Given the choice, I don ' t believe any parent would prefer to have their child in a storefront location rather than a school building with all the amenities it provides. Repurposing the schools— it was just so much better for our kids.
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As Amy Homicke thinks about the the young children that fill Riverview Early Childhood Center, a smile grows on her face.“ It’ s been amazing for our students and our staff to be in this building,” she said.
Homicke is the special education supervisor at Riverview Early Childhood Center in Brooklyn Park, a school that since 2010 has exclusively been home to Anoka-Hennepin Early Childhood Special Education and Early Childhood Family Education programming.
“ Having all of our students and staff in one place like this is amazing,” Homicke said.“ And parents feel more comfortable having their small children attend a school-building instead of bringing kids to storefronts and malls.”
Storefronts and malls may sound like hyperbole, but it was the case for a lot of the programming Anoka-Hennepin had for its most vulnerable students until 2010. That year, the district made the difficult decision to repurpose six of its neighborhood schools, reimagined the roles of the buildings, and converted them into new, different spaces for district students.
“ It was a difficult decision, but students, parents, and staff are thrilled with the move from storefronts to schools with green spaces, playgrounds, ball fields, gyms, and lunchrooms,” said Anoka-Hennepin Chief Operations Officer Chuck Holden.“ Ultimately, we are serving our students much better.” So what changes were made?
Washington Elementary School in Anoka is now the sixth-grade campus of Anoka Middle School for the Arts; Sorteberg Elementary School in Coon Rapids and Riverview, which had been Riverview Specialty School for Math and Environmental Science, are now home to Early Childhood Special Education, Early Childhood Family Education programs and preschool, as well as early childhood screening; L. O. Jacob Elementary School in Coon Rapids is now the River Trail Learning Center and home to the district’ s full-day, level IV special education programming; Sandburg Middle School is now used for Community Education programming, high school athletic programs( specifically Anoka High School gymnastics and Andover High School dance), district professional development, some special education staff, and School Board meetings; and the Parkview Kindergarten Center in Brooklyn Park became Champlin-Brooklyn Park Academy. All of those repurposed neighborhood schools are full of students and programming each and every day.
Before 2010, Anoka-Hennepin’ s early childhood students were spread out around seven different locations, including three outside of district schools: the Coon Rapids Family Place Mall, Champlin Strip Mall and Coon Rapids Head Start Building.
Homicke says the change was profoundly positive for the district’ s early childhood programming, which consolidated from seven different locations all across the district— including sites at the Coon Rapids Family Place Mall, Champlin Strip Mall and Coon Rapids Head Start Building— to two: Riverview and Sorteberg.
“ We have the ability to provide building-wide opportunities to help our students get ready for kindergarten transitions, including
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR LIFE
Repurposed schools are allowing Anoka-Hennepin and its most vulnerable students to thrive
Questions persist over school repurposing, and roles the buildings now have.
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Given the choice, I don ' t believe any parent would prefer to have their child in a storefront location rather than a school building with all the amenities it provides. Repurposing the schools— it was just so much better for our kids.
Anoka-Hennepin Chief Operations Officer Chuck Holden
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Early Childhood Special Education and Early Childhood Family Education students from the Sorteberg Early Childhood Center in Coon Rapids helped install a new ADA-compliant swing at the school last year.
practicing in the cafeteria for what the kindergarten lunchroom will look and feel like,” she said.“ And now we offer celebrations assembly-style gatherings with our students, which is great and provides a real sense of community for our students.”
Marsha Polys, who is the special education supervisor at Sorteberg, says the benefits of being in a school versus a strip mall go deeper than what meets the eye.
“ It ensures that resources are used wisely and don’ t have to be duplicated at different sites,” she said.“ It also means that there is a consistent location that families can access without confusion on where they should go.”
Using resources more wisely was one of the main reasons the changes were originally made, according to Holden. At the time, there was an excess of more than 150 unused classrooms in schools across the central and southern portions of the district, plus a significant number of malls and storefronts being leased for program needs.
In 2008-09 the School Board appointed a citizen task force to review the issue. The group met for several months, studying demographics, enrollment projections, and finances before making recommendations.
“ The task force found that operating schools under capacity is expensive and inefficient, and that money could be better used for teachers and other program needs,” Holden said.“ The repurposed schools are now being used efficiently, and specifically, students at Riverview, Sorteberg, and River Trail at L. O. Jacob now have playgrounds, lunchrooms, and gyms that they did not have access to in leased spaces.”
In addition to better serving students, the district has saved more than $ 3 million a year since repurposing the schools, Holden said.
Specifically, more than $ 700,000 a year was saved by consolidating the district’ s early childhood programming into Sorteberg and Riverview. And by moving the district’ s level IV special education students to River
Trail at L. O. Jacob, the district no longer has to send students outside the district to intermediate districts 287 and 916, which has saved nearly $ 1 million a year in transportation and tuition costs.
“ Keeping our students here is not only financially beneficial, but it is a much better service for our students and families,” Holden said.
Two other sites were also involved in the building repurposing in 2010— Champlin Elementary School and the Educational Service Center on Hanson Boulevard in Coon Rapids.
Champlin Elementary School was closed, and has since been sold. The school was closed because of the significant price tag of renovating it to meet the needs of today ' s students and federal laws. The building, which only had a 400-student capacity, had two levels, and required the costly installation of an elevator to meet federal accessibility laws, plus at least $ 6 million in other repairs.
In addition, the former Educational Service Center off Hanson Boulevard was also closed and sold after district administrative staff were moved to the Peter Enich Kindergarten Center, which the district already owned in Anoka.
Nine years later, the enrollment projections the task force studied in 2008-09 have held true for the central and southern portions of the district, Holden said.
“ Today, it’ s true Anoka-Hennepin is growing, but it’ s growing in different areas, specifically in the northern parts of the district in Ramsey and Blaine,” Holden said.“ And the growth areas are so far away from the schools that were repurposed in the south and central parts of the district that it wouldn’ t be feasible to convert the repurposed buildings back into traditional schools to address space needs.”
While the changes were difficult at the time, after more than eight years to review them, Holden said it’ s pretty clear they were a good thing for Anoka- Hennepin and its students.
“ It’ s easy to understand why the community would be irritated that the elementary school down the street was repurposed,” Holden said.“ Given the choice, I don ' t believe any parent would prefer to have their child in a storefront location rather than a school building with all the amenities it provides. Repurposing the schools— it was just so much better for our kids.” ■
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