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Get involved: Key action steps

As you have all heard, the EMID Board of Directors is soon going to be voting on whether or not to close Harambee and Crosswinds. Yesterday a group of parents met to discuss this situation and what we can do to protect our schools. Mary Hess sent an e-mail earlier today with reflections on this meeting and a call for everyone to come together to help with this effort.

At the meeting we developed a series of strategies we believe will help to save our schools. These strategies are listed below. Please continue to watch your e-mail and wp.clst.org/emidfamilies for updates on this situation. Also, please let us know if you would like to get involved in this effort. We need as many voices as possible. We will continue to post here as we have updates on what we’re doing, and how you can help. Thank you.

Save Crosswinds and Harambee — Strategies:

  1. Develop a petition in support of EMID schools.
  2. Get as many parents, students, and Harambee and Crosswinds community members to upcoming Board work sessions and meetings.
    • A handout explaining the situation and providing the dates, times, and locations of meetings will be available at back to schools nights at Crosswinds and Harambee.
    • Work with high school students to encourage them to attend Board meetings and serve as a voice for EMID.
    • A sign-in sheet will be available at back-to-school night to gather names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of interested families.
  3. Develop talking points for parents and student to use as a guide when communicating with Board members.
  4. Reach out to teachers and staff to let them know parents are doing all we can. Parents at back to school night will speak to teachers one-on-one and ask them how we can support them.
  5. Develop a library of stories and pictures which will showcase the accomplishments of EMID students. These stories and photos will be shared with Board members prior to, or at, the September Board meetings and will include the following:
    • testimony about what EMID has meant for individuals
    • Photos from EMID successes such as the Orchestra trip to New York, “The Wiz,” World Affairs Challenge, etc.
  6. Connect with constituents outside Crosswinds/Harambee community to gain their support as well as additional information. These include:
    • Board members
    • Education Commissioner’s office
    • WMEP families
    • Education Minnesota
  7. Survey families to see where they would go if EMID schools closed. Some of the member districts think closing the schools would bring the students back to their districts and this survey will help to understand whether or not this would happen.
  8. Share the story of the Board activities with media
    • Invite media to a future board meeting to showcase students and families and highlight the actions the Board is considering.
    • Encourage families to write letters to the editor and commentaries for newspapers.
  9. Meet on Saturday, September 10 at 9:00 a.m. to discuss progress and prepare for September 14 work session. We will be meeting at 1993 Lincoln Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105. Call Mary Hess at 651-236-7592 or email mhess@luthersem.edu for directions. Teachers will be invited to join parents at this meeting.If you have any additional ideas please share them with the group by commenting on this post, or emailing the group at families@emidfamilies.org.Thank you for your help and support in this process.Susan Larson

Update from August 27 meeting

Twelve parents and students met yesterday afternoon (Saturday, August 27th) on very short notice to strategize around the current threat to close the EMID schools. We have put together a number of action steps which we will outline here as soon as we can. We agreed that there is still hope for keeping the schools open — both in the immediate short term and in the longer term — but the next six weeks will be crucial. All of us need to get as many people as we can to the next board meetings (details will be posted here as soon as we confirm them), and we all need to write to the board members and tell them we will not stand idly by as they consider closing our schools. Also — let our teachers know how much we respect them and care about what they do with our students! We will meet again on September 10th at 9 am, at  1993 Lincoln Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105. Call Mary Hess at 651-236-7592 or email mhess@luthersem.edu for directions.

Emergency Meeting of EMID Families, 8/27

Earlier this week the EMID Board held a board meeting. Lucky for us there were a couple parents who attended. They learned that the EMID Board is considering closing our schools permanently!

One parent tells me they contacted our superintendent, Jerry Robicheau, who said he had “fully expected” the board to close the schools this week. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that, expecting this kind of action, he never once reached out to families for help defending our schools. I am afraid we have no help coming from that quarter.

Another parent took the time to write the following message. If you care about the future of EMID schools, please read it!

Finally, if you want to strategize with other families about what we can do, please come to an emergency meeting of EMID Families tomorrow, Saturday 8/27, at 12:30. We will be meeting at 1993 Lincoln Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105. Call Mary Hess at 651-236-7592 or email mhess@luthersem.edu for directions.

Here’s the message from a parent who was at the EMID Board meeting… Continue reading →

EMID Board Considering Shutting EMID Down

At the EMID Board meeting last night (24 August) the board actively considered shutting down EMID schools after the 2011-2012 school year finishes. A couple parents were at the meeting and the board did pull back from the brink, but this is still a very real threat to our schools. Read more about the meeting below, in a note that Susan Larson sent to our mailing list. We will, of course, post updates on EMID Families! Continue reading →

EMID Community Meeting

On Tuesday, May 24, 7pm EMID Interim Superintendent Jerry Robicheau and members of the EMID School Board will be hosting a meeting to provide EMID families with information about recent legislative activity and its impact on our students and schools. The meeting will be held in the Great Hall of Washington Technology Magnet School (previously Arlington High School) at 1495 Rice Street in Maplewood. For more information call Harambee at 651-379-2500 or Crosswinds at 651-379-2600.

Letter: Revise the current language eliminating integration aid

Honorable Representative Pat Garofalo:

The Minnesota School Integration Council (MSIC) commends the Governor and legislators for making education funding a priority in their respective budgets. Well-prepared students are a long-term investment in the health and stability of our region. Minnesota’s future success is directly linked to our ability to prepare citizens that can thrive in a diverse, global marketplace.

MSIC strongly urges you to revise the current language eliminating integration aid. The proposed changes will have a profoundly negative impact on the children of Minnesota. Eliminating integration aid will severely limit school choice in Minnesota. Integration aid provides transportation to integration programming, including magnet schools, throughout the state. Cuts to the integration program will mean fewer tools and resources to promote college readiness, ensure inclusive curriculum, develop cultural competence, diversify school staff, and strengthen civic engagement. Strong integration policy is a critical component of a larger agenda focused on eliminating disparities and creating educational equity and opportunity for all Minnesotans.

Current integration programming efforts have greatly benefited students and communities. In a qualitative analysis of youth programming and professional development funded by integration revenue, East Metro Integration District students reported gains in academic achievement/skills, work readiness and career exploration, ability to relate across differences, and leadership development. Teachers described improved ability to connect in effective learning relationships with all students and the improved student achievement they saw as a result of better relationships and improved instructional strategies. Benefits of integrated schools and classrooms include both academic and social outcomes. Integrated learning environments more fully prepare all students, including white students, for our increasingly diverse workplace and society. Long-term benefits of integrated education apply to students of all racial/ethnic backgrounds.

MSIC urges you to maintain Minnesota’s commitment to providing integrated and equitable learning opportunities for our students by amending the Desegregation Rule and Integration Revenue Statute. MSIC supports the recommendations from the Statewide Task Force on School Integration. These recommendations promote a focus on results and require greater accountability for uses of integration revenue. It’s time to clarify the outcomes of the program, identify measurable metrics, and distribute resources to meet outcomes. Integration serves as a key structure of opportunity and a foundational element for transforming schools, districts, and communities.

Sincerely,

Kathy Griebel

Letter: Please do not take integration funding away

Senator Koch and Michel,

My name is Kelly Lenz. I am a parent of 2 boy’s that attend Harambee Elementary School, which is part of the East Metro Integration District 6067. We choose to send our boy’s to this school. We made the choose. Why?

We choose Harambee for our boy’s because we feel as parents that our children need to experience an integrated classroom where cultural differences are embraced and celebrated. EMID has built terrific schools using integration funding that have fantastic arts and science programs, have innovative approaches to teaching cultural awareness, and provide students, including my “white” boy’s, an incredible learning ground for what their world will be and is. They are being prepared for what their workforce will look like – they are doing great at living in our colorful world.

There is no way that are local district could provide this learning environment. Yes, they have people of color at the local district, but their whole premise is not “community cultures and environmental science”. They are not truly integrated.

Without integration dollars, EMID will not survive. This great program that embraces all cultures in the East Metro will no longer exist. What a shame. We all need to get better at embracing all, and that is what this district does. Embraces all. How many districts can truly say that in this state? Not many.

Please do not take integration funding away. Please continue to embrace what the mission of the funding is about. Please embrace the Minnesota Integration Taskforce recommendations and keep integration funding alive!

Thanks – Kelly Lenz

Impact of the K12 Education budget on EMID

As you know, the education budget has worked its way through the Minnesota House and Senate and is currently sitting in conference committee. The Republican majority has created an all-Republican conference committee and in a very unusual move has asked the Governor to come negotiate with them before they have a final bill. The Governor had presented a very different education proposal weeks ago and has said until the majority finishes their work he can’t effectively negotiate with them. I have no idea what will happen next.

I have testified at the House Education Finance hearing on the Education “omnibus” bill, I’ve attended the Parents United for Public Schools education summit and spoken with leaders of the House and Senate there, I spoke at the commissioner’s town hall this week, and I attended a town hall run by my representative. I have been very impressed by how much EMID presence there has been at these events. I’ve seen EMID students testify twice, EMID staff and former staff a number of times, and of course EMID parents (not just me) taking part in these events. We are not being silent.

Unfortunately, I am also not sure we are having much of an impact. The sides seem pretty firmly drawn. The odd thing is that the Education budget is not really at the heart of the tax or no tax battle. In fact, the majority’s bill only cuts education by about $22M which in this environment is pretty much leaving K12 “whole” as they like to say. I appreciate that this demonstrates a commitment to education on the part of the majority. Oddly, though, the bill goes to the trouble to reallocate much of that “whole” in a way that creates very clear winners (rural districts and charter schools get much more funding) and losers (Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth are cut dramatically). It creates these winners and losers by gutting integration funding, further cutting our already insufficient funding for special education students, and pulling support for desegregation transportation. The cuts to integration and transportation strike at the core of EMID’s funding. Even though EMID is not explicitly shown on any of the legislature’s spreadsheets of impact-per-district, it is clear that the majority bill if passed would present EMID with an extremely challenging future.

On Wednesday I asked the EMID board to provide some data that I could use next week, when a group of parents from EMID and WMEP (our West Metro counterpart) meet with a representative of the Governor’s to discuss the Education budget. I got a briefing yesterday and wanted to share some of that data with you. Please note, I’m an amateur at this, so my presentation may be off base, but it is the situation as I see it.

The current majority budget would probably cut 35% of EMID’s budget, plus a bit. EMID could use the remainder of it’s “savings account” to get through the 2011/2012 year, but would be very hard pressed to get through the 2012/2013 year or beyond. EMID has an annual budget of roughly $12M. About $1.5M of that comes from our own “savings account” (the “fund balance”), $200K comes directly from Federal funds, the rest comes from our member districts. The member districts pass along to EMID about $5.2M of “general education” funds, $1.3M of special education funds, and $3.8M of integration funding. The cuts to all of these funds passed along by the member districts would be the core of the loss to EMID. Note that transportation funds are not included in this calculation and it would probably cost EMID close to $500K to replace transportation if that is killed by the bill.

Another way to look at this is to ask, what would it take to keep EMID going if the budget passed as it is now? It looks to me like EMID could survive it it got $4.3M to replace the funds lost from transportation, integration, and special education.

Advocacy for EMID is a bit scattered, so arguing for this funding will not be easy. Our board is actually not a “school board” but a “joint powers board” that includes representatives from each member school district. Remember that each member of our board actually has a “real job” back in their home district and the budget proposal may look very different from home. In some case, these districts will end up doing better under the new budget than they did under the old (suburban school districts come out slightly ahead, according to the legislative spreadsheets). As one person put it to me, as the water level drops at the watering hole, the animals start eyeing each other differently. We also only have a part time interim superintendent in place at this time. As I said earlier, EMID is being remarkably represented in the various hearings I’ve been a part of, but I fear that we still don’t have a consistent set of talking points or a strong message to carry forward. That comes from leadership and leadership is in short supply in today’s EMID.

So that’s where we stand.

There is a lot you can do to make a difference. Write the Governor. Write the leadership of the House and Senate. Write the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press. Let them know you care about EMID. Let them know that integration funding has built an incredibly innovative school district with a focus on cultural awareness, arts, and science that serves as a beacon for other districts in the east metro. Let them know why you value EMID and why it deserves the funding to continue its mission. We need every possible hand on deck if we want to see EMID continue in its mission. Please step up.

Check out our Your Voice page for names and addresses. If you do send a letter, consider sharing it with us so we can put it on the website, you might inspire others!

Town Hall Meeting featuring the Commissioner Cassellius, 4/20

Concerned about the direction of the education omnibus bills at the Capitol?

A town hall meeting featuring the Commissioner of Education, Brenda Cassellius, is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, at 4 p.m. at Washington Technology Secondary, 1495 Rice Street in St. Paul. The Commissioner along with other elected officials will be attending to discuss issues related to education and education funding for the next biennium. This information session will be followed by a Q & A.

Wednesday, April 20, 4 p.m.
Washington Technology Secondary, 1495 Rice Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55117

Legislative Update

As you may be aware the Minnesota State Legislature has put forward education bills which would significantly impact integration programs in Minnesota. If these bills are passed it would have a detrimental effect on EMID. As members of the EMID community it is very important for legislators to hear our voices. We encourage you to contact your elected officials and the state leaders making these decisions to let them know why Crosswinds and Harambee are important to you and your children.

Read on for more details. Continue reading →