Some charge school district isn’t communicating with South High

Many stunned to learn about new ABE/T+ building along Lake St. instead of expansion of Barnard Field

By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
The question for some neighborhood residents isn’t whether Adult Basic Education and Transition Plus (ABE/T+) need space, but whether they need a new facility next to South High’s athletic fields.
Before they commit to using that land adjacent to South, Ericsson resident, and high school parent Steve Richter wants an assurance from the district that South High has the space needed to complete the Barnard Field project as requested and outlined.
“At this point, we do not have any such guarantees from them,” said Richter. “Once that project is completed, our ability to expand beyond our current footprint becomes very limited.”
Currently, the immigrant-focused Adult Education occupies 54,000 square feet in a three-story building at 2225 E. Lake St. known as the Brown Institute. However, the property was sold for $8 million and is being transformed into a large commercial and residential development by L&H Station.
As part of the sale agreement, MPS was granted up to eight years to relocate the ABE programs and can stay on the property without any assessment against the district for the first three years.
The Transition Plus program currently occupies approximately 64,000 square feet in two levels of the Wilder School at 3320 Elliot Ave. S., and 18-21-year-olds with the Wellstone Program would remain there. With the move, T+ would lose an auditorium, two computer labs and half of a gym.
Community members have several concerns about the cost and size of the proposed ABE/T+ building at 2005 E. Lake St. which is slated to break ground this spring and open in 2018.
“It seems to me that they are attempting to squeeze two programs that currently occupy much more space and have much more parking into a smaller facility, with limited parking. I am concerned because, from some of the descriptions that we heard, this new building may be too small for the programs it houses very soon after it is completed,” said Richter.
“Additionally, if the district is almost $30 million over budget from last year, it seems like this may not be the best time to take on a $30 million project.”
Adding insult to injury, according to South High parent Stephen Dinger, is that the district is building a new $5 million underground parking lot for the ABE/T+ building while there isn’t enough parking for students or teachers at South High.
Dinger suggests that rather than spend so much on a new building, the district use an empty one, such as Cooper School in his neighborhood at 33rd and 45th Ave. S. He pointed out that the closed school has been sitting empty for ten years but has ample space and parking.
He is upset that the district has made its decision about the ABE/T+ building despite community opposition.
“It’s such an extravagant thing at this time,” said Dinger, who attends Parents United For South High (PUSH) meetings.
District isn’t communicating
South High Site Council co-chair Scott Schluter pointed to a January 2016 letter in which the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization, Minneapolis Council Member Alondra Cano, South Principal Ray Aponte and Foundation President Ayers all asked MPS to consider South High before moving forward, and MPS did not reply to any of them.
“We have real concerns that MPS is not responding to the needs of the South High community, not only with the athletic facilities but a long-term plan as well,” said S. Schluter.
He is frustrated that South High is still waiting for better athletic facilities.
“There is such a long and dated story to an athletic facility that should have been updated 20 years ago when the plans were first drawn,” said S. Schluter. “We all thought we knew what was happening. We were wrong. We were not part of the process this entire time.”
His daughter, Emma Schluter, a junior at South High, is also frustrated by the miscommunications and misleading that has happened along the way. “It is a well-known fact, among the students, that the athletic facilities are in bad conditions, to put it lightly. Because it is so well-known among the students, many assume that others know the state of the facilities as well,” she pointed out. “Unfortunately, this is not the case.”
According to E. Schluter, students and parents continue to ask, “‘When are the improvements going to happen?’ We’ve been waiting a long time for improvements on the field, and nothing has happened.”
Photo right: Portions of the South High track have worn away to the concrete base, creating an unsafe running situation, pointed out student athlete Emma Schluter. She is frustrated at how unresponsive the district has been to the athletic needs at South High while planning to construct a new facility for Adult Basic Education that would block the ability of South High to expand Barnard Field. (Photo by Tesha M. Christensen)
S. Schluter and Richter have met with Said Ali, the school board member that represents the area South is located in. He promised to work closer with them and the superintendent to move the project along, and has plans to contact the school board members who represent other parts of the school attendance area, which is much larger than just the neighborhood of Corcoran. It includes all of Longfellow, Phillips, and the neighborhoods south of Corcoran, as well as students, come from the rest of the city.
“We feel a sense of urgency since budgets are being discussed right now and the ABE/T+ project is being put out for bids,” said Richter.
‘I am skeptical’
“I want to continue to give the district the benefit of the doubt, that they will take care of us, but I am skeptical at this point,” said Richter.
“We have sent repeated requests via email and letters to Superintendent Graff and the MPS Board without reply as to what we need to do, who we need to follow up with and how is best to keep this project from getting lost,” said Scott.
“We have sent a plan to the board from the South High Principal, the South High Foundation, the South High Site Council and the chair of the South High Field Committee that would help make an impact on improving the spatial layout of the track and field. All of these requests have had no response.
“That is what we need: an MPS that responds and helps us do now what should have been done 20 years ago.”

Article appeared in the May 2017 Longfellow Nokomis Messenger.

Twenty years later South High still waits for better athletic facility

Parents, students point to unsafe conditions at Barnard Field and question why the district hasn’t fixed the problems

By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Basic Education (ABE) and Transition Plus (T+) are getting a new building along E. Lake St. while South High School students continue to wait for safe athletic facilities. And, some parents and students don’t think that’s right.
Parents United For South High (PUSH) and the school’s site council are pressing the school district to make good on promises it made in 1995 to update Barnard Field.
“For 20 years and eight superintendents, MPS has known that the athletic fields and practice space are undersized, unsafe and inequitable compared to other schools in the area,” stated site council co-chair Scott Schluter, who started the blog, mpsneedsaplan.weebly.com, to keep people informed.
The 26-year Ericsson resident sends one daughter to South High and watched another graduate from there in 2015.
His daughter Emma Schluter is captain of the soccer team and races on the track and field team.
“We are not asking for a grand new stadium,” said E. Schluter, who is one of 1,800 students at South High, the district’s largest high school. “What we want are facilities that address the needs of our student population, current and incoming. More importantly, facilities that meet regulations, are safe, and can compare to the other Minneapolis Public Schools. We, as students, want facilities that we are proud of; that we can proudly say: ‘Yeah, I go to South!’”
Parents and students are frustrated that the district’s plans for a $29 million, 87,000-square-foot educational building at E. Lake St. and 21st Ave. would block the ability of the South High to expand and to reposition its football field north/south. They say they were stunned in July 2016 when they discovered the district wasn’t planning to use the land it had acquired for South High.
Illustration left (click on it to see it enlarged): South High students come from a large part of South Minneapolis, as shown by this graph, but the district’s communication has been with just one neighborhood, pointed out South High Site Council Co-Chair Scott Schulter. He would like to see other affected neighborhoods included in discussions that affect South High. (Graphic provided)
The 1995 plans for the field turned it to a more playable north/south direction, and practice space was added on the west side of the field.
“Why the district has to put any building that permanently blocks any improvement to the largest school population in Minneapolis and without input from the school’s administration, staff, students and the South High community is disappointing and wrong,” said Scott.
Unsafe playing fields
The main issue for players, according to E. Schluter, is safety.
“It does not seem right that it takes such a long time and such persistence for the district to do anything when the facilities are not safe,” stated E. Schluter. “Safety should be something that the district provides and maintains without the need for lots of attention to be drawn to it before they do something.
We want to be proud in our school, in our facilities, and be able to grow our sports and the sense of community it can build within both the school and the surrounding neighborhoods.”
It is difficult to play on the field in its current condition, pointed out E. Schluter. The width of the field is the biggest issue for her. “It is not a wide field, which changes the style of soccer that can be played,” she explained. “More significantly, the track, along with drains and concrete, sit directly off of the field—no more than a couple of feet from the lines. On the north side of the field, the long jump and pole vault runs even have concrete that sits inches from the field. Regulation is 10 feet for the closest thing from the field. These factors compromise the ability to play safely. Specifically, for soccer, we can’t slide tackle or make plays along the sidelines without worrying about coming in contact with some form of concrete.”
Photo right: About 100 people stood in bone-chilling temperatures in January 2017 on South High’s Barnard Field to rally for fixes to the deteriorating field. According to Emma Schluter, the field isn’t safe for either soccer or track and field, the two sports she plays. (Photo submitted)
The field also has a very strong angle or arch to it, which at times make it impossible to see the ball on the other side of the field, E. Schluter added.
“In terms of the track, the conditions are horrendous,” said E. Schluter. “The track might as well be concrete, and in fact, in several spots, the thin layer covering the track is missing, so it is just concrete. As a result of this, our track is notorious for causing shin splints. This is often the reason why so many of our runners can’t finish out the season.”
Her father added, “We also need lighting for night games, a sound system for announcing, bleachers that are handicapped accessible and are not hand-me-downs from Roosevelt, and a turn-key press box like other schools have so it doesn’t take volunteers hours to set up a game.”
“By providing South with an updated field, track, scoreboard, lights, bleachers, and PA system that is on par with most other schools in the district and many other schools across the state, they would be giving our students and our community a sense of pride that is currently lacking,” said site council co-chair Steve Richter, who has lived in the Hale-Page-Diamond Lake neighborhood for 22 years. His youngest daughter is currently a junior at South High, and another graduated from there four years ago.
The hope is to replace the current six-lane track with one that has eight lanes and to use artificial turf.
“Because of limited practice space and playing fields, even though it may not be our first choice, it makes sense to replace the natural turf with and artificial turf that can be used by more teams, more hours of the day,” said Richter.
Grant awarded for part of field
In March, Minneapolis Public Schools was awarded a $250,000 grant from the Hennepin County Youth Sports (HCYS) Grant to develop an artificial turf athletic field and amenities at South High School.
At its Nov. 15, 2016, meeting, the school board agreed to match this grant if it was awarded, and now has $500,000 dedicated to the South High School field project.
The expected budget necessary for the entire project is $3.15 to $3.19 million.
MPS has committed to providing an additional $250,000 funding match, as other grants are sought and awarded.
According to a press release, MPS will be including Barnard Field updates in its 2018 Capital project proposal and hopes to move forward with the project in summer 2018.
Jay Pomeroy, a landscape architect with Anderson-Johnson Associates, has been contracted by MPS to develop plans for the facility and presented a few concepts to the site council’s Barnard Field planning committee in February.
“The plan so far is not adequate. That doesn’t mean that it can’t get there, but we have very little guaranteed so far,” remarked Richter. “We have drawings with no firm commitment that they fit our space and only about 15 percent of the money needed to complete the project.”
The most frustrating part for Richter is the uncertainty. “They say they will do something for us, and have even provided an architect to draw up plans, but that is where the commitment stops,” said Richter.
“Our fields have not been updated in over 20 years, and there is still the possibility that the district will put it off again.”

Article appeared in the May 2017 Longfellow Nokomis Messenger.

Adult Basic Education program is moving west on Lake St.

Ground breaks on new $29 million facility next to YWCA and South High’s football field in early 2017

By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN
Minneapolis Public Schools Adult Basic Education (ABE) program will be moving a few blocks west to a new building that will be under construction in early 2017.
The new property is located between the YWCA and South High School’s football field.
Currently, Adult Education occupies 54,000 sq ft in a three-story building at 2225 E. Lake St. known as the Brown Institute. However, the property was sold and is being transformed into a large commercial and residential development by L & H Station.
The first phase of L & H Station development, the five-story, 100,000-sq ft Hennepin County services building, is nearing completion. As part of the $8 million sale of that 6.5-acre parcel, the Minneapolis School District (MPS) was granted up to eight years to relocate its immigrant-focused Adult Basic Education from the “Brown” building to make way for future housing at the site. As part of the 2015 “leaseback” deal with the county, the school district can stay on the property without any assessment against the district for the first three years.
Photo right: The Adult Basic Education program is being displaced by the construction of Hennepin County’s new service building and a large commercial and residential development at 2225 E. Lake St. The school district had three years to vacate the Brown Building before penalties were applied. The new Hennepin County building is nearing completion. (Photo by Tesha M. Christensen)
MPS opted to construct a new 87,000 sq ft educational building at 2005 E. Lake St. to house its Adult Education programs, as well as its Transition Plus, a program geared toward 18- to 21-year olds. Many students in the T+ program come from South High.
The new $29 million facility will open in the fall of 2018. That price tag includes the purchase price of the property (9 plats) for the new building of approx. $3.8 million and the site demolition budget of $429,840.
While the South High School booster club is concerned that the new building will thwart plans to expand the football field and track, the school district’s plan was supported by the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization (CNO), which seeks to have more “eyes on the street,” according to Phillip Koski, who represents CNO on the project task force.
This stretch of E. Lake St. is already difficult because of the cemetery on the north side. The Corcoran Midtown Revival Plan calls for mixed use with a multi-story building that houses commercial at the ground level and residential above commercial to create a vibrant street.CNO supported the school district’s plan and helped MPS assemble the properties it needed at Lake and 21st.
Photo left: The former buildings at 2005 E. Lake St. have all been torn down and the lot is ready for a new 87,000-square-foot facility that will house the Minneapolis Public School Adult Basic Education (ABE) and Transition Plus programs. The new property is located between the YWCA and South High School’s football field. (Photo by Tesha M. Christensen)
Several of the buildings on the site across from the Soldiers Memorial Cemetery were demolished in 2016. The demolition of the remaining building at 2019 E. Lake St. was approved by the Heritage Preservation Commission and City Council in late 2016.
New building tailored to program needs
The design proposes a three-story building along Lake Street consisting of three parts—a wing for each program and a communal center at its heart. This central space, known as the “Town Hall,” will be a social hub and provide common meeting rooms for both Minneapolis Public Schools and the community.
Classrooms and specialty education areas will be tailored to specific needs, and the programs will realize a synergy by sharing areas of overlap—social zones, meeting rooms, staff work areas and teacher collaboration.
The design follows recommendations outlined in the Hiawatha/Lake Station Area Master Plan, creating a pedestrian-friendly urban environment with active uses and civic open space. Welcoming entrance plazas from both Lake St. and the short-term parking to the south bring users into the same central space, whether arriving by transit, bicycle, car, or on foot. A courtyard and school bus drop-off in the middle of the block provides a safe and pedestrian-friendly outdoor amenity with access controls that allow it to be closed off and flexible for programming. The 121-stall surface parking continues the plaza design, with an additional 39 parking stalls provided underground.
The southern street that bisects the site, 30½ St. S., and the alley will be vacated.
The project will be a welcoming learning environment for adults, provide space that is both flexible and specialized, and be a place that fosters an active and inclusive sense of community, according to city documents.
Transition Plus currently occupies approximately 64,000 square feet in two levels of the Wilder School at 3320 Elliot Ave. S. in Minneapolis.
Neither the Wilder School nor the Brown building were designed specifically for these programs, resulting in inefficiency of space, function, and operation, according to documents filed with the city.
An advisory group comprised of various Minneapolis Public Schools staff, Board of Education members, parents of students, a City Council member, and members of the community formed a collective voice in determining the site location, establishing vision and goals, and reviewing the design. Additionally, representatives from both the Adult Education and Transition Plus program provided detailed input and feedback for the spatial program and design submitted.

Article appeared in the March 2017 Longfellow Nokomis Messenger.