Homecroft Elementary wins reprieve, for now

WANTED: Ideas for a viable, successful elementary program to replace the current Homecroft Elementary in St. Paul.

REQUIREMENTS: Must try to serve pre-kindergarten through eighth grade; must draw more neighborhood children to the site than tiny Homecroft has drawn in decades; must help stem the tide of Highland Park families choosing charter or private schools.

DEADLINE: Mid-March, but will begin accepting ideas in early January.

APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO: The St. Paul Public Schools.

Tuesday night, the St. Paul School Board and Superintendent Meria Carstarphen pulled the idea of putting a special and alternative education program for older kids into Homecroft for 2008-09. The move was meant to give the community time to come up with a way to keep an elementary program in a school that has served the neighborhood for decades. But time is short.

While Carstarphen and the school board are willing to put "To Be Determined" under Homecroft's name in next year's school choice catalog, the superintendent warned that unless the district can reverse years of neighborhood apathy toward the school, the special education program will be back on the table.

"For what it's worth, I would love to see Homecroft stay a community school," Carstarphen said.

Carstarphen said she is confident the community and staff can find something that works. Community members, many of whom were incensed at essentially closing their elementary school and replacing it with a program for older and special needs kids, said they appreciate the second chance to come up with ideas.

"Thank you for giving us an opportunity to find our way out of the situation we find ourselves in," said Bill Rosenbloom, an area resident.

Homecroft is one of several St. Paul schools under corrective action because of provisions in the federal No Child Left Behind law. Changes have to take place to get the school on track academically. Changing Homecroft is part of a package of proposals the school board considered Tuesday, including expanding the Linwood Elementary arts program into Monroe Community School -- another school needing corrective action -- and partnering the popular Farnsworth Aerospace Magnet Elementary with nearby Cleveland Middle School, still another school facing corrective action. Those proposals passed the board Tuesday.

Yet, while several of those ideas met opposition -- some parents at Linwood aren't crazy about the idea of splitting the K-6 school's grades with Monroe and sending their older kids to that building -- none elicited the uproar that the Homecroft inspired.

Last week, about 150 people gathered at the school to voice objections. School board member Tom Conlon said he would propose pulling the Homecroft proposal.

"This option could give us something better than we've ever had," Conlon said.

The key, said Carstarphen, is coming up with a program that would attract kids who do not now attend St. Paul schools.

The basic idea behind many of the changes, she said, is to improve the schools that need it and expand those that have proven successful to bring more children into the St. Paul system.

It won't be easy with Homecroft, a school that has seldom been the first choice for kids in its attendance area.

"Is it viable as an elementary school? All the indicators say no," Carstarphen said. "Am I willing to grow something there that would make it viable? Yes."