by Nate Gotlieb
Contributing Writer
The Elk River Area School Board publicly heard for the first time Monday a proposal to reduce enrollment at Twin Lakes Elementary School by 200 students by next fall.
Nearly 900 students are enrolled at Twin Lakes, which has a capacity of 775 students. That is forcing school leaders to use the media center as classroom space and leaving special education teachers with no meeting rooms.
District policy requires that a committee develop a plan for immediate action if a school exceeds its capacities by 15 percent or more within the next year, as Twin Lakes does.
The Twin Lakes committee includes district administrators, parents, principals and teachers from the four schools Lincoln, Parker and Meadowvale elementary schools, all of which could be affected.
The committee, which has met twice, is recommending the district reduce Twin Lakes’ enrollment by redrawing school boundaries. District administrators will develop those changes, and the School Board will have the final decision.
The committee is also recommending that the district give Twin Lakes fourth-graders affected by the boundary changes the option to complete fifth grade at the school. Those families would need to provide their own transportation.
The district last redrew its boundary lines before Twin Lakes opened in fall 2007. Enrollment at the school became an issue this year because of the addition of districtwide all-day kindergarten and a larger-than-expected increase in enrollment.
The district is also expecting population growth around Twin Lakes, as a developer is planning 700 single-family homes in the area.
District policy stipulates that students should not transfer more than once during elementary school. It also says that any boundary shifts cannot adversely affect another school or impact equity of programming, space and demographics.
When redrawing boundaries, district staff will work to create a better balance of at-risk students, Charlie Blesener, the district’s director of community engagement, said after the last committee meeting. Blesener presented the committee’s recommendations to the School Board on Monday, along with Joe Stangler, the district’s director of research and assessment, and Twin Lakes teacher Becky Herbert, a committee member.
After the presentation, School Board Chair Jane Bunting asked Herbert for her sense of what parents think of the recommendations. Herbert said it’s going to be sad for kids who have to transfer but added that she would be proud to send her kids to any of the district’s elementary schools.
“I would have no problem, as a parent, knowing what I know from the teacher perspective,” she said.
School Board members will provide feedback to the recommendations at their Jan. 11 meeting, and the district will hold a community input meeting on Jan. 26.
The committee will present its final recommendations to the board on Feb. 8, and the board will take action on the final recommendation on March 14.