RAS Facility Plan: Equity or Seperation ?

Well, the very difficult decision has been made. RAS will:

• close Pilgrim Lane Elementary, Sunny Hollow Elementary and Sandberg Middle Schools. (all in SW area)
• move the Spanish Immersion program from the centrally located RALC building to the Sunny Hollow building
• move the Sandberg students to the Robbinsdale Middle School. (ie RALC building)
• consolidate other school services in the Sandberg building

When the final arguments were made, it seemed that only two criteria were highly weighted in the minds of most of the board members. Tom Walsh was the exception, and he made an excellent case for the other criteria. The two criteria used to make the decision were:

• A strong fear of the "mega elementary" at RALC
• A strong desire to have Elementary Schools that are equally distributed around the district

These are important criteria, however letting them dominate the decision has left us with some other consequences that will need to be addressed going forward. The following are some thoughts regarding the changes, criteria and consequences:

• For better or worse, the district is now officially split almost right down the "VOTE yes/Vote no" boundary. (NE & SW)
• Northport and Lakeview are still on their own. The "mega elementary" though scary in concept offered some incredible advantages for these kids and the district. First, the support services could have been consolidated and improved. Second, the class sizes could have been better stabilized due to more sections of each grade. Third, the mobility issue could have been reduced because a larger area of RAS would have attended the same school. Fourth, Spanish Immersion parent volunteers and students could have helped its sister school due to the close proximity. Fifth, additional "at risk" students may have become aware of and joined the immersion program. Sixth, half of the school is already an excellent Elementary and it would have kept the magnate school centrally located.
• The district now has 2 schools to renovate rather than 1, and no funding has been confirmed. This will be a challenge, especially since the key "Vote YES" volunteers/donors are pretty frustrated right now.
• The K-5 option keeps more sections per grade in the Elementary schools, which helps to stabilize class sizes and improve school efficiency.
• Spanish Immersion is officially segregated from the rest of the district. (ie stand alone building in the SW and significantly different student demographics than the district) I am not implying a conspiracy, just stating facts. If "at risk" kids don't apply, they can not be picked.
• There will be minimal extra capacity in the SW Elementary schools to accept intra-district transfers or open enrollees. Many currently intradistrict transfer from NE to SW. (likely not possible in future)
• Robbinsdale and Plymouth Middle Schools will be very very full for the next few years.
• RMS will need to receive updates to improve its capability to house a middle school as well as the Sandberg building does today. (how will the Sandberg pool facilities be used? Bus the kids from RMS, which does not have a pool?)
• Economies of scale should be gained by having many of the school services at the Sandberg building. Now if we can just move the ESC offices and bus garage there and sell off the retail space.
• Pilgrim Lane Elementary is available to open a great charter school in Plymouth. That is what the site is designed for. Hopefully the district personnel see a PLE charter as a great opportunity for the kids that are interested in the option, rather than a threat to RAS that needs stifled.

The definite positive of last night is that a decision has been made and parents/students can start making their plans for next year.