Rochester School District to Share Updated School Closure Plan
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- The Rochester Public School District (RPS) has postponed three info sessions that were supposed to be centered around the district’s 10-point Attendance Options Redesign plan.
The plan, which calls for the closure of three schools, was formally presented to the school board last month. The proposal’s aim is to implement new school start times and trim transportation and other expenses for the next school year.
On Monday the district announced the postponement of two in-person sessions that were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday evening and a virtual session that was supposed to take place Tuesday afternoon.
In the postponement announcement the district said the events were pushed back to “provide school district staff with additional time to prepare an updated version of the Attendance Options Redesign proposal that we plan to announce in the coming days.”
The schools recommended for closure in the proposal, due to sustained declining enrollment since the pandemic, are Pinewood and Riverside Elementary Schools, and Mighty Oaks Early Learning School.
“The Attendance Options Redesign proposal is the result of two years of planning and analysis,” Superintendent Kent Pekel said in an interview earlier this year on KROC-AM’s Rochester Today. “While the narrow failure of the technology referendum that Rochester Public Schools placed on the ballot on November 7, 2023, increases the urgency of finding savings in the school district’s transportation budget and in every other area of the district’s work, this proposal is not a knee jerk reaction to the defeat of the referendum earlier this month.”
The next steps in the process for the Rochester School Board involve being presented with an updated version of the plan during its Jan. 9 meeting. Board members will then take up the plan during a Jan. 16 study session before voting on the proposal during a meeting scheduled for Jan. 23.
The district plans to announce the rescheduled info sessions soon. An online form that allows the community to weigh in on the plan is still available.
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