Brenda Cassellius leaves EMID to become Commissioner of Education, 1/3

Last Friday Dr. Brenda Cassellius announced that she would be stepping down as EMID’s superintendent in order to become Minnesota’s Commissioner of Education today. As she wrote in her blog:

This means I will lead the Department of Education, with responsibilities for operations and policymaking for all aspects of education — from implementing No Child Left Behind and supporting PreK-12 learning, to community ed and higher education. This is an unexpected honor and I am humbled to have been asked to serve our great state in this role.

Her sudden departure from EMID leaves a lot of balls in the air. In combination with the departure of EMID’s longtime board chair, families and EMID staff and administrators will have their hands full trying to keep the district on course.

The EMID Board announced that it will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, January 5th at 5:30pm at Harambee to discuss the appointment of an interim superintendent.

UPDATE: Brenda later clarified that higher education is actually not part of the portfolio of the Department of Education. That role actually belongs to the Office of Higher Education.

High School Options, 12/9

I attended the high school options fair at Crosswinds last week and found it a helpful and energetic event. I was there both to check out options for my eighth grader and to share our experience with Avalon School with parents and students. While a few of the other charter schools I would have expected were missing from the event, the member districts were well represented. I’m not sure of numbers, but the event also felt reasonably well attended.

The event last week was aimed mostly at Crosswinds 10th graders, but I also learned that Crosswinds is planning a high school Open House for its own 8th graders this week. I have yet to get a ParentLink, but it did appear on the calendar this weekend and Principal Bass just confirmed it with me this evening. “We are calling it an Open House for 8th graders to explore the 9/10 option at Crosswinds. There should have been a Parent link that hit homes on Friday. Also, our 8th grade parents will be phoned by our 8th grade teachers to personally connect on Monday or Tuesday evening this week.”

So if you have an 8th grader, try to set aside Thursday (12/9) evening (no time on the calendar, but likely 6:30pm) to see all the reasons your soon-to-be high schooler would have a great time in 9th and 10th at Crosswinds.

EMID Board Meeting, 11/17

Just in case you were eager for the next EMID Board meeting, it’s tomorrow: Wednesday 11/17 5:30pm at Harambee.

The agenda includes the Superintendent’s report (which will include an update on her “90-day Entry Plan,” an item called “Restructuring of Leadership Team,” and an update on the “High School Transition Fair”), a report on EMID’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” under No Child Left Behind, and the first reading of new EMID policies on harassment, bullying, and hazing.

The full (two part!) PDF board packet for the meeting can be found here: part 1, part 2.

Board votes to kill feasibility study for Crosswinds 11-12

Today the EMID Joint Powers Board (our version of a school board) voted to affirm that: “After significant listening and gathering of stakeholder input, it is recommended that the Board not conduct a feasibility study to expand grades 11 and 12 at Crosswinds.” Chair of the Board, Bruce Hagerty, emphasized repeatedly that this action was not intended to shut the door on the notion of 11-12 at Crosswinds, but was only a “very narrow” action to kill the feasibility study. Read on for the gory details, including a few other bits of news from the board meeting.

Continue reading →

EMID Board to Decide on 11-12 at Crosswinds, 10/20

The next EMID Board meeting is, fittingly, at Crosswinds School this Wednesday, 10/20, at 5:30pm. It is fitting that this is one of the rare board meetings at Crosswinds because the board is actually making a decision of vital importance to Crosswinds’ future. On the action agenda is the “High School Feasibility Study.” Dr. Cassellius is asking the board to drop the whole idea of 11th and 12th grade at Crosswinds

After significant listening and gathering of stakeholder input, it is recommended that the Board not conduct a feasibility study to expand grades 11 and 12 at Crosswinds. It is further recommeneded that the Board discuss the overall grade configuration for the EMID schools within its upcoming strategic planning.

The full board packet (PDF) is available on the EMID website.

Other items of interest to families may be an update on the Statewide Task Force on School Integration, the approval of the permanent contract for Crosswinds Principal Bryan Bass, and the Annual Report on Curriculum, Instruction and Student Achievement.

All in all, an ambitious agenda, well worth attending if you have the time during this break-week. Remember, the meetings now start at 5:30pm and this one will be at Crosswinds!

Notes from 9/15 EMID Board Meeting

[Thanks to Jeff Syme for sharing these notes. …Eric]

Very interesting meeting tonight, and very long… 5:30 to nearly 8:30, and then an hour-long work session on strategic planning. All 10 Board Reps were present as well as a dozen parents and additional staff. Here is a quick summary for those who couldn’t attend. (One man’s opinion from 10 pages of notes, but please talk with many others to gain the broadest insight on all these affairs.)

The headline is: Nothing was voted on or off the table, and the next four weeks will be crucial. Read on for the details. Continue reading →

Dr. Cassellius Wants to take 11-12 at Crosswinds Off the Table: Notes from 9/13 Crosswinds Site Council

[Please note: these are not official minutes, they are just the jottings of one parent with a bit of ranting thrown in. I hope they may be helpful to parents who were not able to attend the meeting tonight, but please don’t treat this as in any way official or the last word. Ask around and talk to other parents for a more complete picture. …Eric]

First, what I consider the headline of tonight’s meeting: Dr. Cassellius Wants to take 11-12 at Crosswinds Off the Table.

A lot else was talked about, but the meeting really heated up when it became clear that Brenda would, as Superintendent, ask the EMID Board this Wednesday to cancel plans to consider adding 11th and 12th grade to Crosswinds. She considers it a matter of “capacity and effort,” and thinks “we would have a really difficult time building a solid high school program.” She is also concerned that we have not, even in years of trying, been able to maintain enrollment numbers from 8th to 9th grades. Her vision for EMID, she made very clear, is as a preK-8 set of schools. While she has not ruled out 9th and 10th at Crosswinds, those grades are also clearly not part of her vision for the district. When asked about the span of IB Middle Years from 6-10 she said there were approved IB Middle Years schools that were just 6-8.

Needless to say, this was a revelation to many of the parents at the meeting and generated significant conversation. I heard a lot of disappointment and distress, a few even questioning whether Crosswinds could survive as 6-8. I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear any parent support for this vision, but frankly the meeting got quite (appropriately) emotional and I don’t know that anyone sympathetic would necessarily have stepped up to offer their support. The clarity with which Brenda stated her case was actually quite courageous, but it was certainly not what this site council wanted to hear.

If you want to be a part of this conversation, you should consider attending the EMID Board Meeting this Wednesday (9/15) at 5:30pm at Harambee.

Aside from that very big news, there were many other tidbits from this meeting. Read on to see a list in roughly the order they were discussed
Continue reading →

Superintendent Cassellius starts a blog

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has started a blog on the EMID website. The first post appears to be a note from Crosswinds Interim Principal Bryan Bass, so it appears she may share this blog with other administrators of EMID. In any case, go check it out, and if you use a newsreader, subscribe to the RSS feed. Unfortunately the blog does not seem to accept comments or supply “permalinks” for each article, but that may change as time goes on.