Jessica Morgan sent this letter to the 622 board on 21 January 2008.
I strongly urge you to postpone the decision regarding membership with EMID 6067. My husband and I have four children; our niece who is in her fourth successful year at Crosswinds, our son who has been at EMID since kindergarten and is currently a 6th grader, our fourth grade daughter who has been at Harambee since kindergarten and another son who will enter Harambee as a kindergartener next year. We sent our children to EMID schools for two primary reasons, one of them being the integration with students who are more diverse than the kids in our neighborhood. In today’s world it is critical that we nurture and teach our kids about people of multiple cultures, races, religions and family makeups. The other main reason we attend and recruit others to EMID is the year round calendar. We are residents of Maplewood, our local elementary school is Weaver. As soon as our first child started school at (Tri-District at the time,) we knew that we had made the right choice! Our oldest child gravitates towards older children and the multiage environment was exactly what he needed to be and feel successful.
I have seen the study notes and I have read the pertinent section on the ISD 622 website. I have multiple concerns about this potential withdraw. My first concern is that I as a taxpayer and voter was not informed about the potential withdraw nor was I ever given the opportunity to give my input concerning the matter. As a matter of fact, I and most other families of EMID were intentionally excluded from participating in this study group. I know that a couple EMID families were invited to participate, but they were families of students who will be graduated from EMID in 2009. In addition, this study group was first brought together in late November of 2007 and made their recommendation in January 2008. I am not confident that a thorough study was completed in one month’s time. I am appalled that district 622 leadership is making a unilateral recommendation without getting input from ALL stakeholder groups.
My second concern is that if ISD 622 leaves the EMID collaboration, there is a possible looming collaboration with Forest Lake. Considering the demographics of Forest Lake, this is alarming. Now that North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale is designated as “racially isolated,” it’s that much more important that the students have teachers, leaders, and peers that look like them. More Caucasians will not provide the students North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale with the racial diversity that exists already within the district. A collaboration with Forest Lake would [white down] the membership for 622 students and would definitely not benefit the students of color.
Another concern I have is about the “greater autonomy to plan programs.” Membership in EMID is not preventing ISD 622 from doing any programming. There is nothing saying that ISD 622 can’t implement year-round programming, staff development, or student equity and integration experiences. Furthermore, there is no plan for these said programs and developing programs like these takes a significant amount of time. Without a current plan, I am not confident that program implementation would occur in September 2009. EMID already provides programming that 622 can take advantage of (not to mention the resources that 622 has access to.)
The Minnesota Legislature is currently revisiting the Desegregation Rule. Mindy Greiling has indicated that if the governor accepts the proposal, there will be more restrictions on how desegregation money is spent as the interpretation of the rule has been very loose and districts are not following the rule as originally intended. I don’t think either ISD 622 or EMID or any of the other member districts know how this proposed change might affect our schools. If you make the decision to withdraw from EMID now, it could be a decision you regret when the Legislature adjourns. As a citizen in the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale school district, I recommend postponing this decision until this Legislative Session adjourns. If the Minnesota Legislature is successful, withdrawing from EMID would put ISD 622 in a compromising position.
A statement from ISD 622 that concerns me is “increased focus on 622 students.” I have to ask, if you bring about 200 more students into the schools, how does the district increase their focus on the students? It stands to reason that ISD 622 schools will be even more overcrowded than they already are and that teacher/staff morale will decrease. Furthermore, members of my community who attend ISD 622 schools should be outraged because their children aren’t currently getting the focus that the study group is proposing. If ISD 622 needs to withdraw from EMID so the focus on 622 students can be increase, I would be against 622 getting involved in another collaborative.
Why does 622 have to discontinue their membership with EMID in order to implement “data-driven programs with measurable outcomes?” If ISD 622 wants to implement such programs, then they should do it, but don’t hold the membership in EMID accountable for non-existence of these programs. Again, current ISD 622 families should be outraged.
We have lived in Maplewood for over 11 years now. Long enough to know that the last referendum to pass was “not enough,” and more recent referenda have failed. In addition, most every district in the state is suffering from a lack of funding across the board. When I look at all of the data and I consider the study committee’s brief timeline, it all seems to come down to one thing – money. That being said, district 622 is displaying a lack of integrity by not just saying so in the first place. Furthermore, ISD 622’s financial situation was not caused by EMID so it would be unethical to hold EMID and/or the families that attend (or would like to attend in the future) Harambee and Crosswinds accountable.
I’m sure you know, but even if you make the decision to withdraw from EMID, you are not guaranteed that all of the families will return to 622. All students who attend EMID schools choose to do so. Some families will continue to exercise their right to choose, others will end up trapped in a place they don’t want to be. Regardless of the decision on Tuesday night, my children will continue to attend Harambee and Crosswinds for sure. My husband and I will provide transportation if necessary. As our children at Crosswinds get to the point of “moving on,” we have no intention of sending them to our local schools. We have already applied for open enrollment in another district.
With hopes that you’ll consider postponing,
Jessica Morgan