Greetings,
It has been far too long since my last post. I’ll try to make-up for lost time by putting a lot of information in this post. Here goes:
EMID Update:
Simply put, we need all families present at the next two school board meetings, the first of which is Wednesday, Jan 25th at 5:30 @ Harambee. For more information for parents and other stakeholders about what is happening in our district, please visit http://www.emidfamilies.org/
Our Spanish teacher and one of the “Founding Mothers/Fathers” of the Crosswinds program, Kristen Konop (aka Ms. KK), wrote the following letter via EmidFamlies:
Revision: the following letter was written by the EMIDFamilies group, not Ms. KK. I was in error when I attributed this to her. Nevertheless, the content is as follows:
Dear EMID Families,
The EMID board has posted its packet of materials for the board
meeting taking place this Wednesday, January 25th at 5:30 pm at
Harambee Elementary School. You can find it here:
http://www.emid6067.net/packets/EMID%20Board%20Packet%201-25-12.pdf.
Among other important pieces of information in that packet is a
recommendation that the board will be considering, a budget proposal
that would reduce funding to EMID in a major way, and to the schools
dramatically, using only the backpack funding for the schools and
sending all of the integration funding to the member districts.
I’m writing to you with two urgent requests.
First, that you write a letter to your board representative ASAP (here
are the email addresses for the board:
http://www.emidfamilies.org/board, and the email addresses for the
district superintendents:
http://www.emidfamilies.org/superintendents). We have to let them
know, BEFORE THE WEDNESDAY MEETING, that we are concerned about the
proposals.
Second, that you attend the board meeting this Wednesday. There will
not be much opportunity to speak, but just showing up in person will
help the board to see how important this is to us. The meeting will
begin at 5:30 pm at Harambee.
Here are the points we’ve talked about to stress to board members and
superintendents:
(1) It’s not fair to ask the two EMID schools to absorb such huge cuts
to their funding. No regular district schools function solely on the
basis of backpack funding alone. Why should the board require Harambee
and Crosswinds to do so?
(2) EMID is still in the process of doing strategic planning, and the
Community Council hasn’t met yet. What is the point of adopting a
budget that sends money to the districts before knowing what the
strategic plan for spending those integration funds will be?
(3) With schools all over the state being forced to reduce their
spending, we know that there will need to be some cuts to the budgets
for Harambee and Crosswinds. But these cuts should be made in a
sustainable way. That is, the board voted to keep the schools open,
and should fund them in a way that makes that possible. Further, the
board should NOT be spending down the reserve funds balance. Doing so
essentially says the schools will not be open into the future.
(4) As we’ve said over and over again, we need accountability. What
are the individual school districts going to be doing with the
integration funds the Board proposes to send to them? Where are their
plans? Where is the evidence that sending the money to the districts
will have a stronger impact than keeping it in the EMID collaborative
where all of the districts together are already accomplishing more
than they could alone? The state has allocated integration funds to
EMID to do integration. We’ve been doing that really well in EMID in
ways that have made the two schools, in particular, models not only
here in MN, but also nationally. Why take that apart now?
I know that this is a busy time of year, and you’ve already worked
hard to keep these schools open. We won that victory, but if we can’t
keep the funds flowing to the schools, that victory won’t mean much in
the long run. Please write to your board representative, and to the
superintendent of your home district, and urge them to ask the EMID
Board to seek other ways to manage their funds
The questions raised above demonstrate the predicament in which we find Crosswinds and Harambee. We had a great showing of support when the Board met to vote on school closure this Fall. During the next two school board meetings, decisions will be made that will determine whether the school programs will be open past 2012-13 school year. We need that kind of turn-out this week.
Homework #5: No Name Calling Week
To support Crosswind’s participation in “No Name Calling Week” , I am using one of the activities as a homework assignment this week. There are several connections between name calling and bullying and what we are studying in terms of the Holocaust. In fact, according to “Genocide Watch,” the first of 8 stages of genocide is classification. Clearly, calling someone a “Prep” or a “Nerd” doesn’t, by itself, lead to the next stages of genocide, but awareness and caution should be used when humans label each other based on differences.
The assignment is here: HW#5 – Popular
Honoring differences and building understanding of people who are different than ourselves is one of the values of an Crosswinds & Harambee education. I hope that this has been your experience working with us, and I wish that the leaders of our School Board as well as local Boards and Superintendents would consider this reality as they continue to make decisions affecting our programs.
Field Trip: Park Square Theatre
On Thursday last week, I handed out permission slips for a trip to see the Diary of Anne Frank at Park Square Theatre. While the due date is February 3rd, the sooner we can get the slips in, the better. A copy of the permission slip is here: Field Trip Permission Anne Frank
Gradebook Closing:
Any missing assignments that are past-due must be turned-in by Friday, February 3rd in order to count on the 2nd quarter grade. This also goes for any revisions of major papers or projects. The only assignment I will accept after this date will be things we do in-class as well as the 6 books/quarter assignment.
