Students at the five schools that are closing next fall overwhelmingly intend to stay in the St. Paul school district, according to a report this week to the school board.
With district enrollment well below building capacity, the board in December voted to close Galtier, Jackson and John A. Johnson elementary schools, as well as the lower campus of L’Etoile du Nord French Immersion and Parkway Montessori Middle. Around 1,000 students now attend those schools.
District leaders say 99 percent of the displaced students have indicated they plan to attend St. Paul Public Schools next year. That includes 81 percent who will go to the school recommended by the Envision SPPS plan and 18 percent who have picked some other school in the district.
“I don’t know if surprised is the right word, but we’re really pleased,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said Tuesday.
TRANSITIONS
The smoothest transition will take place at L’Etoile du Nord French Immersion. The school’s lower campus is closing, and 97 percent of its kindergarteners and first-graders plan to stick with French immersion at the upper campus.
At John A. Johnson, 84 percent say they’ll move on to Bruce Vento, where the construction of a new school building starts in 2024.
Jackson has students in two separate programs, a regular community school and the Hmong Dual Language program. Officials say 75 percent have indicated they will go along with the district’s plan to redistribute those students at Maxfield and Phalen Lake.
At Galtier, 69 percent plan to enroll one mile away at Hamline Elementary. That’s far better than the picture painted by Galtier parents in 2016, just before the school board narrowly rejected the first effort to merge the two schools; a PTO survey that year found just 9 percent were willing to go to Hamline and 34 percent would look outside the district.
‘ANGRY FOR A WEEK’
Kari Guida, who has a son in kindergarten at Galtier, spoke out against the planned closure before the board vote in December. But it didn’t take long for her family to commit to Hamline.
“We decided we’re going to be angry for a week and then we’re going to throw our weight behind Hamline,” said Guida, who’s on the transition team for the merging schools. “We’re excited about it.”
It’s a similar story for Antonio Rodriguez, who has kids in kindergarten and third-grade at Galtier.
“We tried to fight, fight, fight but decided to move on,” he said. “It was because the science teacher from Galtier (Peter Ratzloff) is going to Hamline. … Everybody loves him.”
The worry now, Rodriguez said, is that the district won’t fully invest in Hamline. The consolidation was supposed to create economies of scale that allow for all students to get a “well-rounded” education, but Rodriguez said the new school won’t have a full-time social worker.
“They are making the same stupid mistakes they did with Galtier,” he said.
In some ways though, the consolidation does mean more resources.
Andrew Collins, chief of schools for the district, said the increased enrollment at both Hamline and Maxfield means they’ll have more teachers who specialize in areas such as art, science or physical education.
District leaders are counting on the promise of fewer, but better resourced, schools to stabilize enrollment after a decade of losses.
CHEROKEE HEIGHTS
The figures shared with the school board Tuesday come from student placement applications submitted before the March deadline. District spokesman Kevin Burns said 100 percent of displaced students indicated their plans for next year, and only a handful said they’re leaving the district.
It’s not as solid an indicator as enrollment, but district leaders are pleased with the early reports.
“Our belief and our hope is we will see those children show up in the seats in the fall,” said Jackie Turner, the district’s chief operations officer.
Unlike at the other schools, most Cherokee Heights families are not going along with the district’s consolidation plan. One of two West Side schools, Cherokee Heights is converting from a Montessori school to a regular community school in the fall.
The district expected many students would move to JJ Hill Montessori, but only 26 percent say they’ll do so, while 70 percent are staying put.
That means enrollment at Cherokee Heights next year should be well above the 128 students the district initially projected.
But it also means a shortage of students in the district’s Montessori program as the district is making construction plans.
JJ Hill is closing after the 2024-25 school year, and its Montessori program is moving to Obama. In the meantime, the Obama building will undergo a major renovation in preparation of offering the Montessori model in the elementary grades and a Montessori focus in middle school.
It now appears enrollment at that reconfigured school may fall well short of expectations.