The EMID Joint Powers Board meets on Wednesday 5/21 in the Harambee Multicultural Learning Center. The agenda is available. Though it does not include anything directly relating to our “hot” areas of interest, it would still be great if someone can get to the meeting and provide notes to EMID Families.

The EMID board determined at its work session that it was not going to follow up on the suggestion of a digital video camera for the schools to record the board meetings. It sounds like the board calculated at the work session that getting professional-quality recordings of the board meetings would cost $8,000-12,000 per year, dwarfing the cost of equipment. This means that those families who had pledged to support the purchase of the camera are now officially off the hook.

We will meet at Crosswinds at 7pm on Wednesday 4/23. We will be in the “health” room behind the kitchens on the first floor. Please join us!
One note, I’m sorry to say we can’t guarantee child care, but kids are welcome to hang out in the health room while we meet.

Update: meeting notes are now posted if you read the rest of this article.

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It is time for our fourth-Wednesday meeting of the EMID Families group. We will meet at the Crosswinds school at 7pm on 4/23. Please join us!

The EMID Joint Powers Board meets on Wednesday April 16 at the Crosswinds School (Water House). The “work session” starts at 6pm and includes a presentation about Crosswinds by principal Roger Kocinski and a discussion of the video recording proposal raised by an EMID Families member last month. The board meeting itself starts at 7pm and includes budget, computer use, bullying, and integration plan agenda items. Don’t forget this week’s meeting is at Crosswinds (not Harambee).

We have an opportunity to put our money where our mouth is!

At the March 2008 Joint Powers meeting, a request was made of the Board by a member of EMID Families to begin video taping their meetings and making the video available on the web. This request is being considered and the staff have begun researching cameras. It looks like a digital video camera would be the most appropriate will cost around $1000.

At the last EMID Families large group meeting, it was suggested that we use this opportunity to show our collective appreciation to the EMID Administration and Joint Powers Board by raising the funds to buy the camera (or at least make a contribution to defray the financial burden on them). The camera can be used for other purposes so many stand to benefit from this purchase.

So…… How ’bout it? We have about a week to pull this off. (Remember what we accomplished in less than 17 hours prior to the 622 vote on transportation?) The Joint Powers meets next Wednesday night at 7 and we would love to present them with our pledges at that time.

Eric said he will throw in the first $100. I have a lot of mouths to feed and very little money with which to do it so I can only contribute $10. This leaves $890 to go!!!

The ball is in your court EMID Families. Pledge your support by sending a note to Amy Rostron-Ledoux we will work out the logistics of collecting the money if the purchase is approved by EMID. Together, we can make a difference for our kids and our schools!

Cancelled – sorry, but due to circumstances beyond my control I have to cancel tomorrow’s meeting. I’ll reschedule and re-post as soon as I can.

Barbara

The first EMID Families 622 Committee meeting is Thursday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Maplewood Library community room, 3025 Southlawn Drive.

We will discuss the role of the 622 Commitee, review the EMID timeline for decisions and actions related to ISD 622’s withdrawal from the collaborative, and establish action steps.

Childcare is not available, but the room is large enough for a kids area and a meeting area. There are plenty of books to read and computers with child appropriate software available on the first-come basis in the library.

While outside food and drink is not allowed, the libary has a cafe with food and beverages that can be purchased and brought into the meeting room.

Please contact Barbara for more information.

Eight of us (Amy, Barbara, Eric, Heidi, Jeff, Kara, Shannon, and Tina) met yesterday at Crosswinds. Anyone who was there should feel free to add notes from the meeting in the comments. This is just a record of some of the decisions we made.

We will try for a regular time for future meetings: 4th Wednesdays at 7pm.

We are going to ask EMID to post study session packets on the web.

We are going to try to raise funds for the digital video camera EMID intends to buy to record board meetings.

The next District 622 subgroup meeting will be at 6:30 on Thursday, 3/27, at the Maplewood Public Library on Southlawn.

We are going to make a list of parents who are willing to attend member-district board meetings with EMID staff. We hope to find at least one volunteer parent from each district.

We demonstrated how to register for leaving comments on this site (see that little “register” link down to the left?). If you would like to be an author on the site (create articles like this one), then please send a note to info@emidfamilies.org after you complete your registration.

Heidi shared a Coordination update with the group today. One proposal she makes is that the group as a whole meet again on Tuesday, March 18th at 6:30. Feel free to share your yes or no in the comments.

For the rest of this (extensive) update, read below the fold.

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