by Paul Rignell
Contributing Writer
District 728 school officials have celebrated growth, with an influx of young families entering Elk River. Those rising populations have concentrated toward the east like in areas around Twin Lakes Elementary School, however, and current attendance boundaries in the district have led that building to exceed its intended capacity for students.
Parents of Twin Lakes students meet to discuss options proposed by the district for easing student capacity crowding at the school.
Meanwhile, district leaders note that Elk River schools that serve western portions of the city, such as Lincoln and Meadowvale elementary schools, are seeing declining enrollments.
Just a few weeks earlier, a 4004 Policy Committee meeting recommended moving 150 students through a redrawing of boundary lines.
The Elk River Area School Board ruled it would not implement any school district boundary changes recommended by the advisory group. Instead, the board decided, the district would take a larger look at boundaries in the district, particularly in Elk River, to formulate a longer-term solution for student populations at the district’s elementary schools.
“The point was, we didn’t want to enact a solution that might have us right back here in this room in two to three years,” Superintendent Mark Bezek said. “In order to formulate something longer term for the center of the district (Elk River), we need more time. That leaves us in a tough position at Twin Lakes for 2016-2017. That’s what we need to put our heads together for tonight.”
Twin Lakes Elementary Principal Daniel Collins led the discussion of eight proposed solutions given to the board late last month. Time is winding down for school leaders to consider such dramatic changes prior to a new school year next fall. Yet, in effort to ease congestion and solve some issues with the support of parents at Twin Lakes for next year, Principal Dan Collins joined Bezek and other officials in reaching out to the students’ parents for input on short-term solutions that may make the most sense.
Twin Lakes parents packed the school’s cafeteria for two hours the evening of March 31 to hear from Collins and Bezek and to discuss proposed solutions that School Board members had reviewed earlier in March.
Collins opened his report for the parents by noting average class sizes from kindergarten through fifth grade are larger in his building, at 26.5, than at the district’s other elementary schools that have a composite class average of 24.8 pupils. There are five sections for kindergarten at Twin Lakes along with six sections for each of the upper grades.
The district will add one classroom teacher at the school for next year, which will drop the building’s average section size below 26.0 but still keep the densities above the district average.
Twin Lakes school opened in 2007 with a design capacity for 775 students. The school’s website, at tles.elkriver.k12.mn.us, reports that the current enrollment is 880 students. A few select classes are meeting not in dedicated homerooms but rather in the computer lab and media center. Total enrollment may jump to an estimated 920 by next September, despite declining numbers in open enrollment and in-district transfers because those enrollment options were closed at Twin Lakes before the current school year.
Collins and Bezek described different options for addressing classroom space needs before the guests who had gathered at cafeteria tables discussed preferred solutions with other parents. Before going home, the guests could vote for their favorite options by placing stickers on blank posters that were hanging in the school’s front windows.
Largely speaking, the assembled parents showed little to no support for one proposed option that would convert the school’s gym space into divided classrooms with desks and chairs. Understandably, that option would greatly reduce students’ opportunities for physical activity during school hours.
Parents were also generally not keen to closing specialized art and music rooms in favor of opening those spaces for regular classroom instruction.
Other options on the table would arguably alter the school routine much more significantly for a large number of students. Some options called for moving parts or all of the Twin Lakes fifth-grade classes next year to the Minnesota School of Business facility, near Highway 169 and 193rd Avenue. District 728 has purchased that property for a future relocation of district offices. If the option to move fifth-grade classes over to that building had drawn more favor, most of those students would be taking twice as many bus rides daily, including a first ride from their neighborhood to Twin Lakes and then a second ride from the base school to the other district site.
Maybe predictably, a discussed option to transfer Twin Lakes kindergarten classes over to Lincoln Elementary (at School and Jackson streets) did not stir up much support either.
Overwhelmingly, Twin Lakes parents in attendance March 31 used their voting stickers to express their preference that the school officials continue their best efforts to educate all enrolled students in one building next year. Collins said some faculty may coordinate their lesson plans for more team teaching situations.
“Our teachers have gone above and beyond to make it work (so far),” Collins said.
Despite being 170 students over design capacity next year, Collins says they can continue to do it.
“We can handle it. (This) puts it in our hands,” he said.
Parents agreed.
“Our kids are pretty resilient,” one parent said. “They can handle it for another year. This keeps them together. Then we can look ahead.”