Category Archives: Uncategorized

EMID Board meeting Wednesday, 5/29

The end of the legislative session left both Harambee and Crosswinds stranded without permanent arrangements for their futures. While it is quite likely that EMID, Roseville, and the Minnesota Department of Education will come to some kind of arrangement for Harambee to stay open next year, the situation for Crosswinds is much less hopeful. The EMID Board meeting this week will be your chance to voice concerns and hear what the board is planning. The meeting will begin at 5:30pm on Wednesday (5/29) at the Harambee School.

The board packet is available and includes a “legislative update” for which “a legislator or lobbyist will be at the board meeting to update the board on the 2013 legislative session…” No board action is anticipated in the board packet, but we have heard of considerable activity by the board and administration to make arrangements for Harambee. We have also heard from multiple legislators who plan to attend the meeting, so this update could be quite illuminating.

EMID Families will meet in Harambee’s Community Cultures room at 5pm, ahead of the board meeting, to answer questions to the best of our knowledge and help families who would like to testify to the board plan their testimony. If you have questions, feel free to stop by before the board meeting starts.

Harambee NOT OK after all

Seven hours ago we expected Harambee to get language in the waning hours of the legislative session. The Governor had met with all parties and hammered out an agreement. The Senate had agreed to insert the language for Harambee and the House agreed not to insist on corresponding language for Crosswinds. However, this did not happen.

When the final bill of the session came to the House floor from the Senate, it did not include language for Harambee.

As a result, Roseville does not have the ability to run the Harambee program as it had proposed.

BUT THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY FOR HARAMBEE!

It is now up to the EMID board, but Roseville and the board will have to explore alternative ways of facilitating a turnover of governance. There are ideas about this, but they are in the earliest stages of being worked out.

Of course, this makes it clear that especially Harambee parents will want to come to the board meeting on Wednesday 5/29 at Harambee.

Sincere apologies for the earlier post stating that Harambee would be OK. Given the agreement the Governor had worked out, we just could not imagine the result we saw tonight.

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!

John Brodrick Meet and Greet, 5/17

Come and Meet Saint Paul and EMID board member John Brodrick on Friday, May 17, 4-8 pm, IBEW Hall, 1300 Conway Street (east of Johnson Parkway).

Food, beverages, Brodrick stories, and a surprise. FREE, open to all DFL delegates, alternates and the public. This is a drop-in event, come when you can, say hi, stay a while, no need to stay for the whole event.

This is an old school political event – in a Union Hall, free (although we are not too proud to accept donations), fun (believe it or not, DFLers who care about our schools are actually fun people – if you love Saint Paul, you will see a cross section of the city; geographically, ethnically, by age, by gender, by race; be careful there may even be an East Side – West Side – Best Side argument about a football game from the 70’s, or a tennis match from 2013 – everybody who comes to this event shares one thing – they love Saint Paul, and our schools – all right that was two things). If you have never met School Board Member John Brodrick, (welcome to the DFL caucuses) or if you see him once a week, you will enjoy this event – a great candidate, great DFLers; people who care about our schools and community; who want every child to be successful will attend. Join us for politics that is fun, friendly, engaging, and because it is about our kids and our schools, politics that is important.

John is the only candidate running who has been DFL endorsed. As John puts it, “I have been a Democrat from Humphrey to Wellstone, to Vote No Twice and Turn the Ballot Over and Vote Yes For Kids.”

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.