##VIDEO ID:a4-nHQx1WZg## e e e e e e e K I'm the proud superintendent of oio area schools and thank you so so much for being here tonight because your voice is so so important to us we need your thoughts we need your input so thank you for coming this evening I also was thankful that it wasn't 40 below outside when you had to come so I do want to take time uh we'll have school board members coming in at different today but we do have director Kelsey Dawson here so thank you Kelsey for coming in this evening all right so here we go so we have a lot of information we're going to share tonight you're not just supposed to pull all this in you're going to be here you'll be able to talk with each other but you'll also have plenty of time to look to read to come back again to ask questions so don't feel like you have to have everything tonight and whatever happens tonight is the final answer because it's not so what we're going to be going through this evening is we're going to sh share a little on who we are as a school district just to kind of go over the large because we're quite a large school district what an attendance boundary is just to make sure we're all on the same page with that with that why attendance boundaries need changing at this point in iio area schools the change process timeline the parameters that was used uh to support these proposed uh scenarios that we have this evening the proposed scenarios and details surrounding them what exactly is the transition plan for this change and your opportunity to share your thoughts tonight which includes splitting into smaller groups sharing your feedback asking questions at that presentation so we're going to share some information about the next 30 minutes we're going to take down some notes and comments and questions what you going to share afterwards with your small groups so before we get started I want to take a minute to talk about one thing that we're striving to do here in oel area schools the last several years we've been working toward becoming one Community for all where all voices are valued and heard and we truly believe in that and this means for all of our stakeholders that's all our students all our staffs parents and caregivers our community members play important role in our district we would not have a district without you so we thank you for that you should feel seen and appreciated as part of our OA Area School District whether it's today tomorrow or five weeks from now you are important to to us so I do just want to pause and make sure you say this one more time and I'm sorry if I'm being repetitive this is just our first version of scenarios being presented to you tonight please note the district has not made a choice there's no choice the choice is going to come from the voice of our public this is why you're here tonight for us to gather your input we're going to adjust things Accord to your input we're going to come back to you again and look at the new input and take that feedback so this is truly a collaborative model which kind of connects to what we do in our district is what we call holding space so what is holding space that's the main way here in AIO area schools we ensure that all are heard and valued so holding space um it means we are willing to walk alongside another person and whatever Journey they're on without judging them making them feel inadequate trying to fix them or trying to impact the outcome when we hold space for other people we open our hearts offer unconditional support and we let go of judgment and control this evening feel free respectively to share your thoughts listen to your neighbors so be respectful and understand that each person here has their own lived experiences you are here from what your needs of your family are so you need to make sure you share that and give us your input and we just want to make sure this environment is sa safe where you can be who you are and share your thoughts let's talk about oio area schools let's just look really quick at it so once again you probably all know this oor school encompasses all part of eight communities they rang from Dayton's Rogers corkman in the far Northwest parts to Plymouth to the South and Brooklyn Center to the east so the two largest communities we serve are Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove with the city of oio and the center about 160,000 community members live within this entire area we are the fifth largest school district in State serving nearly 21,000 students more than 15,000 of our students choose to utilize transportation services each today and this equates to about 36,000 bus routs that occur each day we have a total of 31 school buildings currently there are 24 traditional elementary middle and high schools we also have seven special program sites which include an area Learning Center and of course our early childhood centers soon there will be a 32nd School building thanks to our community support and building a better future too in 2023 a new elementary school is being built in the very northwest corner of our district in naap Gro it is set to open fall of 2026 our school buildings are between 24 and 100 years old so the sizes of each vary because of the different time periods they were built which has created capacity level differences among our district schools schools the most noticeable this is at is our elementary school level the more older schools which make sense tend to be smaller and in newer schools a little larger the school buildings were also place where Community growth was been experienced at that time during different areas in our what space was available so in a general sense Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center tend to be more established neighborhoods right now and maple gr Dayton and Plymouth are mostly gr so just one last fact uh fun fact that you want to know all these school buildings spread out over 703 acres of land so it is so important to us to know how our community feel you give us Direction you tell us what's working and you tell us what's not working so the good news is that so far that feedback and I'm going to be Optimist it's going to keep going that that feedback continues to show that our community thanks highly of our work here in a are schools so 82% of survey respondents said good or excellent on how well the quality of Education he is here at AIO area schools 87% said most students needs are met and 84% they say they're proud of our schools and we recommend them to others so this is why we're here tonight has dive into attendance boundaries some of the lingo we're using to share about this change can be confusing we want to make sure it's clear and understandable as you interact with this information so what is exactly is an attendance boundary attendance boundary is a geographical area from which students are eligible to attend a district school this means your household address is assigned to an elementary middle and high school so in essence this process may change the Elementary Middle School your household is currently set to attend so just a quick note suits may be moved between buildings within a district but attendance bounded changes will not impact which are assigned to attend oio schools versus surrounding schools so we can have um people that live close by but their district is a Noah henin white that or Robinsdale so why do we need to change now why now what's occurring and a simplest way to be able to share this out it has to do where our students are going and what our schools can hold this can obviously change from year to year or decade to decade so we have an enrollment and capacity management advisory committee or ECMC and they have been monitoring this is a community uh committee and has been monitoring enrollment ships and conduction with our school building capacities for the last several years their most recent reports have detailed that a significant enrollment and balance exists and that it's to the point that it needs to be addressed specifically there's significant growth in our Northwest portion of our district there as will be future Housing and Redevelopment are expected to to keep growing in these areas so in addition to that there are also some district schools that are underc capacity so eax worked helped to form a 2023 building a better future referendum and building a better future oversight tax agreed with atmac suggesting an additional facilities space became part of the 202 excuse me 2023 referendum as a result so once again we want to thank everyone for helping us with that uh future the better future and this is what helped us be able to build a new Elementary School in uh in elementary school in additions to the Maple grow Senior High that will be occurring as well this summer so during the 2023 build a better future referendum it was additionally noted that attendant boundaries were needed no matter what the outcome of the election was that we needed to do something so with additional facility space been added within a community referendum support attendance boundaries will be limited to Elementary middle schools only and in turn this will impact fewer families as promised just to be clear that means there are no changes made to the high school because that would have been this is awful anyway but High School okay we understand the community members makes slot of their decisions based on their household School assignments so this process is not something we want to do often in fact AIO area schools has not done this in more than 15 years on a large scale so we just come to the point that is needed right now so what is the timeline for this attendance boundary change uh the tenas boundary work actually kicked off this fall at that time we had community members had the opportunity to provide their thoughts on the parameters uh the coure team should be using to create these proposed scenarios we had nearly 3,000 community members participated on what would our parameters be to set these boundaries these are now called our community built parameters which will go through momentarily since late September the attendance boundary changes Court team has been utilizing these Community build parameters to develop proposed scenarios tonight you'll be seeing four of those this evening from their team's work now between now and April or May we will be reviewing your feedback we will be reviewing Community feedback and considering adjustments to these proposed scenarios we're hearing you so since this afternoon just under 300 community members have already shared their thoughts tonight is just an additional opportunity for all of you to share it as well final attendance boundaries are expect to be announced by the end of this school year the new attendance boundaries however will not go into effect until fall of 2026 the only exception to this is cresu Elementary these families will make their moves in the fall of 2025 are building a better future plan shared that an elementary school will be repurposed to serve pre kindergarten grades in Richmond and Community Based programming needs we will also be reaching out to the community to get more ideas for this site so after much research and cation crestf Elementary School was the school chosen to do this so crest's kindergart through grade five students and staff will be moving schools in the fall of 2025 the start of the 20252 school year so these children that are moving and staff that are moving this uh fall this will be the only time that they will need to move so we will not move them twice you likely put these two pieces together but the 2026 timeline matches the opening of The New School in Northwest Maple Grove so at this time I'm going to turn this over to John Moret our Executive Director of Finance and operations and he's going to walk you through the parameters and he's going to walk you through what our scenarios are and before that I do want to introduce we also have director uh Thomas Brooks from the school board here as well John okay thank you Dr H um so we're going to start with the community build parameters this is the parameters the coure team worked with to create the proposed scenarios starting with centering our core values honor and integrity belonging inclusion Innovation and Excellence transparency and intrinsic Val value ensure scenarios can function in our system including but not limited to Transportation building utilization and capacity enrollment current and future teaching and learning program offerings and financial costs ensure scenarios have longevity in our system follow the teacher student class targets established by the school board consider the number of students impacted in each scenario and consider the student demographics of each scenario continuing on parameters consider connecting more schools from level to level keep neighborhoods intact as much as possible minimize non-contiguous or non- adjoining areas maintain a810 of a mile Elementary and 1.0 mile secondary transportation service area that's the walk areas that are traditionally around each School maintain safety standards in regard to bus routing avoiding major highways Etc avoid lengthy travel time on buses and comply with state laws Schoolboard policy and negotiated agreements as you can see this is a pretty thorough list of parameters as we review our four proposed scenarios you may notice that some of these parameters are heed to more than others from Scenario to scenario the court team did their best to utilize all the parameters as much as possible again while utilizing the size of schools and current placement of school buildings that we have today and are soon expecting just a few minutes we'll be going through the specifics on the four proposed scenarios as Dr H mentioned you'll have an opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions in the small group portion of tonight's event which is just after the presentation so in the meantime um make sure to note any of your comments and questions and we'll get to them soon this is an overview of the per of four proposed scenarios being shared tonight bullet points two and three mentioned specific groups of students that would be impacted as noted in the community built parameters this was just looked at for all the scenarios but this is just a a snapshot of that so between, 3700 elementary and middle school students would move in these four scenarios which is between eight and 18% of our student population again Dr H mentioned high schoolers are not impacted and High School boundaries are not changing in this process we made a promise in the referendum and we fully intend to keep that promise racial demographics of schools would not change more than 5% in the majority of cases and poverty demographics of the schools would also not change more than 5% in the majority of the cases all right let's get down to the good stuff um I'm going to start by by kind of explaining the map for you but this is scenario number one um as you're looking at this the color represent the middle schools um for the attendance boundaries so orange is oio Middle red is maple Gro middle green is North View Middle blue is Brooklyn Middle within each color group you'll see proposed attendance boundaries for the elementary schools feeding into that particular Middle School you will also see in this case one middle school or Elementary School shaded in a kind of a purple hash color these schools are proposed to split to more than one Middle School one of the goals of the parameters is to reduce the number of elementary schools that split students to different middle schools for reference today we have seven elementaries out of 17 that split to different middle schools or have multiple options in this scenario we have one in all of the scenarios that the most we propose is three in this scenario approximately 3,000 elementary and middle school students will be impacted some of the strengths of this scenario are it's building use efficiency elimination of non- adjoining geographical areas and an improved feeder like structure as students move with classmates from elementary to middle school this scenario would last for the foreseeable future Elementary School specifics neighborhoods remain mostly intact as more natural barriers major roadways Parks creeks and lakes are utilized all but one school building that building being Cedar Island would be within its own attendance boundary Cedar Island would be across the street um this means students closest to each school would be able to attend and potentially walk there for the Middle School the non- adjoining Geographic areas that currently exist near northw Middle School would be eliminated all school buildings would be within their own attendance boundary again students closest to each school would be able to attend and potentially walk there moving to scenario number two scenario two is built to provide a little more minimal change while still meeting as many parameters as possible approximately 2100 elementary and middle school students would be impacted in this scenario some of the strengths of the scenario are its low number of changes its functionality within our system including efficiencies with building use and transportation services elimination of non- adjoining Geographic areas and an improved feeder likee structure as students would move with classmates from elementary to Middle School this scenario would also last for the foreseeable future um I forgot to explain one thing as you're looking at the maps the the hashed part of of Edinbrook in this example if you look to the lower left you see how that breaks at middle school and where those lines are and I know it's a small map and we'll talk about how to get the specific details of where you may particularly live if you're really close to one of those boundaries in just a minute so at the elementary school level in this scenario neighborhoods again would remain mostly intact following more natural borders again those roadways Parks creeks and lakes all school buildings would be within their attendance boundary this means schools closest to each students closest to each school would be able to attend and potentially walk there only one Elementary School would be split to multiple middle schools again in this case Edenbrook at the middle school level non- adjoining Geographic areas that currently exist at North View Middle School would be eliminated all school buildings would be within their own attendance boundary allowing that walkability um for those who live close to those goals okay moving to scenario three scenario 3 approximately 3,700 students in at middle and elementary would be impacted by this scenario some of the strengths of this scenario are it's building use efficiency eliminating um non- adjoining Geographic areas and improving the feeder like structure of students moveth with classmates from element Middle School this scenario would also last for the foreseeable future at the elementary level neighborhoods would remain mostly intact again following the natural barriers of roadways Parks lakes and Creeks all but one school building Cedar Island would be within their own attendance boundary element this is just Elementary two elementary schools would be split into multiple middle schools Edinbrook and Palmer Lake at the middle school capacity issues at the middle school level are addressed non- enjoying Geographic areas that currently exist near northv Middle School would be eliminated however the three middle schools would all be located three of the four within the north U Middle School attendance foundary so this removes some students opportunity to attend their most proximal School in the last scenario number four this scenario moves the least amount of students approximately 1,800 students would be impacted by this scenario the strength of this scenario is its low number of changes however because it moves the fewest number of students new Middle School attendance boundaries would be needed by 2028 the elementary boundaries proposed in scenario 4 would be good for the foreseeable future but not the Middle School in the elementary school level this is the same as scenario too but the feeder like structure as students move from elementary to Middle would not be as improved with three different elementary schools being split between different middle schools and you can see on the chart how they split by color all school buildings would be within their own attendance boundary again meaning that students closest to each school would be able to attend and potentially walk there uh the three elementary schools that would split to multiple middle schools are Edenbrook parkbrook and Fair Oaks at the middle school level this is similar to scenario 2 the only difference here is that we would keep two of the three current non- adjoining non-contiguous areas that currently exist near northv Middle School all but one school building Brooklyn Middle would be within its own attendance boundary which means again students close to each school would be able to attend and potentially walk there I want to show you the middle just Middle School only for scenario 4 that's what this other map is to show you those two um non-contiguous Pockets one going to oo midle that exists today and the red one going to Maple Grove that exists today there is a third today but because it is the farthest distance from Maple Grove we made the decision in this scenario to propose that it splits between North middle and Brooklyn midle again in this particular scenario because we're not moving as many middle school kids we expect oo middle and maple Gro middle to hit capacity and us to need to come back to that boundary conversation by 2028 okay so now that you've seen the four scenarios I'm sure the very first question on your mind is how exactly does this affect me to help you with that please check out the boundary website for interactive maps for each of the proposed scenarios and also in here you can type your address and find out any of the impacts so either the QR codes here are also on the website each QR code will take you to an interactive map per scenario where you can enter your address it'll ask you to confirm your address and then tell you which Elementary Middle School and High School you would attend the website is district279.org boundaries we do have Chromebooks available back in the corner tonight if you'd like to take a look just jump on them anytime you want um Next Step so we have a lot of frequently asked questions and what we're going to do is try to highlight a couple real loow hanging ones or or more obvious ones to help you but again I would refer you to that same website for a more detailed response there's a whole lot of lists there so one of the most common questions is if I would like to go to a different School than my boundary school can I um there are two different answers to this depending so I'm going to explain those to you if you currently attend your boundary school on our our current map today and you have not taken any action to change that going forward your child would attend their new their future boundary school just like you're attending your current one so no changes will be allowed there since the new attendance Founders will be determined more than a year ahead of the implementation we will not Implement any hold harmless option where students can stay within their current school if you have taken action on your child's School through from your current boundary School meaning through either an in District transfer which is I live within the district but I'm moving from my boundary school to a different school or through open enrollment which means I live outside the school district and have been granted open in Roma and given a path through school um people that fit in those two scenarios students will be given a hold harmless option we have already promised you a path and and much like we did with the senior high and and our promise to not change that boundary we made a promise to you with a path you will have the right to retain that if you so choose so if if you're if we would move you and you want to stay at a school you're going to have that right however some may choose to say nope I want to go to this school and you'll still always have the right to go back to your boundary school that exists for all all students some frequently asked questions in the district's transfer on IND District transfer and open en moment just a quick breakdown um I think I touched on but IND District transfer is you are a current Community member living within our outer border attending one of our schools but you've been given the option to attend a different School than your your boundary school and open enrollment are schools from outside of oio area schools you live in wetta or Robinsdale and have been granted open enrollment in there are very specific state requirements with open enrollment that we have to follow so it's a little bit tighter current in District transfer and open enrollment students can remain at their chosen sites if they desire applications do not need to be refilled out for anything with those two scenarios um School Board procedures prohibit the district from offering in District transfer to impacted schools during attendance boundary transition years that means new IND District transfer requests will not be allowed at district elementary and middle schools from now through the end of the 2020 or 2728 school year doing this enables the district to see the most accurate representation of changes and helps us to better evaluate the success and long-term efficiencies current restricted IND District transfer and open enrollment schools will remain in place until a review has been completed which will happen no later than January 15th of 2027 um sorry I think I I think we were off a year on that it's through the 2627 school year is where we're going to hold that it's not another year after that it's just through 26 27 so my apologies there um so the current restricted schools Fernbrook is a really good example that building has been very full for quite a while um and you will we will need to be able to see how our changes impact that building before we necessarily open it back up to potentially allowing industry transfer or not busing information that goes along with these changes will be shared as it usually is in the regular back to school season so be looking for that information if with a fall 26 implementation you should see that in August of 2026 again again there are a lot more answers to frequently asked questions on the website district279.org boundaries so please check those out and I will turn it back to Dr H to talk about transition thank you um I do believe School Board member I don't know you got P for Director Erica Foster is here as well hey hey hey okay so first of all we just want to once again a district greatly appreciate your flexibility with these changes uh we know that these are difficult changes in this transition we're all here to support each other please feel free at any time you can reach out to the district you can reach out to schools you can reach out if you have any questions don't there's no such thing as a silly question uh if you have a question we're going to answer that for you also if you have any questions besides connecting with your school you can also don't hesitate to reach out to our hotline of uh better future at district279.org and there's actually a phone number as well 763 391 8990 at any time so okay perhaps now we're going to what you've been waiting for the feedback portion of the night is ready and there's so much like in prry we know it's going to take steps for this but as I shared Community Support is very important for us as a community voice there's two ways you can choose to provide feedback this evening option one is go to that assign small group The Coloring number or your name tag matches a small small group that you've been assigned to and in a minute each facilitator of those tables will facilitate those small groups it will hold up the color to those groups so you can easily find them where you need to go in case you're not sitting at the right table and it's okay you're not sitting at the right table we're all doing the same information if you Haven been signed a group feel free to come up front and we'll be able to give you a group to be able to attend to the second way which you can always provide us feedback as well as a QR code on the screen and fill out a Google form via the website uh link all of your feedback whether it's via the group form or whether it's via recorded by the core team in the next coming week adjustments will be made as a result new proposed scenarios are expected to be shared in March and at that time once again you'll have the opportunity to provide feedback so please make sure you stay tuned for those next steps so again I just want to share over again multiple ways and you can share this is not just your only opportunity district279.org uh SL boundaries parent and caregivers can stay tuned to regular updates we'll send those via email and text all our community members can also connect to build a better future at district279.org 763 391 8990 so thank you for your time tonight you're helping making these needed changes the best that they can be and let's get some work done thank you go ahead and start our