MPS five-year enrollment plan tweaked following community input

Plan to address overcrowding will expand programs and buildings. Cooper, Seward, Hiawatha, Roosevelt, Howe, and Sanford among those affected in Area B.

by Tesha M. Christensen

A five-year enrollment plan introduced by Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) intends to address overcrowding at its buildings, an issue MPS School Board Chair and District 5 representative Alberto Monserrate has heard a lot about from both parents and staff in Area B.

“I think in the end this is a positive enrollment plan that will largely allow us to address future enrollment, address overcrowding and improve academic programs,” said Monserrate. “The plan isn’t perfect, but it has much more good than bad.”

MPS has been tweaking its five-year enrollment plan after hearing from residents. Initially, the school board had planned to vote on the changes in mid-November. But it scheduled another round of meetings in November instead to gather community input, and will vote Dec. 10.

Over 1,100 community members have voiced their opinions on the plan.

“Most residents I’ve heard from in area B have been from Sanford encouraging us to add classrooms or thanking us for it,” remarked Monserrate. “We also heard from parents and staff worried that we should invest and stabilize current programs before we invest in new ones. We heard that parents feel strongly about keeping current pathways and popular programs as intact as possible and that parents want their students to go to school as close as possible to where they live.”

DUAL IMMERSION AT ROOSEVELT

Parents have questioned why there is not a Spanish dual immersion program for elementary and middle school students in Area B. According to the school district, there is not enough demand at this time to add such a program. However, the district does intend to create a citywide high school dual immersion program at Roosevelt High School beginning next year, which parents have long requested, noted Monserrate.

The dual immersion classes will be offered in addition to the regular classes at Roosevelt.

“I am a big fan of dual immersion language programs,” said Monserrate. “My worry is that we will be able to find enough licensed multilingual teachers to teach the increase of classes and that we add Hmong, Somali and other language alternatives to the Spanish immersion programs.”

ARTS-BASED HIGH SCHOOL

The idea of creating a small, 500-student audition-based arts high school is one of the most contentious of the district’s plans. After hearing from residents, the district is reviewing the idea of placing the arts high school at South High and then designating Roosevelt High as the community school for all of Area B.

Open enrollment data has shown that some students are leaving the district in search of advanced arts learning experiences, pointed out Area B Associate Principal Stephen Flisk.

EQUAL TREATMENT?

Is the district treating all three of its zones equitably?

Many have questioned that at the public meetings, particularly when considering the breakdown of spending planned for each zone: $15.5 million in Area A, $36.5 million in Area B and $53.9 million in Area C.

The district’s response is that projected enrollment growth varies by zone and previous capital investments also have varied by zone. For example, since the mid-1990s, three new schools were built in Area A and one new school was built in Area C to address enrollment growth. Capital improvements within the preliminary recommendations support programmatic needs and are not determined by equitable distribution between zones.

ENROLLMENT GROWTH

The five-year plan being proposed seeks to address an anticipated 10% enrollment growth in the district. Projections through 2017 add 3,400 students to the district, with an estimated 905 new students in Area B. This year, there are 34,000 students attending MPS schools.

The district anticipates that the number of new kindergarteners will decrease due to a falling birth rate. But the number of students attending MPS high school has increased for the first time in 10 years.

MPS hopes to increase its market share by 10%. Right now, an estimated 38% of Minneapolis students attend charter or suburban schools.

FUNDING FOR PLAN

How is the district going to pay for these changes?

According to the district, money to support ongoing programming costs is generated by the new students attending the program. One-time programming costs are funded by a variety of sources, such as grants, reallocations and reserve funds.

The cost of additions and renovations, or capital costs, are considered one-time expenses. This money comes from levies, bonds (or new debt), state allocations and reserve funds, if needed.

“My main questions have been regarding equity in funding in different parts of the district and around how to finance this ambitious expansion,” said Monserrate. “I’ve been assured that all capital funding needs will be addressed in all parts of the city and the debt incurred us well within the district’s debt policy, which is fairly conservative.”

COMMENT ON THE PLAN

To share input, email comments to enrollmentplan@mpls.k12.mn.us. Learn more about the plan at http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/five-year_enrollment_plan.html.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PLAN FOR AREA B

• Early childhood programs at Wilder in 2015-16

• Sanford will use space at Howe in 2015-16, if needed

• 9-classroom building addition at Seward Montessori in 2016-17

• Cooper will reopen as a K-8 school with building addition and renovation planned for 2016-2017

• Spanish dual immersion program at Roosevelt High School 2014-15

• At the Brown Building (225 Lake St.), Transition Plus and Adult Basic Education will partner to support differentiated needs of adults.

• Broadway teen moms program will stay at Longfellow. (The first draft of the plan moved it to North High.)

ABOUT THE PLAN

• 1 of 4 students in district affected

• 7 new schools of choice and 2 new community schools

• 1,500 new community school seats and 2,275 new seats of choice

• Total cost of program improvements: $54 million, with $6.3 million in Area B

• Total cost of capital building improvements: $100 million