28 November 2023
ROCHESTER, Minn. — In the wake of mounting financial pressures, Rochester Public Schools has announced its intent to close multiple schools in addition to a slew of other changes as part of a larger overhaul of its attendance options.
RPS announced the intent Monday morning in a press release. The district’s school board is set to discuss the situation further on Tuesday.
“The Attendance Options Redesign proposal is the result of two years of planning and analysis,” Superintendent Kent Pekel said in Monday’s statement. “While the narrow failure of the technology referendum that Rochester Public Schools placed on the ballot on November 7, 2023, increases the urgency of finding savings in the school district’s transportation budget and in every other area of the district’s work, this proposal is not a kneejerk reaction to the defeat of the referendum earlier this month.”
RPS intends to close both Pinewood and Riverside elementary schools, as well as Mighty Oaks Early Learning School. Pinewood is located in southeast Rochester near Willow Creek Middle School. Riverside Elementary is located in the center of Rochester, just south of Fourth Street Southeast.
The statement from the district said those schools are being recommended for closure because of “a sustained pattern of declining enrollment.”
However, the closure of those schools is just one of a handful of large-scale changes outlined in the plan. The initiative also calls for the transfer of the district-wide school, Lincoln K-8, to the building that Riverside Elementary currently occupies.
The plan also calls for the discontinuation of transportation for students who attend district-wide schools, which include Lincoln K-8, Washington Elementary, Longfellow Elementary and Montessori at Franklin.
Meanwhile, Longfellow Elementary, which is the district’s only school that operates on an alternative schedule, would switch to a traditional calendar. It also would expand to become a K-8 school, the second in the district along with Lincoln K-8.
Other changes outlined in the plan include the creation of a middle school alternative learning center, the expansion of the school-age child care program, and the reconfiguration of Churchill and Hoover early learning and elementary schools.
The plan also outlines a change to how schools across the district will allow students to attend. According to the proposal from RPS, students who live within a school’s attendance zone will be guaranteed a spot in that building. However, the district will now allow students who live outside that attendance zone to enroll at the school if there are spots available. If there are more students outside the attendance area who want to enroll in that school than there are spots available, the district will award them based on a lottery system.
The failure of the district to pass the proposed technology levy is not the only financial pressure contributing to the redesign. Not long ago, the district announced the cost of its contract with the bus company, First Student, was going to increase 30%.
The district says the 10-point proposal “must be approved by the Rochester School Board” before Feb. 1, 2024, “to enable RPS to implement new school start and end times for the next school year.”
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