Category Archives: send2list

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!

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.

Harambee Plant Sale

Are you desperately looking for signs of spring? Well you’re in luck, because the Harambee Plant Sale is in full swing!

Bring home some beautiful plants while helping Harambee raises money for a new slide to fix the broken one.

www.harambeeplantsale.org

Looking for yet another way to help Harambee? Purchase plants to donate to the summer gardens around the flag and by the school sign. Its a double win!

Order by April 19th and pick up at the school May 1, 2 or 3 from 3p-6p. See the website for how to order or contact any Harambee student!

Thank you for working together with us!

Carrie Dickson

Support Our Teachers

Our Crosswinds and Harambee teachers are facing difficult choices as they approach an April 15 deadline for signing up for new positions in member districts. This is particularly painful for Crosswinds teachers, who do not yet know if it will even be possible to continue at Crosswinds next year, and so they must choose positions elsewhere just in case.

During the parent-teacher conferences this coming Monday and Tuesday, April 8 and 9, we would like to ask you to help feed our teachers! Let them know we care by helping to provide dinner on these two conference evenings. Torria and Bryan are planning the meals and they could use your help. Please contact Torria (651.379.2603, torria.randall@emid6067.net) if you can help provide portions of either of the following meals:

  • Monday, April 8, Soup, salad, build your own sandwiches
  • Tuesday, April 9, Italian spaghetti, salad, French bread

If you can’t bring food, but still want to help, please donate to this Razoo fundraiser. You are also welcome to donate cash to Torria at the office.

Also, when you attend conferences on Monday and Tuesday, keep an eye out for a banner where you will be able to write out your own message of care and encouragement for our wonderful teachers!

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.