Alert! The EMID item has been removed from the June 23 school board meetings of Distict 622 and Roseville. The superintendent of 622, Pattie Phillips, has refused to bring the item to the board this months since she could not get the final wording of the MDE/EMID/Roseville/622 agreement for the board agenda which was sent out last week. The item will now appear, we are told, next month. Roseville, which does not usually have a July meeting, will nonetheless call a special meeting of the board in July to consider this matter.

Bottom line: none of the plans have changed since the “summit meeting” of these four parties earlier this month. Only the date of the relevant board meetings has changed to July. There is no need to attend these two board meetings this month for EMID issues.

Shari Thompson has noted that even if 622 were to pull out of this agreement at this late date, MDE has assured EMID that transportation for any legacy 622 kids currently enrolled in EMID schools would be fully covered. If this were to happen, those kids would just be, technically, “open-enrolled” instead. It is unlikely to come to this, though. Everyone expects 622 to honor the principals and elements of the agreement with MDE and Roseville and EMID on 6/4.

For it’s part, EMID will go ahead with its announcement to parents on 6/24. They feel parents really need to know about this resolution and can’t wait for a set of July board meetings. So those of you in 622 should expect letters next week.

A meeting this morning of the superintendents of ISD 622, Roseville, and EMID schools with a representative from the Minnesota Department of Education has produced an agreement on how the three districts will structure the attendance of district 622 students at EMID schools. This agreement will be considered for ratification by the 622 and Roseville boards of education on Tuesday, June 23rd.

The agreement states that any 622 student currently enrolled in an EMID school will be allowed to “age-out” of EMID. This means they can continue to attend EMID schools through the completion of the EMID curriculum at Crosswinds. Their transportation costs will be covered by the state with no charge back to the families.

Siblings of current EMID students from 622 will be allowed to “open enroll” in EMID schools though an arrangement with the Roseville schools as EMID’s fiscal host. Their transportation will be paid for by EMID, but EMID will charge families a portion of those costs back ($250/year/student up to a family maximum of $600/year, all charges waived for families of kids receiving free or reduced lunches).

Any other students who want to attend EMID schools from district 622 will also be welcome to open enroll on the same terms as siblings, even if nobody in their family has previously attended an EMID school.

Again, just to be very clear: this agreement has not yet been ratified by the school boards in question. It is a very positive development, but we will have to await actions of these boards for final word. EMID plans to send out notices to families on June 24th, after the agreement has been ratified.

This is a much more positive result than many were expecting. It demonstrates that 622 is not intent on preventing attendance at EMID schools and it underscores the wonderful support we are getting from Roseville as our fiscal host. If you are available on the evening of Tuesday, 6/23, it would be great to attend one or the other of these two district board meetings to both ensure the agreement is ratified and to thank these school boards for their support of our kids being able to continue attending EMID schools.