At the March 20 meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools’ Board of Education, Superintendent Bill Green and his staff recommended that the district close six schools. Five of those schools are in North Minneapolis and their closing is part of the district’s new North Side Initiative. The following recommendations were made:
• Loring, Bethune and Hall schools will remain open as k-5 programs.
• The pre-k-8 programs at Cityview, Nellie Stone Johnson and Lucy Laney at Cleveland Park schools would be re-visioned.
• The Hmong International Academy would move intact from Jordan Park School to Lucy Laney at Cleveland Park School.
• Jenny Lind and Olson schools would be a pre-k-8 dual campus.
• The Afro-Centric Academy currently housed at the Franklin School building would move intact to North Community High School to form a 6-12 campus.
• Patrick Henry High School would remain open as is.
• W. Harry Davis, Lincoln, Jordan Park, North Star and Shingle Creek schools would close.
Under the North Side Initiative, the remaining schools will receive more assets to boost test scores, help close the achievement gap and to improve discipline/behavior. It will also allow most of the remaining schools to have lower class sizes in grades k-3. Besides offering the core curriculum (math, reading/writing, science, social studies), remaining schools will offer such things as band, music, art, gifted and talented, etc. that most of our schools currently are not able to offer because of lack of funds.
A public hearing will be held at on the proposed closings at Patrick Henry High School on Tuesday, April 10 at 6 p.m. The school board will take a final vote on the closings at a special meeting on Thursday, April 12 in the assembly room at district headquarters. For info contact 612-668-0230, answers@mpls.k12.mn.us or www.mpls.k12.mn.us.