Elementary School Attendance Area Task Force
Moorhead Area Public Schools
8 p.m. November 20, 2003
Townsite Centre Board Room
Members Present:
Dann Bjornstad,
Kevin Kopperud,
Diane Mead,
Rosemary Hirchert,
Lisa Christian,
Mark Weston,
Dan Bacon,
Sue Ringham,
Mark Ringham,
Brenda Rapske,
Julie Arnold,
Beth Henning,
Lynne Kovash.
Members Absent:
Terri Smith, Jim Cummings, Tim Magnusson, and Jeff Schaumann.
District Representatives:
Dr. Larry Nybladh, superintendent, and Pam Gibb, communications coordinator.
Call to Order
Mark Weston called the meeting to order.
Approval of November 6 Meeting Minutes
Task force members reviewed the minutes. Terri Smith should be listed as present. Arnold moved, seconded by Hirchert, to approve the minutes with the change noted. Motion carried.
Communications
There was a discussion of No Child Left Behind and the grouping of students by eligibility for free and reduced lunch, special education status, and ethnicity. Lynne Kovash also explained that schools qualifying for Title I funding have a percentage of free and reduced students that is above the district average. Kovash said that one school will probably not qualify for Title I based on that definition. However, the district will provide support services even though Title I funding is not available.
Review Attendance Area Scenarios
Task force members were mailed five scenario options, 1, 1A, 2, 2A, and 3, to review prior to the meeting. Dan Bacon began the discussion of the scenarios with Scenario 3. There was discussion of this scenario, including sending all of Greenwood to Robert Asp and sending the Meadows South area to Reinertsen instead of Asp. This would better balance the enrollment between the three schools. Hopkins would have the highest enrollment. There was discussion of how the Greenwood area has been split or not spilt in the past and the impact of the immersion program on enrollment at Ellen Hopkins Elementary School.
Scenario 1A was discussed as seeming to be more balanced in enrollment. There was discussion that the Kendall's area near the middle school could be included in the Robert Asp area. The task force further discussed target enrollment and building capacities, as well as the use of resource/swing rooms as classrooms. Mark Weston reminded the task force that the district is positioned with the current funding mechanism to build a fourth elementary should enrollment begin to grow. Approximately 75 percent of the cost would be covered by the state.
There was discussion that the current patterns of growth are much different than those of the past. Task force members reviewed the City of Moorhead information provided by Jeff Schaumann related to the projected growth of students. Based on an 8.01% growth factor, the City of Moorhead projections are: north of Main Avenue: 53 students; south of Main to I-94: 68 students; and south of I-94: 107 students for 228 students total.
The task force members then had Dan Bacon modify some of the scenarios to see how changing sections of the boundaries affected the projected enrollment for the schools. There was further discussion of the Greenwood area, as well as discussion of the area north of the Interstate, west of 8th Street to the river and north to 20th Avenue.
One possibility mentioned was that as part of the recommendations, the task force could consider identifying areas as possible "swing" areas. These areas would be part of one school's attendance area, but in the future could be made part of a different attendance area.
Other Information Needs
Dan Bacon will prepare some revised scenarios based on the discussion.
Next Meeting
The next meeting was scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4 in the Townsite Centre Board Room.