Rochester Public Schools is formalizing guidelines crafted last fall guiding administrators on everything from using preferred student pronouns to providing comfortable changing rooms and bathrooms for kids.
There are more 5,000 active job postings in Minnesota schools, according to St. Cloud State University’s EdPost listings. There’s one school district you won’t see on that list: Red Lake Public Schools.
It’s a slight but important change at a time when school performance data is scrutinized intensely. From test scores to graduation rates, those numbers have an outsized influence on policy decisions and on public perceptions of school success and failure.
The Minneapolis district has seen its enrollment drop by nearly 20,000 students since 2000-01. In St. Paul in the last five years, enrollment has fallen by more than 5,000 students and the district, which is the second-largest in Minnesota, currently enrolls 60% of the school-aged children who live in the city.
Raeline McVicker remembers the excitement four years ago when Gov. Tim Walz said Minnesota schools would close “temporarily” to slow the spread of COVID-19. It was March 15, 2020, and the state had 35 confirmed cases.
St. Paul leaders have said during the current teacher contract negotiations that the district faces a $108 million shortfall. The Association of Metropolitan School Districts' survey has Minneapolis reporting a $90 million projected deficit currently for the next school year.
Action comes after two Edina High School students filed a federal complaint late last year, alleging the school district discriminated against them when they were suspended for using a pro-Palestinian chant during a walkout to protest the Israel-Hamas war.
The fuel savings are a benefit, the buses are not as noisy, and they align with the community-wide focus on clean energy. But the electric buses can’t be used on out-of-town trips because of limited charging options in rural areas, one superintendent says.
The Star Tribune reported last week that 57 districts have requested a mediator from the Minnesota Board of Mediation Services. Commissioner Johnny Villareal was on this show last month, he said the board typically gets about 50 mediation requests in a bargaining cycle.
Many schools this fall saw demand for meals jump. In Northfield Public Schools, student breakfast counts rose by nearly two-thirds from the prior year, with lunches up 20%. Roseville Area Schools saw similar numbers—30% more kids eating lunch in the cafeteria and 50% more eating breakfast.
Earlier this year the Legislature passed the Read Act. The new law seeks to undo the legacy of Minnesota’s vast reading gap by requiring schools to teach reading in new ways. The act gives $70 million to schools to pay for training and curriculum from a menu of approved options. In a state that has traditionally left curriculum choices to individual districts, the law is unprecedented.
Typically at this point in the negotiations cycle, about a third of Minnesota's more than 330 public school districts would have settled contracts with their licensed staff. This year, only about a quarter have reached agreement, according to Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union.
Observers say what used to be occasional concerns about a single book from a parent or two have morphed into confrontations with groups and parents coming in with long lists of titles they see as inappropriate.
“We are concerned that a toxic national movement is about to sweep into Minnesota school boards, through elections in a dozen key districts, mostly in the suburbs,” Denise Specht, president of the state teachers union Education Minnesota, told reporters.
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