2,900 Robbinsdale students to shift schools

The impact of the Robbinsdale board of education's decision to shut down three schools next year will be felt far beyond those schools.

When the smoke cleared from the closings, the district had completely redrawn its attendance boundaries for elementary and middle schools. As a result, 1,863 of the district's elementary school students -- 42 percent of the total -- will end up in different schools this fall. As for the middle schools, 1,052 sixth- and seventh-graders -- 58 percent of the total -- will have to leave their current schools and attend others. Students at the two district high schools are not affected by the changes.

According to Dennis Beekman, district executive director of technology and the administrator overseeing the boundary changes, district officials redrew school attendance boundaries with several factors in mind.

"We were trying to keep neighborhoods together, trying to keep [manageable] walking distances to the neighborhood schools, and primarily to balance enrollment," he said.

The redrawn boundaries should not result in higher district transportation costs, primarily because the closing of three schools negates the added costs of the longer routes the buses must now travel, he said.

The remaining nine elementary schools will grow, by 50 to 150 students, Beekman said.

Still, since voters approved a levy last year that garnered the district $9.4 million a year over seven years, the district has been able to add teachers, resulting in smaller class sizes despite the school closings.

Jim Calhoun, principal of Sonnesyn Elementary School in New Hope, estimated that his morning class sizes for fifth-graders will drop from 27 to 28 kids per class this year to 24 to 25 next year. Class sizes in the morning are smaller because a part-time teacher is able to take on an extra section of students.

Big change in student mix

Sonnesyn's attendance area will be completely altered next year. It will lose much of its northern area, and gain more in the southern part of the district, where Sunny Hollow Elementary in New Hope will close as a neighborhood elementary school and shift over to house the district's Spanish Immersion School. Currently, Sonnesyn has 570 students. That's projected to grow to 603 next year.

It's the mix of students there next year that will provide the dramatic change. Only about half of the students at Sonnesyn next year will be current students, Beekman said. The remainder will come from Pilgrim Lane Elementary in Plymouth, which is also being closed, and Sunny Hollow.

Many of those who would continue at Sonnesyn will wind up next year at Meadow Lake Elementary in New Hope and Forest Elementary in Crystal. Also, more special-education students are being assigned to Sonnesyn, Calhoun said.

"In our building, a significant number of families [are] moving on to other schools," Calhoun said. "That's a hard thing."

Still, he said, the school has been working hard to make next year's new arrivals feel at home, inviting them for tours and parent-teacher association meetings. Sonnesyn will be holding an unprecedented spring welcome night for new students and their parents Thursday.

Kassie Houle of New Hope has a daughter at Sonnesyn and a son at Robbinsdale Middle School. "We have a lot of friends and neighbors who are going to be shifted next year. Our community is going to be somewhat torn," she said.

Her daughter Emily, who is in third grade, gets to stay at Sonnesyn. "But she is losing some of her very good friends to other schools," Houle said.

Son Nick, who is in sixth grade, is now in the Plymouth Middle School attendance area but has been granted permission to stay at Robbinsdale. Houle thinks parents and student will be able to weather the changes coming this fall.

"After the initial shock, I think people are settling down a little bit and looking forward to it," she said. "We're going to have some great families coming in, and gaining some great staff. Sure, it's going to be a transition, but we're all out for the same thing, which is what's best for our kids."

Sandburg Middle School in Golden Valley is also being closed. Its students will be shifted to Robbinsdale and Plymouth. Open houses at those schools will be held May 4 for eighth-graders, May 11 for seventh-graders, and May 18 for sixth-graders.

The school board decided to close the three schools earlier this year in an effort to save $2 million a year. The decision came after consultants reported there was too much unused space in district schools.

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547