The St. Paul school district could close some schools as early as fall 2021 as enrollment continues to fall.
The school board on Tuesday night approved the start of a two-year planning process that seeks to better match its offerings to what St. Paul families want.
Officials expect a dozen or so work groups will operate at once on such topics as Montessori education, Hmong dual immersion and racial integration. Some programs or schools could be expanded if demand warrants it, while others may close.
The process is just starting, and no specific buildings have been named.
Jackie Turner, chief operating officer, said the district hears all the time that residents want more art, music, dance, after-school programs or social workers.
“In order to do that, we need certain economies of scale,” she said.
Turner said they’ll look at merging and repurposing school buildings; academic concerns such as curriculum are not part of the conversation.
Total enrollment in the district, including preschool, is around 37,000. That’s down by more than 2,000 students since June 2016, when a divided school board voted against then-Superintendent Valeria Silva’s recommendation to close Galtier Elementary.
That’s the last time the board has publicly discussed closing a particular school.
New school board member Jessica Kopp was a parent leader at Hamline Elementary as the district weighed what to do with Hamline and Galtier, two Midway elementaries operating well under capacity.
She said it was “crazy-making” trying to boost enrollment at Hamline. They started to see results, she said, when they turned their focus to what kind of school they wanted to be.
Unlike those years, when the district seemed to have no plan for the Midway, Kopp said she sees “thoughtfulness and intention” in the district’s new process for aligning resources with demand.
“This feels so much more reassuring,” she said.
The board voted 7-0 to get the process started. They’re calling it “Envision SPPS.”
Some changes could be in place by fall 2021 and the rest by fall 2022.
