Category Archives: Uncategorized

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.

Crosswinds gets a hearing in the House

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.

Leaders from Perpich and EMID Families are planning to testify, and anyone else is also welcome to send a letter of testimony to the committee or ask to testify in person. Even if you don’t testify, though, it can be very important to show support by being present at the hearing if you can be.

Meanwhile, the bill is stalled in the Senate, where Sen. Torres Ray has so far refused to schedule a hearing in the Senate Education Committee. Please check out the latest details on our website and contact Sen. Torres Ray asking that SF530 be given a prompt hearing.

Crosswinds bill SF530 needs hearing in MN Senate education committee

Our EMID-Perpich bill to rescue Crosswinds is stalled in the Minnesota Senate, and we don’t have a second to lose. Remember, this bill needs to be passed before April 1st or the school will go to South Washington County and the program will be killed. We need your help!

Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, has not scheduled a hearing of SF530. We have heard that she is unlikely to do so without significant pressure from her constituents. Please look at her District 63 map below and send a plea to anyone you know who lives in the area of south Minneapolis she represents. Ask them to please call her office at 651-296-4274, let her staff know they are a constituent of the Senator’s, and ask that she promptly schedule a hearing for SF530 so that Perpich’s proposal may be considered.

Clicking on the map will provide a PDF version you can zoom in on or print.

Fact Check: South Washington County

EMID and South Washington County School Board member Jim Gelbmann misrepresented what has gone on at EMID board meetings to his South Washington County board colleagues at their February meeting. This clip compares statements Mr. Gelbmann made at the February 21 South Washington County board meeting with statements he and others made at the January 23 EMID board meeting one month earlier. The full SWC board video is available online at their website. Unfortunately EMID does not document their meetings as fully, the video used here was shot by a parent at that meeting.

EMID Families asks you to please support the EMID-Perpich legislation before the Minnesota House and Senate. Unfortunately, the EMID board did ultimately force Mr. Gelbmann’s April 1st deadline proposal on Perpich, so we have very little time to win support. See our pages about Crosswinds and Contacting Your Representative for more information.

EMID Families meeting Sunday

Everyone is welcome to join EMID Families for an organizing meeting on Sunday (2/24), 1pm, in the Washington County Library’s “R.H. Stafford Branch” (8595 Central Park Place, Woodbury, MN 55125). We will be meeting to discuss progress on Crosswinds legislation and strategies for upcoming hearings for Perpich before legislative committees.

To find the meeting room, head straight back from the library entrance, all the way to adult fiction, then look on the right. There is a small coffee shop indoors in the ‘central park’ facility before you get to the library entrance, and beverages and light snack foods are allowed in the meeting room.

If you are on Facebook, you can visit our Facebook event to let us know you’ll be coming. But an RSVP is not required, feel free to just show join us Sunday.

EMID Board meets Wednesday 2/20

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 (2/20), 5:30pm at Harambee.

The board packet agenda also includes a discussion of Stillwater withdrawing from the EMID collaborative, an update on Harmabee’s transition to Roseville, and resolutions placing EMID teachers on “unrequested leave of absence” in order to allow them to seek other employment in member districts.

While this board meeting will likely have fewer fireworks than recent meetings, 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.

We will also use the meeting as a chance to help you write letters to your legislators and letters to the editor to local papers about Crosswinds. So please, do consider joining us for the EMID board meeting on Wednesday.

The Crosswinds Bill HF592 Introduced!

The Crosswinds Bill in the House was introduced today as HF592 with authors Ryan Winkler, Michael Paymar, Mike Freiberg, Erin Murphy, Carlos Mariani, and Tom Anzelc. More authors will be added in the coming days.

Please thank these legislators for supporting the future of Crosswinds for Minnesota.

If you don’t see your representative on the list, please write to them and let them know that you would like to see them sign onto the bill! If you don’t know who represents you, use the legislative district finder and follow the links!

You can also track the bill using the legislative information system.

Integration gets a new bill at the MN House

The report of last year’s integration revenue replacement advisory task force has new life as HF247 sponsored by task force member Rep. Carlos Mariani. The Session Daily wrote a story describing the “revamped aid plan:”

HF247 takes the group’s advice and creates a new program called Achievement and Integration for Minnesota or AIM, which would combine the goals of racial integration, increased student achievement, and educational equity. The new model resembles the state’s current program in many ways, but task force members say that it would refocus uses of the money in ways that are easily tied to achievement. The new plan also makes changes intended to improve the program’s oversight and more closely track its results.

School districts that receive the aid could spend it on college-readiness programs and efforts to recruit teachers of color, among many other uses. They’d have to set goals for closing the achievement gap and promoting integration, and get state approval for their plans.

School districts would have to spend at least 80 percent of the aid on students, with up to 20 percent allowed for activities, such as teacher training. Districts that fell short of their achievement goals over time would have their aid cut by an unspecified amount.

Crosswinds Intersession at the Capitol

Many intersession students are going to have an exciting day at the Minnesota Capitol this Thursday (2/14) as they spend Valentines Day learning a bit about how state government works. Ms. Siskow launched the field trip as a chance for the Crosswinds World Savvy team to get some recognition for their 2nd place in the World Savvy National Competition for their “Knowledge to Action Plan,” which entailed a plan for using water straws and education program to teacher villagers in third-world countries how to clean water for drinking. They will be recognized at a hearing of the House Education Policy Committee at 10am (feel free to join them in the hearing room in the basement of the State Office Building).

But the trip has become a much bigger event. Other students from her social studies class expressed interest, and now Ms. Siskow is taking a whole group of students not only to the hearing (which will address reforms in integration funding), but also to meet a number of state representatives and state senators, including Rep. JoAnn Ward and Sen. Susan Kent who represent the district where Crosswinds sits.

This will be a wonderful opportunity for our students to see their representatives in action and make their voices heard at the Capitol. It will also be a great orientation for what we expect will be hearings in the coming weeks on the Perpich legislation to take on governance of Crosswinds.

Building Crosswinds

Here are two documents this weekend that shed more light on the “purpose built” nature of Crosswinds. These are both documents prepared by the architectural firm, the Cuningham Group. Incidentally, this group also designed the FAIR school in downtown Minneapolis and the Washington Technology Magnet in Saint Paul.

The two documents I found have been scanned and made available at Scribd. One is a booklet about Crosswinds.

The other is a guide to the school that appears to have been prepared for a jury award tour at the school in 2002.

The firm also has their own web page about Crosswinds. This page lists a number of architectural and design awards for the building.