Use of Minnesota School Business facility explored as one option; Meeting with parents on March 31
by Jim Boyle
Editor
After deciding against making any school boundary line changes at Twin Lakes Elementary School for the 2016-17 school year, the Elk River Area School Board surveyed its options for a one-year fix before shuffling the enrollment deck across the center of the district.
They range from growing class sizes, making art and music classes mobile, dividing the gym into six classrooms and having physical education programming adapted, to creating a fifth-grade magnet at the Minnesota School of Business that the district is acquiring, placing an entire grade level at Lincoln Elementary School or bringing in portable classrooms for a year at a cost of $200,000.
It was a lot for School Board members to digest as they also wrestled with the process questions that would allow members to gain input from the Twin Lakes school community, rule out options considered not viable and narrow the number of options down to a palatable number for consideration.
District 728 administrators spent this week determining costs of the options as well as examining pros and cons to each potential solution. The Elk River Area School Board’s regularly scheduled business meeting at 7 p.m. March 28 at Elk River City Hall has been postponed.
There will be a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at Twin Lakes Elementary School to clarify the options and explain their impact on schoolchildren and their families as well as provide a chance to vote on preferred short-term solutions. In addition to the public meeting, parents will also be encouraged to communicate their preferences to board members.
The administration and the board will use feedback from the meeting to finalize the 2016-17 plan for Twin Lakes at a special meeting or a regularly scheduled business meeting in early April..
Pushing the board and administration is the April 1 statutory deadline to alert teachers across the school district of any potential layoffs.
Meanwhile, the board wants to follow up this work on a short-term plan with a longer-term plan for school boundaries that would take effect in the fall of 2017.
By the time Superintendent Mark Bezek got through his presentation on options and possible next steps at the March 21 meeting, School Board Chairwoman Holly Thompson concluded board members were looking rather pensive as they considered all the decisions before them.
“I know that we have a lot of concerned parents, teachers, staff and community members,” School Board Director Jamie Plantenberg-Selbitschka said. “Now that we heard each different option from administration, I would like to hear from our constituents as to what they think and feel. That will help us figure this out.”
Bezek said there’s a desire by many to keep everyone under one roof, but there are other options.
When asked for his opinion, Principal Dan Collins expressed thankfulness because he had been disappointed he hadn’t been asked.
“I’m there daily (at the school),” he said. “I live it. And I will say this: Yeah, we do want our families to stay put. Can we make it happen? I told Dr. Bezek we can make it happen.”
Collins mentioned a number of ways to further maximize the space at Twin Lakes. The student population at the school is expected to rise to more than 920 students by fall, which would put the school 170 students over design capacity. Complicating matters is the potential for growth as housing developments in eastern Elk River are poised to fill in.
“The short-term solution developed by the 4004 Committee was a good short-term solution, but after listening to constituents, the School Board (membership) feels that time is needed to develop a longer-term solution that realigns the entire center of the school district,” Bezek said. Also on the to-do list are a Lincoln Elementary School remodel and a long-range facilities plan for the district.
Twin Lakes already has two classes held in its media center and one in a computer lab, but there are still options like art and music on a cart.
You could have traveling teachers,” Collins said. “What that looks like is when a grade level is on prep, you could have a traveling teacher in that room.”
There are more costly options, like partitioning off the gym or bringing in portables, too, but no one at the March 21 meeting advocated for doing those things.
Collins suggested that a percentage of the school community is still attached to the plan from the 4004 Committee, which devised plans, publicly aired them at a community work meeting, tweaked them and then made its recommendation to the School Board.
“If you’re going to go back to the community, you better present that option to move 150 kids,” Collins said.
Bezek suggested the quickest way to go about arriving at a decision is to work with the school building, hold a question-and-answer session with parents and bring it all back to the board.
“We have to get moving on this,” he said.
Twin Lakes options at a glance
Option 1
Keep large class sizes. (Use same spaces as this year.)
Option 2
Make art and music mobile. (Provides for an additional three rooms.)
Option 3
Divide the gymnasium into six classrooms and have physical education adapt programming for one year.
Option 4
Create a fifth-grade magnet or center at the Minnesota School of Business. The facility is move-in ready for this type of learning environment, including computer labs. Lunch, physical education, art and music would have to be modified. Transportation costs would be incurred. This would open five classrooms in Twin Lakes. By using this option, the learning environment would be modified for 150 fifth-grade students.
Option 5
Split-shift the fifth grade between Twin Lakes and the Minnesota School of Business. In this model, students would receive language arts and math (and possibly social studies) instruction at the alternative site being purchased for the district office and return to Twin Lakes for lunch, science, health (and possibly social studies) and electives (physical education, art, music and technology). The district would incur transportation costs. This would open up three classrooms at Twin Lakes.
Option 6
Bring in six portables to address the classroom needs. Approximate cost: $200,000.
Option 7
Move one grade for one year to Lincoln.
Option 8
Close open enrollment and in-district transfers regardless of siblings.
Note: Options 1-3 and 6 disrupt the educational process for 920 students. Option 4 and 5 would impact fewer student and possibly provide for a unique learning experience for the fifth-grade students. It’s considered a step toward “teacher-led” schools. In place of the traditional physical education, art, music, a world language or technology track could be added. Other options like AVID, study skills or a extended “arts” time are viable.