Lakeville school board balks at magnet school plan

The Lakeville school board pulled the reins on a key part of integration plans with a neighboring school district when it tabled talk of a new magnet school Monday night.

The board put the brakes on a proposal to turn Oak Hills Elementary into a science and math magnet school in fall 2010, a plan that was developed by district employees and parents largely to help correct a racial imbalance with the more diverse Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district.

The move disappointed some Oak Hills parents, including Pam Dahl, who said she was excited about the idea of giving families more choices and expanding the school's math and science curriculum. Magnet schools "are kind of the wave of the future," said Dahl, who serves on the school's parent-teacher organization.

Several board members argued that the magnet school would improve learning for all children and keep more students in Lakeville, but three out of six on the board said they couldn't support it for a variety of reasons, many of which boiled down to money.

"We don't have a 2010-11 budget. We're doing this blind, absent having a firm grasp of how we're going to fund the needs of our 11,000 students in that fiscal year," said Board Member Bob Erickson.

Lakeville school leaders, like many across the state, are waiting to see how K-12 education fares as the Legislature grapples with a daunting state budget deficit. The district has already sliced $6 million from its budget for next year and faces an estimated $5 million in cuts for 2010-11 that could include closing an elementary school.

School administrators had proposed to launch the Oak Hills magnet school with state integration funds, a pot of money that can't be used for many classroom needs, including reinstating programs that have been cut. But explaining that to voters is tough, said Board Member Michelle Volk, especially in a year when the board may ask voters to approve a levy referendum. "You can't knock on everybody's door," she said.

Skelly also argued that magnet schools, with their specialized programming, run counter to the concept of having a district with solid neighborhood schools, none of which repel or attract families more than others. "The [magnet] program, by its nature, favors one elementary school, and we have nine elementary schools."

Lakeville began studying magnet programs as a way to close a growing racial gap Between its schools and those in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district. Minority students make up 12 percent of Lakeville classrooms, compared with 35 percent in the neighboring district. State law requires adjoining districts with a gap of more than 20 percentage points to come up with more ways to bring students together voluntarily and gives them money to do it.

School districts often use magnet schools as a desegregation tool because they can lure students of different races across attendance boundaries.

And attracting students -- who come with per-pupil education funding -- has become increasingly urgent for many Minnesota districts, particularly those, like Lakeville, with flat or declining enrollment.

"We are losing students every year because we have less and less to offer them," said Board Chairwoman Judy Keliher, who supported the Oak Hills magnet concept.

The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district is opening four magnet programs this fall, including one in performing arts for high school students and others for younger children that focus on gifted education and science, technology, math and engineering (STEM). Those programs have already accepted 37 Lakeville students, said Todd Olson, the Lakeville district's integration and equity coordinator.

District administrators plan to ask the state for $950,000 in integration funds next year, and they had proposed to spend nearly a third of that planning the magnet school. For 2010-11, they had budgeted $625,000 for the school's first year, about half the maximum amount Lakeville could get that year through the state's integration program, Olson said.

Lakeville's integration budget for next year won't necessarily shrink even without a magnet school, and the district could spend the money in a variety of ways, Olson said. The district has already used the funds to offer a program called AVID, for example, which helps middle-of-the-road scholars -- often minority students -- get on track to go to college.