The St. Michael-Albertville School Board agreed it would hold off closing open enrollment.
The board was also in consensus to reexamine the issue next spring following more information.
OPEN ENROLLMENT
A group of mostly Albertville residents who live in the Elk River School District packed the board room to hear the school board discuss options to close open enrollment.
For residents who already have students currently open enrolled in STMA, those students would be able to remain in STMA. If open enrollment were closed, this would affect new families who either move into areas outside of the STMA boundary, or have not yet enrolled their children into STMA schools.
Board chairperson Doug Birk reviewed why the school district is considering closing open enrollment.
He noted there will be more than 500 students enrolled in ninth grade next year, STMA’s largest yet class to date. A “bubble” of other large classes is on the horizon, down to this year’s fourth grade class.
The high school has a 2,000-student capacity. Birk said, “Over the next few years we’ll be meeting that (2,000-student) mark. Each of our schools will be at capacity.”
Some board members recently toured the high school to see how the school is handling its large population.
Birk mentioned that STMA asked the cities of St. Michael and Albertville — each with areas outside of the STMA boundary — its input regarding open enrollment.
Albertville encouraged the board to examine the possibility of having some kind of land swap with Elk River where neighborhoods like Hunters Pass and Towne Lakes in Albertville could be included into STMA. St. Michael issued no opinion and stated the school board must decide the issue.
NEW OTSEGO SCHOOL
Birk also noted that Elk River is opening a new K-8 elementary school in 2017 in Otsego just up the road from Albertville, and that this could affect families who wouldn’t have to drive their children as far as they do now to get them to Elk River or Rogers schools.
Birk said the board could come back with a resolution to change open enrollment, decide now, or revisit the matter next year.
STMA High School Principal Bob Driver reviewed how nearing capacity will affect the school.
He noted that when the new high school opened in 2009, there were 1,221 students, whereas next year there will be almost 1,900, near capacity. Driver reviewed what the large classes means for scheduling of classroom slots.
“Where can we fit these kids?” Driver said. “One of our concerns as we continue to grow is classroom space, because we’re going to grow out of it.”
He said class sizes (students per classroom) would continue to increase. Another concern he mentioned was increased special education needs, especially the need for more classroom space, an area he said the high school is particularly “vulnerable.”
Driver said the school could do “creative things” to accommodate the growth, such as adding portable classrooms and having a zero hour.
Birk commented how planning for the new high school began more than 10 years ago, and at that time it was difficult to project enrollment to today.
He said another option is that the high school was designed to accommodate a future building expansion, in this case adding six classrooms. That option would require asking the public to support a referendum.
MAKE RECOMMENDATION
Board member Gayle Weber encouraged the board to have Supt. Jim Behle make a recommendation.
Birk said he is opposed to restricting open enrollment at this time.
“We need to be careful,” he said. “Once we change open enrollment, we could lose that student for potentially 12 years. We are a district facing significant funding challenges in the future. This is not the time.”
He was open to approaching the voters for the “practical and feasible” option of expanding the high school.
Board member Jeff Lindquist said he agreed with Birk not to close open enrollment, and noted that open enrollment is a “net positive” financially for the district.
Board member Drew Scherber said he is opposed to expanding the high school and raising taxes just to house the expected enrollment “bubble.” He was open to closing enrollment for certain classes.
Board member Jennifer Peyerl suggested the district look into a study, and was not in favor of closing open enrollment now.
“But what about the high school?” she said. Adding that she is interested in expanding the high school, she said, “I don’t feel like it’s ‘just a bubble.’ We’re going to get bigger and bigger and we need space for these kids.”
Birk said the consensus is to reexamine the mater next spring, and possibly do a demographic study. “We need an estimate to look into cost information on classrooms,” he said.
More information from the board meeting — including discussion on seeking a possible land swap with Elk River to include some Albertville neighborhoods into STMA — will be in next week’s paper.