Minneapolis school board chair on closures: The plans could change

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Minneapolis school board chair Collin Beachy is making it clear nothing has been finalized and plans could change as the board weighs three plans that could close more than a dozen schools.

Minneapolis school closures

The backstory:

Last week, Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams presented her three school transformation plans for the district.

The plans aim to address falling enrollment, an "inefficient footprint" for district buildings that have spread staff too thin, and an uneven student experiences, while the district stares down a $40 million shortfall.

The plans could mean about 12 percent of the district's approximately 29,000 students would need to move buildings as about 13 buildings in the district would either close or change how they're used.

Beachy reacts to plan

What they're saying:

On FOX 9 All Day on Monday, Minneapolis school board chair Collin Beachy reacted to the plans.

Beachy stressed to parents that nothing has been finalized yet. While these are the plans on the table, he said they could change as the district gathers feedback from the community.

However, Beachy said doing nothing isn't sustainable either, warning the district could face further cuts to teachers and programming if it doesn't make changes.

What they're saying:

Here are some of the highlights from Beachy's conversation with FOX 9's Lauren Andrego this afternoon:

Beachy on why the district is considering major changes

"I think people knew this conversation was coming. I think that when you look at what is going on in Minneapolis Public Schools and actually in Minnesota in general… the district, as we were leading up to this, kind of talked us through the different eras that Minneapolis Public Schools has gone into. And right now we're in that choice era. And that choice era is kind of shifting here a little bit, because what we're starting to hear from parents is less about what programs can you offer? It's about are these programs going to be sustainable? And so that's what we started having the superintendent take a look at. Well, what are we going to be doing with the resources that we currently have right now? That was the goal of what these plans were supposed to do, to take our resources and see how we can best make sure that every student across Minneapolis has the same experience. So, for example, every elementary school should have a full-time librarian and all three arts options. And right now, we have too many schools that have to make a choice between those. And in order for us to provide those things, we may have to make some difficult decisions."

Beachy: Plans aren't intended to close budget shortfall

"First of all, to be honest, for the last two years — and we don't have the numbers here yet — but Minneapolis Public Schools have seen an increase in enrollment, a slight increase in enrollment. Not anything that's going to get us to the point where we still have 50,000 students, which is what we have space for. But we are seeing a little bit of that increase in enrollment. And the superintendent is showing that we're trying to get some stability here to this district. And families are kind of liking what they are seeing. And so when you're talking, though, about the deficit part of it, first of all, just to be clear, a lot of questions came up and said that this is about closing the $40 million budget gap. That budget gap was for this school year, but that was closed in June. So we're not operating under that $40 million deficit."

"We don't know what the numbers are going to be here just yet this year, because we've also we haven't heard anything from the state yet. We don't know what the inflation costs are going to be doing for transportation. And quite frankly, I'm a little concerned. I have not heard anything, positive for Minneapolis Public Schools coming out of the blue ribbon panel that's cutting $300 million from special education, and that's going to be a big problem for larger school districts like ours."

………..

"It would certainly shrink our footprint. That's for sure. And that is one thing that I think a lot of people have been talking about as well. The problem with this is that closing or consolidating a school doesn't give you the financial benefits that I think people really think that it does. So a lot of work went into this knowing that there's going to be a lot of pain, a lot of hurt, a lot of questions about if we go through with any one of these options. We know how it's going to be affecting people. And kind of if this goes through, our job is to make sure that we're explaining to people why we're doing this and what the experience is going to be for their students and how it's going to be different than the one that they have right now."

Beachy says no decision has been made

"It's difficult. This is a friend of mine, right? And so, because of that friendship, though, that helps me make sure that I'm not detached from this, that I'm really making sure that I'm feeling the pain that people are coming to me with. And I think that it's important, though, that people understand that right now, in the part of the process that we are at, no decision has been made. We're going over these plans, too. But this decision is too big for nine people to make, right? So we have got to get out there to the community."

Beachy on concerns that the process is moving too quickly

"I think one of the biggest issues that I'm hearing from people, though, is, is this moving too fast. Now, we as a board have been working on this for four years, but the community hasn't been, right? So we need to give them some time to make sure that they are comfortable with any of these plans moving forward. Or do you want us to do something differently?"

Beachy: We need to do something different

"I hope that I get a whole bunch of feedback from people, and I get some sort of sense as to not just people are upset, but specifically what changes do we need to make to help fix the school district? Because I just think what we're doing right now is not sustainable. But I think that the superintendent, she's the superintendent of the year for a reason, and her staff are very talented people. And they're looking at what is it that we can do differently because we can deliver a better experience for our families. And it's been too long of just trying the same old thing, same thing every year. I'm tired of sitting here having to cut teachers every year. I'm sick and tired of having to cut people from the district office and programming and all of that. It's got to stop. And so we've got to start addressing that structural problem that we have."

Beachy: Doing nothing would mean another round of cuts

"There will be cuts, possibly programming, possibly teachers again, same rigamarole. People have been through this before, you know, I've been through this my whole four years I'm on here and I'm tired of it. So, you know, doing nothing is not something, though, that I'm also hearing from the community. The community knows we need to do something. If it's this, I'm hearing people are saying we need to pause and so we can pause for six months, a year or whatever we need to do. But then I don't want to start the following school year after next in this same position, when we know what we know, and so people know we have to make some changes."

Listening sessions planned

What's next:

The district has scheduled a series of listening sessions for parents to weigh in on the plans. All meetings run 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

• Camden High School: Sept. 30, 2026
• Washburn High School: Oct. 1, 2026
• Edison High School: Oct. 2, 2026
• South High School: Oct. 6, 2026
• North High School: Oct. 7, 2026
• Southwest High School: Oct. 8, 2026
• Roosevelt High School: Oct. 9, 2026

A potential vote on the plans could come as soon as Nov. 10.