Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) or Special School District Number 1 is a school district that covers all of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis Public Schools enroll 36,370 students in public primary and secondary schools. The district administers about one hundred public schools including forty-five elementary schools, seven middle schools, seven high schools, eight special education schools, eight alternative schools, nineteen contract alternative schools and five charter schools. With authority granted by the state legislature, the school board makes policy, selects the superintendent, and oversees the district's budget, curriculum, personnel, and facilities. Students speak ninety different languages at home and most school communications are printed in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali.
Enrollment
In the past decade enrollment in Minneapolis Public Schools has decreased significantly. In the 2001-2002 school year the district's enrollment was 46,256 students. In the 2002â€"2003 school year Minneapolis Public School's 46,037 students were enough to be the 98th largest school district in the United States in terms of enrollment. In the following school year (2003â€"2004) alone, the district's enrollment had decreased 5% to just over 43,000 students. At that time the district was predicted to lose 10,000 more students over the next five years if the then current trend continued. Some of the decline has been from the result of a smaller school-age population.
In the 2007â€"2008 school year, 10,000 eligible school children in Minneapolis choose to attend other schools such as, in suburban school districts, at private schools or at charter schools. The number of students enrolled in Minneapolis Public Schools is expected to drop under 30,000 students from 2007â€"2011. As a result of "a severe learning gap, continued enrollment decreases and financial shortfalls" the district has at times proposed closing a number of schools, the majority in North Minneapolis. The district has space for 50,000 students.
A large portion of students that would normally attend schools in Minneapolis instead attend schools in the western suburbs. In 2000 Minneapolis branch of the NAACP sued alleging that students were being denied an adequate education. As a result, a program called "The Choice is Yours" was created that gave low-income students support in attending suburban schools. Around 2,000 students, the majority being from north Minneapolis, do so, attending other school districts in the West Metro Education Program. Several studies have revealed that students who remain in Minneapolis Public Schools have better test scores than those that are bused to schools in the suburbs.
Graduation rates
The 2010 graduation rates for the seven traditional high schools ranged from 74% to 98%. For alternative programs the graduation rate was about 45%.
For 2005, the America's Promise "Cities in Crisis" report calculated Minneapolis' four-year graduation rate at 45.3 percent, as compared to the 50-city average of 52.8. MPS disputes the findings, claiming that the study was inaccurate in the method it used to calculate graduation rates. The Minneapolis school system calculated its own graduation rate for that same time period as being at 52.8 percent.
Changing school options (2009)
Partly in a response to an assessment performed by a consulting company (McKinsey & Co.) and a reduction in future budgets, the Minneapolis Schools embarked on a program to reorganize the community and magnet school organization. The school administration's recommendation was posted on April 27, 2009 (April 28 Meeting Agenda).
The Minneapolis Board of Education at its September 22 meeting voted to amend and approve the recommendation for Changing School Options, a comprehensive plan to create financial sustainability for the Minneapolis Public Schools. The final vote was unanimous in favor of the recommendation.
Changing School Options creates three regional zones for transportation. With the exception of a few citywide options, students will attend an elementary, middle and high school in their zone. This three zone transportation model reduces transportation costs, retains choice for families since each zone offers at least three magnet options in addition to a community school and allows students to attend schools closer to home.
Each zone will offer Kâ€"8 students access to the following magnet programs: International Baccalaureate (IB); Teaching philosophy: Open or Montessori; Spanish Dual Immersion; Curricular: Arts and Science. Each zone will offer 9â€"12 students access to comprehensive high school programming.
Families with children enrolled in a citywide special education or English Language Learner program will continue to receive transportation across zones. Based on the state’s open enrollment law, families still have the option to enroll at any school in the city provided there is space available and they provide their own transportation. Students currently attending magnet, middle or high schools outside of their home attendance area or zone will have the option of grandfathering, or being guaranteed a seat in their current school, but must provide their own transportation. Students attending a community school who live outside of their school’s attendance area will be able to continue to attend if space is available, but must provide transportation.
The plan closes six buildings â€" four schools and two administrative centers that also house alternative programs â€" at the end of the 2009â€"10 school year: 1250 West Broadway; Longfellow; Folwell; the Lehmann Center; Emerson, which would move to the Anwatin/Bryn Mawr site; and the Brown Building, which housed Anishinabe Academy. Anishinabe has already moved to Sullivan for this school year. The Anwatin Middle School program will be phased out over the next two years; students who are in sixth and seventh grade at Anwatin may continue at the school through their eighth grade year.
The Kâ€"5 portion of Emerson Spanish Dual Immersion School will move intact to the Bryn Mawr/Anwatin site, with existing transportation services for those outside of the walk zone. A new combined Dual Spanish Immersionâ€"International Baccalaureate middle school program will be created at the Bryn Mawr/Anwatin site to serve Emerson, Windom and community sixth through eighth graders from the Bryn Mawr and Bethune attendance areas. This program would also serve students remaining in the Anwatin program through their eighth grade year.
The number of magnet schools will be reduced from 16 to 12 in order to concentrate resources on fewer magnets to strengthen their programs. Schools that are no longer magnets may choose to retain their themes. Current magnet schools that will no longer have magnet status are Cityview and Kenwood Performing Arts, Northrop Environmental and Pillsbury Math, Science and Technology. The Park View Montessori program will close. Armatage Community and Montessori School will become a full Montessori magnet school, with the community school program closing at the end of the 2009â€"10 school year. Bancroft Community School will become an International Baccalaureate magnet school.
Implementation of CSO for the 2010â€"2011 school year was modified from the plan as stated here. Among the changes: Anwatin Middle School remains open and now offers an International Baccalaureate program to all students, with about 25% of students also participating in a Spanish Dual Immersion program (established path from the Kâ€"5 Spanish Dual Immersion feeder programs at Emerson and Windom). Emerson remains at their unique location near downtown Minneapolis and beautiful Loring Park, and has expanded to offer Hiâ€"5 classes.
Leadership
The Minneapolis Board of Education describes itself as "a policy-making body responsible for selecting the superintendent and overseeing the district's budget, curriculum, personnel and facilities." See Board of education for further details on the functions of a school board. The Minneapolis Board of Education has been granted the power to carry out such duties by the State of Minnesota and the Minnesota Legislature.
Current members
- Chair: Rebecca Gagnon
- Treasurer: Jenny Arneson
- Vice Chair: Kim Ellison
- Clerk: Bob Walser
- Director: Siad Ali
- Director: Nelson Inz
- Director: KerryJo Felder
- Director: Ira Jourdain
- Director: Don Samuels
- Student Representative: Gabriel Spinks
Elementary schools (Kâ€"5)
- Armatage Community & Montessori School
- Bancroft Community School
- Bethune Community School
- Bryn Mawr Community School
- Burroughs Community School
- Dowling Urban Environmental Learning Center
- Emerson Spanish Immersion Learning Center
- Hale Elementary School (Kâ€"4)
- Hall International Elementary School
- Hiawatha Community School
- Jenny Lind School
- Kenny Community School
- Kenwood Community School
- Lake Harriet Lower (Kâ€"3)
- Lake Nokomis Lower (Kâ€"3)
- Loring School
- Lyndale Community School
- Northrop Elementary School
- Pillsbury School
- Pratt Community School
- Waite Park Community School
- Whittier International Elementary School
Elementary schools (Kâ€"8)
- Andersen United Community School
- Anishinabe Academy
- Barton Open School
- Bryn Mawr Elementary School
- Cityview Elementary School(Charter School 6â€"8 grade)
- Field Community School (5â€"8)
- Green Central Park School
- Hmong International Academy
- Jefferson Community School
- Lake Harriet Upper (4â€"8)
- Lake Nokomis Community School (a merger of Wenonah and Keewaydin schools)
- Lucy Craft Laney at Cleveland Park Community School
- Marcy Open School
- Nellie Stone Johnson Community School
- Ramsey International Fine Arts Center
- Seward Montessori School
- Sheridan Elementary School
- Sullivan Communication Center
- Windom Spanish Dual Immersion and Open School
Middle schools (5â€"8)
- Field Middle School
Middle schools (6â€"8)
- Anthony Middle School
- Anwatin Middle School
- Justice Page Middle School (formerly Ramsey Middle School)
- Northeast Middle School
- Olson Middle School
- Sanford Middle School
High schools (9â€"12)
- Edison High School
- North Community High School
- Patrick Henry High School
- Roosevelt High School
- South High School
- Southwest High School
- Washburn High School
- Wellstone International High School
Selected history of Minneapolis schools
- 1834 Rev. J.D. Stevens opens the first school in Minneapolis on the shores of Lake Harriet with four pupils.
- 1849 The first private school opens in St. Anthony (which merged with Minneapolis in 1872).
- 1851â€"1852 Mary Schofield opens a school on the west side of the Mississippi River.
- 1857 Minneapolis' first high school, Central Union (also known as Union Washington), opens.
- 1864 Central Union High School burns to the ground.
- 1867 East Side (East) High School opens.
- 1877 Central High School opens at 11th Street & 4th Avenue South.
- 1878 The State Legislature merges St. Anthony and Minneapolis School Boards into Minneapolis Board of Education.
- 1888 Logan High School opens.
- 1892 South Side High School opens.
- 1896 North Side High School opens.
- 1898 Sidney Pratt Elementary School opens.
- 1908 University High School opens on campus of University of Minnesota as a preparatory lab for the School of Education
- 1909 West Side High School opens.
- 1913 Central High School relocates to newly constructed building on 4th Avenue at 34th Street.
- 1916 Miller Vocational High School opens.
- 1922 Thomas Alva Edison High School opens
- 1922 Theodore Roosevelt High School opens.
- 1924 East Side High School closed. Part of building converted to commercial use. Demolished 2005.
- 1924 Marshall High School opens.
- 1925 Washburn High School opens.
- 1940 Patrick Henry Junior High School becomes Patrick Henry High School.
- 1940 Southwest High School opens.
- 1940 Minneapolis Board of Education drops the word "Side" from the title of the all Minneapolis High Schools.
- 1942 Logan High School closed.
- 1967 Marshall & University High Schools merge into Marshall-University High School.
- 1976 Miller Vocational High closed. Continued as Minneapolis Area Vocational Technical Institute. Closed 1984. Converted to commercial offices.
- 1982 Central High closed. Building demolished.
- 1982 Marshall-University High School closed. Building converted to commercial offices. Demolished 2013.
- 1982 Sidney Pratt Elementary School closed.
- 1982 West High School closed. Building demolished.
- 2000 Sidney Pratt Elementary School reopens (original 1898 building).
Records
Miscellaneous records such as minutes, reports, ledgers and other items relating to the Minneapolis Public School district are available for research use. Includes treasurer's ledgers and receipt book; summer school pupil record; teacher's term reports and list; annual reports of the secretary and committee on textbooks and course instruction; statistics on citywide and individual school failures and promotions and the cost of teaching high school; a real estate acquisition record; and a chart depicting the history of past and present school buildings and sites. Also includes minutes of citywide principals' and assistant principals' meetings, and subject files. Slides, sound cassettes and script materials from Wilder Elementary depicting Laura Ingalls Wilder are also part of the collection.
See also
- List of school districts in Minnesota
References
- Minneapolis Public Schools (2007). "Schools / Registration". Archived from the original on March 23, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-26.Â
- Minneapolis Public Schools (2006â€"2007). "2006â€"2007 Minneapolis Public Schools" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-26.Â
External links
- Minneapolis Public Schools official website
- AchieveMpls, the nonprofit organization dedicated solely to MPS student success
- Minneapolis Public Schools Historic Context Study
- Implementing Alternative Schools; Lessons from the Minneapolis Experience.