Proposed Minneapolis school closures: District to share details at noon Friday
Proposed Minneapolis school closings decried by parents and teachers
Tough choices could be ahead as the Minneapolis Public School District proposes to close or merge several schools to address a budget shortfall. FOX 9's Bill Keller has the latest details.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minneapolis Public School Board will respond to community feedback about plans to close more than a dozen schools next year.
That news conference is scheduled for noon today. Check back with FOX 9 for live coverage of the discussion in the player above.
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Minneapolis Public School closures possible
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Minneapolis School Board Chair Collin Beachy is addressing the difficult decisions ahead as the district considers closing as many as 16 schools.
By the numbers:
Leaders of the Minneapolis public school district are set to respond to feedback from the community about plans to close more than a dozen schools next year.
The district says that changes are needed to fix a $40 million budget shortfall.
Minneapolis currently has 59 public schools, some of which are reportedly nearly half empty.
The declining enrollment has the district proposing to close as many as 16 schools.
Local perspective:
Last week, Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams presented the school board with three transformation plans.
The superintendent asked board members to choose the best option to balance the budget while minimizing the impact on students.
But all three plans have been criticized by both parents and school staff, who say school closures are not the answer.
The schools that could be shuttered include:
- Loring Elementary
- Hmon International Academy
- Bethune Elementary
- Anwatin Middle School
- Heritage Academy
- Lake Harriet Elementary
- Field Elementary
- Kenny Elementary
- Wenonah Elementary
- Hiawatha Elementary
- Howe Elementary
- Longfellow Alternative High School
- Pratt Elementary
- Wellstone International High School
- Webster Elementary
- Cityview Elementary
The district says most students will not have to switch schools, but all three models include mergers and boundary changes.
The board could vote as soon as November, with changes starting in the 2027-2028 school year.
What we don't know:
But it's still unclear how much money the school closures would save.
What they're saying:
Some Minneapolis city council members are speaking out against the plan, asking the school board to delay a planned vote in November.
Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents Ward 8 released a statement saying, "I oppose these proposals because they treat students as a line item on a spreadsheet rather than as students whose futures depend on a school that knows them. Let’s be clear, this isn’t ‘Transformation,’ it's closure by another name."
What's next:
The Minneapolis Public School District is set to hold a series of meetings in the coming weeks.
Each meeting will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the following locations:
- Sept. 30 at Camden High School
- Oct. 1 at Washburn High School
- Oct. 2 at Edison High School
- Oct. 6 at South High School
- Oct. 7 at North High School
- Oct. 8 at Southwest High School
- Oct. 9 at Roosevelt High School
Details on those meetings can be found here.
The case for consolidation
The other side:
More than 12,000 desks sit empty across the Minneapolis school district. The district has the capacity for 42,000 students but currently enrolls fewer than 30,000. That gap has pushed the district to follow others — including St. Paul and Robbinsdale — in proposing consolidation.
Webster Elementary is one of the schools that could be closed by next year. It's currently operating at just 55% capacity, according to the district’s "transformation data tool."
"It has been years of underfunding from the state and federal government. It has been years of declining enrollment," said Collin Beachy, Minneapolis School Board Chair.
Beachy told FOX 9 that enrollment has started ticking up again in recent years, but not enough to fully fund all the schools. The district is also carrying a nearly $40 million budget deficit, and selling off school properties is one way officials say they could chip away at that gap.
"If anything like that would happen, I know that one of the first things that we'd be doing is talking with the city and the park board to try and keep these things in public hands," said Beachy.
The Source: This story uses information gathered by FOX 9 reporter Bill Keller and previous FOX 9 reporting.