As Minneapolis moves to drop Kindergarten classes from its downtown school, Robbinsdale Area Schools may elect to add some
As Robbinsdale Area Schools pushes onward with its long-range facilities planning and two programming task forces, district leaders have been kicking around the idea of adding Kindergarten classes, on an interim basis, at a recently-conveyed “Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Resource” school in Crystal for the 2016-17 school year after leaning that Minneapolis Public Schools intends to drop that grade at a similarly-conveyed school.
Both the FAIR Crystal school, which was given to the Robbinsdale district at no charge this summer, and the FAIR Downtown school, which went to Minneapolis schools and has since been renamed, are former parts of the West Metro Education Program, which sought to integrate the first- and second-ring suburbs with Minneapolis Public Schools. Program leaders questioned the continued relevancy of that mission, and thus voted to divest the special district of its two brick-and-mortar schools last spring.
The school that went to the Robbinsdale district serves grades 4-8, and the one that went to Minneapolis serves grades K-3 and 9-12. As Minneapolis Public Schools officials gear up to remove the youngest grade from their programming at the downtown school, Robbinsdale officials are strongly considering offering it at the Crystal school.
“We do believe it’s in our best interest as a district, and in FAIR school’s best interest, to offer kindergarten programming next year for a couple of reasons,” Executive Director of Technology Dennis Beekman told the school board at a Nov. 4 work session. “One, to provide continuity of the program, so we don’t have this gap in the FAIR program, but also there’s a marketplace for it. We want to meet that demand for fine arts magnet programming in the region.”
Robbinsdale school district administrators believe there is sufficient “flex space” in the building to accommodate three classrooms worth of Kindergartners and that programming for existing 4-8 graders won’t be affected by the proposed addition. School board members’ concerns about younger students mingling with their middle school-aged counterparts could be alleviated via scheduling, staff added.
“I think this is a great opportunity for us to show our commitment to FAIR, to demonstrate our commitment to the arts because, as a district as a whole, we really pride ourselves on what we offer in the arts,” said School Board Member Patsy Green.
District staff hope to eventually have the flex space back, Beekman told the board.
“We’re talking about a one year solution,” he said.
Costs resulting from the move would basically be limited to salaries for new teachers there and classroom supplies, Beekman added, and the move itself is “interim” because of the district’s larger facilities and programming reshuffle.
“We know we can’t offer K-8 at FAIR Crystal, there’s not enough room,” Beekman said.
If the school board chooses to follow through with the idea, it would need to move relatively quickly to accommodate the incoming Kindergarten and 4th grade classes. To that end, the district may vote on the magnet school’s admission policy as soon as Nov. 30 to accommodate the opening of the district’s standard Dec. 1 enrollment window.
A first reading of the measure is expected to be on the board’s Nov. 16 agenda.
Contact Joe Bowen at joe.bowen@ecm-inc.com