Aging residents make Edina a gray area

Edina is graying faster than the state and nation, and its once-predominant family households are giving way to more and more empty nests. Yet Edina schools are growing in every grade.

Why?

Open enrollment, said State Demographer Tom Gillaspy, is injecting youth into the aging community, keeping the schools vibrant.

While eight out of 10 Minnesota school districts are shrinking in enrollment, Edina schools are growing because students from other districts are opting in.

In most districts, high school enrollment is 30 to 40 percent larger than the primary school enrollment, but in Edina, "Almost every grade is identical in size to every other grade," he said Tuesday in a speech about the changing demographics of Edina before the city's combined Rotary Clubs at Edina Country Club.

The median age in the community is nearly 45 -- compared with 35 for the state and nation -- and Edina has more retirees than kids in school, Gillaspy said.

"Reputation and achievement -- excellence -- can go along way in overcoming some of the challenges" of an aging community, Gillaspy said, and Edina's school system offers that sort of excellence.

School figures show that more than 15 percent, or about 1,200 of Edina's 7,700 students, live outside the district.

During the past year, some Edina parents have become concerned about open enrollment making class sizes bigger than desired. But the net effect of open enrollment is to bring in more state money per pupil and allow the district to maintain programs that other districts are having to cut, school officials have said.

While the schools keep the community humming, "the people of Edina will experience dramatic change" in the decades ahead, Gillaspy said.

This is the year the nation's first baby boomers turn 62, and over the next three to five years they will retire in record numbers, he noted. By 2030, 35 percent of Edina residents will be 65 or older. Already, one of every five houses in the city is occupied by someone age 65 or older living alone.

Given those numbers, finding a way to keep people connected to their community becomes important, Gillaspy said. That may include encouraging people who have retired to help out in the schools by tutoring or in some other way, he suggested.

Or it could take the form of neighbors taking time to check on older people living alone. "Just calling up and saying 'Hi.' It doesn't have to be an intrusive kind of thing. That makes people feel better about where they live."

As the number of older people increases, the number of younger people will decrease, Gillaspy said. Across the state, high school graduation will peak this year and next.

Because there will be fewer people to do the work that retiring baby boomers leave behind, young people now in the 18-to-24-year-old age group will be precious and in huge demand, Gillaspy said. Members of the coming generation will have career opportunities in their 30s that their parents didn't have until their 50s, he predicted.

They are the people who will be called upon to maintain the country's wealth and productivity so the baby boomers can retire, he said.

While this so-called "silver tsunami" has been forecast for years, few plans are in place to handle the demographic swing, Gillaspy said. "Did we prepare for it? Not really," he added.

"I can't tell you exactly what needs to be done. I am not trying to tell people what they should do."

But the coming change will affect almost every aspect of civic and business life, and his goal is to make people aware that it's going to happen.

"My personal belief is that people who are better informed are better able to react and respond to changes, and also to prepare for changes."

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711