To prepare for the opening of the new Lake Elmo and Bayport elementary schools next fall, Stillwater Area Public Schools officials say they plan to change attendance boundaries “to balance enrollment across the district’s southern schools and make room for future growth.”
The district is considering three scenarios. One would affect 135 students, and the other two would affect 39 students each, said Carissa Keister, the district’s chief of staff and director of communications.
To the extent possible, each elementary school will have a minimum enrollment of 400 students, Keister said. “It’s just better programmatically when we have at least 400,” she said. “We can have full-time staff for our specialists, and three sections of each grade level. It’s just more efficient.”
Much of the district’s growth will be in Lake Elmo, so district officials are purposely building the new 150,000-square-foot elementary school at 10928 10th St. N., “intentionally large,” Keister said.
“We’re actually trying to keep room there knowing that we don’t have growth for next year, but we will have growth in five, six, seven years from now,” she said. “We don’t want to overcrowd it now when we know that the growth is coming.”
An open house on the plan will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at Oak-Land Middle School. Families are invited to come learn about the options and share feedback. District leaders and members of the boundary committee will be in attendance.
Parents and family members also can provide feedback online prior to Dec. 2 at: https://my.thoughtexchange.com/scroll/132099563/welcome.
The school board plans to hold a study session on the proposed changes at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Oak Park Learning Center, 6355 Osman Ave. N., in Stillwater. A final decision is expected Dec. 16.
District officials have put the current Lake Elmo Elementary School up for sale; the asking price is $5 million.
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District officials plan to move into the current Andersen Elementary School building in downtown Bayport next year when the new 98,000-square-foot school – which will be called Bayport Elementary – opens at 1003 Fifth Ave. N., in Bayport.
District officials are currently split between the Oak Park Learning Center and the Central Services Building on Greeley Street; the Central Services Building will be put up for sale, Keister said.
“That would allow all of our central services staff to be together,” she said. “We’re kind of divided up between two buildings right now.”
The Oak Park Learning Center will continue to be used for the district’s Alternative Learning Center, the district’s Transition program, professional development and other meetings. In the future, it could be used for some daytime community-education programming, Keister said.
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