by Jim Boyle
Editor
With the passage of a $98 million bond and a $6 million operating levy in November 2014, much of 2015 was focused on gearing up for the future.
Multiple committees began working with architects on planning the new spaces to be built, which include auditoriums at Zimmerman and Rogers high schools, an E-8 school in Otsego, a third wing of classrooms at Rogers High School, gym space at Elk River High School and assorted instructional spaces at several points in the district.
The district held ground-breaking ceremonies in June and November for the additions at Rogers High School and the auditorium in Zimmerman.
The planning of how to use the technology levy that was part of the operating levy culminated with a plan for tech purchases that went to the Elk River Area School Board.
Then in September the district began its rollout of 1:1 technology at the high schools.
The computers will be distributed first to juniors and seniors throughout the district in 2015-2016, with freshman and sophomores getting machines next year. By the 2017-2018 school year, each student from grades six to 12 will have a Chromebook.
“Changes in school curriculum – from the tests the students take to the textbooks and supplements they use in class – are moving online,” District 728 manager of instructional technology Troy Anderson said in September. “Students need access to those materials in and out of the classroom.”
The Chromebook rollout is one part of a $2.6 million technology levy as part of the 2014 ballot.
Before the Chromebook roll out, Manny Scott, one of the original Freedom Writers featured in a hit movie, and Sue Romane, a Rogers High School principal who was battling cancer, helped kick off the school year.
Scott was never mentioned by name in the 2007 film “Freedom Writers,” but his blood, sweat and tears are deeply ingrained in it.
He was in Erin Gruwell’s first class at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, long before Academy Award winner Hilary Swank would be cast as the teacher of the unteachable in this Hollywood hit movie inspired by true stories.
Scott shared his story of triumph over tragedy. He urged District 728 employees to continue their good work and to commit to becoming students of their students who are often suffering.
He said of their students and the importance of believing in them: “Sometimes you have to believe in somebody else’s belief in you until your own belief sets in. My teachers, counselors, coaches, lunch ladies and security guards (believed in me) when I didn’t believe.”
Romane followed Scott with a surprise message, as she had been undergoing cancer treatment and was out on a medical leave. She talked about making meaning of change and challenges, be it a cancer diagnosis or changes to your work life or family life.
The Elk River Area School District welcomed new leadership at Rogers High School and Parker Elementary School as well as at Rogers Middle School.
Jason Paurus took over at Rogers High School after Roman Pierskalla retired.
Mark Huss, a former Elk River High School administrator, took over at Rogers Middle School where Paurus had been.
Scott Lempka returned to the Elk River Area School District to take the helm at Parker. He replaced Mike Malmberg, who left for a superintendency in Pillager.
Superintendent Mark Bezek said among the accomplishments in 2015 were continued rises in test scores on ACT college readiness testing and Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments.
Another, Bezek said, is the publication of the school district’s World’s Best Workforce Report.
Bezek, in October, brought attention to what he dubbed a disappointing legislative session. He said there’s a lot of frustration, and that the Legislature’s 2 percent education increase in each year of the biennium “really didn’t do us a lot of good.”
Greg Hein, District 728’s executive director of business services, said the state’s $544 per pupil allocation for 2016 and 2017 amounts to less than inflation.
“In 2015, District 728 was dead last (in per-pupil funding),” he said. Hein noted that the Minneapolis School District receives $3,000 more per student than Elk River does. “Rochester, Minnetonka and North St. Paul get much more state aid,” he said. “Edina gets $750 per student.”
Blanket funding increases, which were given, do nothing to narrow the disparity, Hein said.