to go into determining the feasibility of such a renovation and the engagement of a partner for the other half of the building, Hayes also said that 916 would not be able to take control of Crosswinds in 2013 and suggested 2014 as a more reasonable handoff.

The final proposal of the evening came from a team representing the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Pam Paulson, Carlondrea Hines, and Debra Kelley presented Perpich’s proposal to take over Crosswinds to the board. More details are in Perpich Center for Arts Education makes a proposal for Crosswinds and some wonderful insight into the synergy between Perpich and Crosswinds can be found in this public testimony by Dan Larson. Perpich proposes to take on governance of Crosswinds with much of the program, teaching, and student body as it is. They see a great deal of common ground between the Crosswinds mission and methods as they have been, and the goals of the Perpich Center. Some big questions remain (getting approval and funding from the legislature and planning for transportation, for example), it was clear that Perpich is eager and ready to launch an aggressive process to make a takeover possible in 2013. In fact, when repeatedly asked whether a 2014 handoff would be better, the Perpich team responded that they preferred to move fast and accomplish this transition on the original timeline proposed by the EMID Board. If funding realities or EMID made a 2014 transfer necessary, they assured the board that could work as well.

After hearing these proposals, Jim Gelbmann, the EMID Board member from South Washington County, proposed that the EMID Board immediately vote to delay the transfer of Crosswinds to any outside entity until 2014. He felt that by stating immediately that Crosswinds would remain under EMID governance next year the board would be providing assurance to parents and staff that they could count on one more year of stability at Crosswinds. No mention was made of how unstable such “stability” would feel given that two of the three proposals being considered would end the school as we know it. However, the board was reluctant to consider such a drastic change without public input and more chance to understand the impact. After some discussion, Gelbmann withdrew his proposal.

We now have a little breathing space for the holidays, but January will be an extremely busy month. Perpich will be moving to flesh out its plans with meetings with administration, staff, families, legislators, and even the Governor, so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities on that front. But EMID also has to begin to touch some statutory bases in order to make a 2013 handoff of Harambee to Roseville and Crosswinds to whoever possible. This includes:

  • 9 January, a public hearing on the necessity and practicability of closing Crosswinds School.
  • 10 January, a public hearing on the necessity and practicability of closing Harambee School.
  • 23 January, the EMID Board meeting at which they will take action on closing the schools or transferring governance to another body.
  • 23 January, if necessary, begin action to transfer title of the buildings to third parties.
  • 20 February, if EMID ceases school operations at end of 2012/2013, this is the date by which the EMID Board has to officially notify employees.
  • In March EMID has to take further actions with all teachers with regard to withdrawal and termini nation and tenure.

The language above is pretty scary, with all the talk of “closing.” Clearly EMID is doing what it can to hand off the schools and the situation with Harambee is pretty clear (it will be going to Roseville, more or less intact). But from the state’s perspective even this sort of “transfer” or “withdrawal” is the same as a “closure” with regard to EMID. EMID is getting out of the business of schools. Look for more details about these dates as they approach.

Insight into the synergy between Crosswinds and Perpich

At last night’s board meeting Dan Larson gave this very moving testimony about the links between Crosswinds and Perpich.

As a parent of both Crosswinds and Perpich students and a teacher in a former EMID district, I feel I have a unique perspective to share about the impending Perpich proposal and my enthusiasm for its possibilities.

As an educator, I recognize the academic success that Crosswinds has accomplished. In the two of the past four years, Crosswinds has surpassed the state average in graduation reading scores for the state. This is quite the accomplishment considering a free and reduced lunch rate hovering around 50 percent.

But the soul of Crosswinds is its culture of inclusion. It is a unique culture that I have not witnessed in any other environment in 20 years of teaching. Students do not segregate themselves by skin color, activities, or the clothes their wear. They are a blend of backgrounds that have been guided into one cohesive family by an outstanding staff and program.

I know this because before my son came to Crosswinds, he was described as socially awkward, odd, different, and all buzzwords you read or hear on the news describing young men doing unimaginable things. He was required to have a full time paraprofessional; we were informed that his teacher did not feel safe around him, and we were asked to supply our own mode of transportation to after school church activities because of parent concerns.

We came to Crosswinds as our last hope. At the end of his sixth grade year and first year at Crosswinds, it was time for his annual IEP meeting. The school made the recommendation that he be removed from his IEP because he did not exhibit the issues and behaviors that were documented in our home district. I believe that staff had worked a miracle.

At Crosswinds, he was accepted and was introduced to a curriculum that was innovative and rich with arts and rigor. After finishing at Crosswinds, he was accepted at the Arts High School at the Perpich Center for the Arts. There he has received an academic and art instruction that is unparalleled, and recently, he has been accepted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago which is regarded as one of the top art schools in the country. These schools changed his life, and I will be eternally grateful.

With this in mind, I believe these schools are a perfect match for each other. Their arts focus gives students with the desire to create an avenue and expert instruction. There is not a football or hockey team to overshadow their accomplishments. They are valued and validated every day through curriculum and programing. By giving the building to another, it would be just another school with a focus that could change the next time a new superintendent is hired, or if he or she reads a book or attends a conference on the next initiative in education. The unique programming and the school’s soul would be lost.

I encourage the board to do what is best for our children that are creative and vote to continue the schools culture, mission–and yes, soul–by approving the transfer of governance to Perpich Center for Arts Education. Thank you.

Perpich Center for Arts Education makes a proposal for Crosswinds

The Perpich Center for Arts Education presented a proposal to take over Crosswinds to the EMID Board at last night’s meeting. Most impressive, on less than a few weeks notice, was the fact that the Perpich board had already authorized their executive director, Sue Mackert, to explore governance of Crosswinds. “The Board recognizes the synergy and strength of Crosswinds with Perpich Center philosophy of bringing urban, rural, and suburban students together in effective educational programs focused on teaching in and through the arts.

Senior Policy Director Pam Paulson, Arts High School Director Carlondrea Hines, and Senior Communications person Debra Kelley shared the most detailed proposal the board has seen yet for Crosswinds while noting that a vast amount of work would still need to go into creating a true plan. Perpich, they pointed out, is a state agency currently without any authority to govern a school like Crosswinds. This authority would need to be sought from the legislature, and given the complexities of the legislative process no promises could likely be made till May or June. They outlined aggressive plans to meet with EMID administrators, state agencies, Crosswinds staff, families, and even the Governor within the next month.

Perpich Center understands that operating a school focused in the arts and sciences also requires incorporation of some non-traditional models of teaching, as well as a commitment to explore and incorporate alternative models in which to evaluate student performance. These educational practices require ongoing assessment, teacher professional development and staff access to research and resources. The unique offerings within the Perpich Center, including access to professional development, planning services and an arts education library — all would be of great benefit to Crosswinds.

Perpich pointed out that they would not expect Crosswinds to be a “feeder school” for the Arts High School. They respect the staff of Crosswinds and intend to protect staff positions, but anticipate there would be some eliminations or mergers of staff. They also are eager to disseminate lessons of Crosswinds to educators statewide.

Of course, gaining the authority to govern Crosswinds would be a huge hurdle for Perpich. Even if that authority is granted, the funds to make the takeover possible might not be made available until the 2014/2015 school year. While the goal of the Perpich team is to meet the timeline initially set forth by the EMID Board for a 2013/2014 takeover, there is a chance EMID would be asked to maintain Crosswinds for one more year.

A very busy EMID week

As our kids enjoy the last pre-vacation week of classes, a lot of EMID business is being done across three school districts. This is just a heads up about the meetings this week, with hopes that you can find time this busy week to make your presence felt.

Both Roseville and South Washington County continue to press their proposals to take over Harambee and Crosswinds. South Washington County will present a revised proposal at the EMID board meeting this week (board packet, work session agenda). We also expect proposals from the Perpich Center for Arts Education and District 916. It will be very interesting to see what new players bring to the table. Also, this week the Stillwater Area Schools (ISD 834) are presenting a request to withdraw from the EMID collaborative altogether. The EMID board meets Wednesday (12/19) at Harambee, their work session starts at 5pm and the regular meeting starts at 6pm.

Roseville’s plan met with general approval from the board and families last month. Though the Roseville agenda does not include any mention of EMID, they do have an update from their Equity and Integration Advisory Committee which may touch on Harambee. Roseville board meets Tuesday (12/18), 6:30pm, at the District Center located at 1251 County Road B2 West.

South Washington County has formed a task force to clarify its plans for Crosswinds. The South Washington agenda does not have any Crosswinds items on it, but if you live in that district it would be very helpful to monitor this meeting anyway. The South Washington board meets Thursday (12/20), 7pm, at their District Service Center in Cottage Grove.