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School Closings Set Off Enrollment Shuffle for 400 Students: Students From 3 Schools Moving to or Staying in District

Posted on: Monday, 12 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Doug Belden, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Jun. 12--Schools in St. Paul have been aggressively competing for students in recent years as the number of school-age children in the city has dwindled.

So when three schools closed at the end of this year, putting nearly 400 students on the market, the question for many educators was: Where will the kids wind up?

Based on selections so far, more than half the students at the two closed charter schools -- New Voyage Academy and Minnesota Business Academy -- will enroll in St. Paul Public Schools this fall.

That's good news for the district, which has lost 9 percent of its enrollment the past eight years while enrollment at charter schools -- which are public but operate independently -- has nearly tripled. (The district still enrolls more than eight times as many students as charters in the city do -- 41,267 vs. 5,041 this school year.)

But competition for students goes on not just between district schools and charter schools; it also is between schools within the district.

Two in five of the current K-5 students at Parkway Elementary -- which also is closing at the end of this year -- plan to move two miles west to another district neighborhood school, Dayton's Bluff.

Dayton's Bluff was announced as the favored destination when Parkway staff indicated a preference this spring to stay together as a school community. But some other East Side schools griped that they weren't given an equal chance to recruit Parkway kids.

About half the Parkway students are headed for Dayton's Bluff and other neighborhood schools, while the other half will attend magnet schools.

That distinction is the source of yet more competition, with neighborhood schools claiming they are at a disadvantage compared with magnets because they can't offer citywide busing.

As usual, the most difficult SPPS magnet elementary school to get in to for 2006-07 was Capitol Hill Gifted and Talented, which accepted 54 percent of applicants.

The other selective magnets all offer programs for 4-year-olds that feed into their kindergartens. Nokomis accepted 61 percent of applicants, Wellstone 68 percent, Crossroads Montessori 72 percent, J.J. Hill 76 percent and Crossroads Science 79 percent.

Why does the ability to draw students matter so much?

Partly because each one brings with them several thousand dollars in state aid, and also because in a time of declining enrollment, a school's viability depends on its ability to bring students in the door.

Doug Belden can be reached at dbelden@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5136.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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