Category Archives: Uncategorized

Crosswinds Hearing in the Senate, Thursday 3/6

Exciting news for all of us who waited through the whole 2013 session without a hearing in the MN Senate, this year we are getting our first Senate hearing right up front! Join us in Room 112 of the Capitol, Thursday, March 6, Noon-2:30pm for a hearing of the Senate Education Committee on SF530, the bill to convey Crosswinds to Perpich.

If you can’t be at the hearing, then please consider writing a testimony for the conveyance of Crosswinds to Perpich. We have a packet of testimony (PDF) from parents to the House last year that might provide some inspiration. Just send your testimony to testimony@emidfamilies.org by Tuesday 3/4, and we will make sure it gets to the committee. Visit our Contacting Your Representatives page for more details.

Sue Mackert, Executive Director of Perpich, will join us at our EMID Families meeting on Sunday (3/2, 3pm, Rondo Library, Saint Paul) to fill us in on plans for the legislative session.

EMID Families Meeting, Sunday 3/2

EMID Families will be meeting at the Rondo Library in Saint Paul on Sunday, 3/2 at 3pm. Please join us to learn more about the status of legislation to support the conveyance of Crosswinds to Perpich and Harambee to Roseville. This will be a shorter legislative session than usual, and we need all hands on deck to make sure the future of our schools are in good hands.

If you can’t join us for the meeting, please contact your representatives to let them know of your support for this conveyance. Look for details at emidfamilies.org/state.

Crosswinds Open House on Tuesday 1/28

Please help us fill up Crosswinds by letting everyone know that the Crosswinds Open House will be on Tuesday (1/28) evening at 6:30pm. Also, if you are a Crosswinds family or alumni, please come to the open house to help spread the word about what a wonderful school it is to all our prospective students and families.

Please join us and put up this event flier wherever you can.

Pioneer Press: Future of two east metro magnet schools in lawmakers’ hands again

Christopher Magan writes in the Pioneer Press: “Future of two east metro magnet schools in lawmakers’ hands again.”

When Minnesota lawmakers return to the state Capitol next month, they will be asked again to decide the future of two east metro magnet schools.

A year after a group of east metro school districts ended their involvement in Crosswinds East Metro Arts and Science School in Woodbury and Harambee Elementary Community Cultures and Environmental Science School in Maplewood, supporters might get another shot at permanent leadership for the schools.

“We are hoping for a smooth conveyance,” said Jean Lubke, executive director of the East Metro Integration District, or EMID. “We support the schools’ continued operation as inter-district integration magnet schools.”

Help Crosswinds and Perpich Recruit Students this Saturday

Crosswinds will be at table W-7 at the Saint Paul School Choice Fair this Saturday (1/11) from 9:30am-2pm. Please help us by letting your friends know they should stop by our table at the fair! If you have time to help out by volunteering at the table, please contact Mindy Rinkenberger for details. The most important thing we can all do for Crosswinds right now is help Perpich recruit a full house for next year!

Also, the Perpich Arts High School will be having its own information session at 1pm this same Saturday.

If you know of any 10th or 11th graders who are interested in arts-centered education for their last years of high school, please encourage them to check out Perpich Arts High School. We will be hosting our last info session of the year this Saturday (1/11) from 1-3pm at Perpich (6125 Olson Memorial Highway
Golden Valley, MN 55422). You can find out more through the Facebook event.

Your help in spreading the word is much appreciated, as word of mouth continues to be one of the major ways that students find out that Perpich exists as an option for their schooling. Interested students and families can also receive admissions updates by signing up for the Perpich admissions email list. Thank you!

EMID Board Meets on 12/18

The EMID Board will meet on Wednesday at 5:30pm on 12/18 at Crosswinds School. As usual, the board will welcome public comment at the start of the meeting. The board packet for December indicates that the board will, among other things, discuss their legislative agenda and the withdrawal of South Washington County (ISD 833) from the collaborative.

Perpich wins grant for Crosswinds-related project

The Perpich Center for Arts Education has won a $17,900 grant for a project that will leverage work Anna B. has done with the Crosswinds media center and local libraries into a statewide professional development project for literacy equity.

Here is the announcement from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) awards by MDE:

Perpich Center for the Arts – $17,900

“Literacy Equity: Engaging Resourceful Community Knowledge”

Literacy Equity: Engaging Resourceful Community Knowledge will build and reinforce partnerships between school media centers and local community libraries so that both are better able to engage partnerships and resources in response to the emerging needs of their communities and provide targeted outreach to under-served populations. In this professional development project, participants will develop literacies related to improving water quality and building a cross-cultural school community around a particular community need. Participants will learn strategies for identifying and partnering with organizations, individuals and families to build collective literacy about the changing quality of our shared watersheds, and to better understand and share the cultural assets of the school and local communities.

Congratulations to Perpich and Crosswinds!

Crosswinds Arts Night and Bake Sale, 12/19

Crosswinds will be celebrating the arts on Thursday, December 19, from 7-8:30pm. Come see the Orchestra, Theater, Art, and Band programs all celebrate the best of Crosswinds. And there will be a bake sale as well! Here’s the flyer.

Contact Torria at 651-379-2603 or torria.randall@crosswindsmn.org if you are interested in volunteering at the event or donating baked goods to the bake sale.

Also, if you are a current Crosswinds family, there will also be a chance to learn more about the Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports (PBIS) program starting at 4:30 the same Thursday evening.

EMID Families Meeting, 12/8

EMID Families will be meeting on Sunday, 12/8, at 3pm at the Rondo Branch of Saint Paul Public Library (461 N Dale St, Saint Paul 55103). Look for us in the Children’s Room there.

We will have an update on the legislative situation and what we as families can do to help ensure a successful handoff of Crosswinds to Perpich and Harambee to Roseville. We will also be focussed on our plans for an integration initiative to carry on a conversation about the importance of real integration in our schools to Minnesota. Please join us, we especially hope that by meeting at the Rondo Library more families from Saint Paul can take part on Sunday.

Everyone is welcome, especially families new to Harambee or Crosswinds! Please come and be part of building the future for our schools.