The Minnesota Legislature failed to pass language allowing the EMID board to convey either the Harambee or Crosswinds buildings to other school districts. This may mean that both buildings will lie empty after the end of the 2012-2013 school year in August. EMID Families is working for an alternative solution.
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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 ...
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The EMID Board has decided relinquish governance of Harambee and Crosswinds, our two EMID schools. The elementary school, Harambee was expected move to the Roseville schools at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. Roseville had promised to allow all current EMID families to continue attending Harambee after they take control. They also intended to continue to run the school with the as much of the current teaching staff and program as possible.
The EMID Board also asked the Perpich Center for Arts Education to take over Crosswinds and its program, but Perpich required authority for this expanded mission from Minnesota Legislature.
Unfortunately, even with broad bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, the leadership of the Senate succeeded in ensuring that Crosswinds got no hearing and Roseville only got one. The Minnesota Management and Budget office (MMB) also revised its earlier finding and ruled that any conveyance of the buildings to Roseville or Perpich (or any other player, like District 833) would require a modification of the bonding language and a three fifths majority of the legislature. Even though the Governor got personally involved in negotiations on the final day of the 2013 session, no legislation ever made it to the floor of either body for Harambee or Crosswinds.
If you are a student or the parent of a student, then you know you belong to EMID Families. But really, anyone who cares about our schools is part of the family! We welcome teachers, administrators, and all friends of EMID to become part of EMID Families and the work we do to support our schools.