Robbinsdale high school gets funding reprieve

A $300,000 one-year grant to Robbinsdale Cooper High School will restore funding to dozens of arts and athletic programs that were to be cut next year and offer low-income families relief from rising fees.

In return, Cooper is creating a new layer of parent-teacher cooperation, and requiring students to prove their worth through academics, attendance and service.

The William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Family Foundation grant was announced at Monday's school board meeting. It will bring back programs that were to be eliminated, and restore funding to programs that were set to be scaled back, such as the drama department and chess club.

The desire was to preserve a holistic education, Cooper activities director John Oelfke said Tuesday.

"An education is the entire experience, and it's the ability to go into those areas also that you have strengths in outside of the academic pieces and interests you can develop," he said. "We would be falling short just to offer academics."

District officials approached the McGuire Foundation shortly after last November's levy referendum failure -- and a resulting $5.4 million deficit -- made the need for cuts apparent, Cooper Principal Mike Favor said.

They approached the McGuire foundation because of its track record supporting causes having to do with education, the arts and support for families in need, he said.

Those factors, combined with a desire to get involved in the north Minneapolis area, also are what attracted the McGuires to the district, according to foundation spokesman, Bob Chlopak.

Cooper High School was targeted for relief because of its relatively higher levels of poverty and mobility in the student population.

The McGuires offered a novel demand: Students who receive scholarships to make up for rising fees on extracurricular activities will need to meet ongoing academic, attendance and citizenship standards. Parents and teachers will partner to monitor students' academic progress. Scholarship recipients and all extracurricular participants will have to complete a school-sanctioned service project.

"You don't just give people something," Favor said. "If you don't feel connected to the community ... you really don't care about the community, and you don't see value in that."

The grant also includes $75,000 to restore two days a week of after-school activities at the district's three middle schools. Those schools may supplement that amount through their own fundraising and partnerships.

District administrators know the one-year grant offers a narrow reprieve. Unless they find another funding source, they'll face the same shortfall for the 2009-2010 school year. And they don't want the community to think the grant alleviates the need for more stable funding, from a local tax levy or additional government aid.

"It's a huge danger," Favor said. "I hope that doesn't happen. I think that's one of the messages we want to get across, that this is just for one year. Next year I'm not quite sure what we're going to do."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409