East metro schools look at why students are going elsewhere

Mark Porter is an affable guy. Lots of people say so.

That's why it seemed surprising when Porter interviewed for the superintendent's post of the South Washington County School District and directly confronted school board members, telling them one of the biggest challenges they face is students and families who live inside their district but who are choosing in greater numbers to attend schools outside the district.

"I am somewhat confused with that," said Porter, who will take over as superintendent in July. Some 1,130 students who live in the South Washington district attended public schools in other districts last year, vs. only 229 students who chose to come into the district from outside. "I want to better understand why families are making those choices," Porter said.

He might have to take a number on that, because plenty of east suburban schools leaders are looking at similar developments, scratching their heads, surveying students and parents, and starting new programs, all in an effort to find ways of competing more effectively with the multiplicity of educational offerings now available.

"There seems to be a greater willingness among families and students to move from school to school," said Keith Ryskoski, superintendent of Stillwater's schools. Ryskoski's district is perhaps one the hardest hit. Fully one of every four students who live in the sprawling district that stretches from Woodbury to the St. Croix River does not attend its public schools.

The confusing part for Ryskoski and others is that their schools are well-regarded and their students are admirable achievers. According to state tests, Stillwater High School students score higher than other students in their districts, other nearby districts and the statewide average.

Such results led Ryskoski and others in the Stillwater schools to commission a survey by E.G. Insight, which talked to 1,200 Stillwater area residents and found some surprising conclusions in how families ranked school attributes. The survey said the three most important things, in order, are the school environments, the relationships of the school to students and families, and academic achievement.

"We had thought academics would be number one," Ryskoski said. To adjust, the district has launched a frontal assault on the relationships aspect, in large measure by hiring a communications professional, filling a job that had been empty for more than five years. They also are trying to shore up relationships with young families in some of their first contacts with the district -- the early childhood and pre-school programs the district runs through its community education apparatus.

Student attrition in the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale district is a problem, too. Twice as many students left the district for other schools as came in last year. Superintendent Patty Phillips says the district's strategic road map calls for several initiatives that should encourage more families to attend the district's schools.

"We have all-day, every-day kindergarten for no fee. This is the third year of that," Phillips says.

She also is curious about what's taking so many students away from their schools, and she thinks a new enrollment strategy will give some answers. Anyone enrolling in any of its 14 schools will have to do so at one central location, which will make it easier for the district to keep track of the reasons they give for their comings and goings.

The choice fair

The school fair exhibitors included parochial schools, an online school, a home-schooling network and the Forest Lake Area Schools, the big tuna of the neighborhood, which saw three times as many kids leave the district last year as come in.

Nikki Theisen and Melanie Olson, mothers of 4-year-olds, were school shopping at the fair in the same way they might for school clothes. Except in this case, their children won't be starting kindergarten for another 18 months. Such advance planning and consideration underscore the seriousness with which parents are approaching school choice.

"I went to public schools, but that was out in the sticks and the classes were really small," Theisen, of Forest Lake, says of her days in the Moose Lake schools. She hasn't decided anything yet. "Just checking my options," she says.

"I like school choice. I think it makes them step up their game," said Olson, of nearby Wyoming, as she walked the room and heard pitches from the schools. "It's like picking out a college. It really is."