Elementary school redistricting in St. Louis Park will wait

Crowded classrooms at St. Louis Park's Aquila Elementary raised the possibility of redistricting starting in the 2024-25 school year, but major changes will wait.

Instead, the district will enact a few smaller changes to keep Aquila enrollment from growing too quickly — even as district and city officials eye new buildings springing up across the west metro community and wonder how many students will live in those apartments in a few years.

Feedback from families who love Aquila pushed Superintendent Astein Osei to recommend against a full-scale redistricting. Instead, he recommended that a new 120-unit affordable apartment building on Hwy. 7 near the Hopkins city line be placed in the Susan Lindgren elementary district, because families with children are expected to start moving into those larger, less-expensive apartments this fall.

St. Louis Park will also keep Aquila closed to open-enrollment students, and students who used to live in the neighborhood but have since moved away won't be allowed to stay at the school. If any Aquila families decide to transfer their students to another St. Louis Park elementary school, the district will provide transportation.

Still, Osei said, citywide development could strain schools over the next decade, if all the new apartments were to attract families with school-aged children.