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Staff writer

It’s been a good half-century since District 11 movers and shakers permanently shuttered any of its schools.

The district hasn’t manipulated student attendance boundaries in nearly a decade.

All that changed with final school-closing votes taken Nov. 23.

With that action – closing six schools and repurposing two more – District 11 School Board members charged forward, taking a close look at student attendance boundaries, moving some students and shaking up daily getting-to-and-from-school routines.

The board’s decision to close schools resulted in “massive amounts of changes affecting many, many students and families and staff,” said Chuck Holden, director of administrative service, when he addressed school board members during the preliminary presentation on proposed elementary school boundary changes Nov. 9.

In mapping out those recommended elementary attendance area boundaries, school administration maintained high school identities through feeder schools, gathered public input, established a five-year permanency in the boundary changes, met legal, state and federal guidelines and established and/or maintained contiguous boundaries where possible.

With just one exception, those recommended changes were adopted by board members Nov. 23.

The exception involves boundary changes for students currently attending Madison and University Avenue elementary schools.

While neither of those schools are closing nor are being repurposed, Holden spelled out to school board members a revised boundary proposal for those schools.

His recommendation to move 84 students from Madison to University Avenue Elementary School would “comply with state desegregation laws based on our Oct. 1 enrollment report,” he said.

It would also reduce transportations costs and create a contiguous boundary, uniting neighborhoods east of Highway 65, Holden said.

“We thought it would be a good idea to make University Avenue a specialty school,” he said.

But on further review he discovered the urgent need to “deal with boundaries first,” according to Holden.

“Failure to do that and we face sanctions from the state, losing desegregation funds,” Holden said.

A final decision on the Madison/University Avenue elementary schools boundary change will be made at the board’s Dec. 14 meeting.

In the meantime, “we remain consistent in our process to notify families and allow for input,” Holden said.

Boundary changes adopted at the Nov. 23 school board meeting (categorized by each high school’s attendance area) include the following.


Andover High School and Anoka High School attendance area:

• Peter Enich students return to home attendance areas with Ramsey Elementary School.

• 127 Ramsey Elementary students transfer to Rum River Elementary; however students living in the Silver Oaks neighborhood will stay at Ramsey Elementary.

• 87 Rum River Elementary students will go to Andover Elementary.

• 17 Andover Elementary students will transfer to McKinley Elementary.

• 60 Wilson Elementary students will go to Crooked Lake Elementary.

The closing/repurposing of Washington Elementary School would have 32 Washington students go to Crooked Lake Elementary, 61 Washington students go to Franklin Elementary, 80 Washington students go to Lincoln Elementary and 204 Washington students go to Wilson Elementary.


Coon Rapids High School attendance area:

• 60 L.O. Jacob students go to Adams Elementary.

• 45 L.O. Jacob students go to Hamilton Elementary.

• 38 L.O. Jacob students go to Hoover Elementary.

• 142 L.O. Jacob students go to Mississippi.

• Meanwhile, 38 Mississippi Elementary students will have to move to Hoover to make room for L.O. Jacob students at Mississippi.

• 178 Sorteberg students go to Eisenhower Elementary.

• 74 Sorteberg students go to Sand Creek Elementary.

• Seven Sand Creek students go to Eisenhower.

Some revisions were made in the Sorteberg boundary changes due to concerns raised by parents about the middle school split that might result.


Blaine High School attendance area:

• Four Eisenhower students go to Sand Creek Elementary.

• 43 Johnsville Elementary students will go to Jefferson Elementary.

• 36 Johnsville students go to McKinley.

• 46 University Avenue Elementary students go to Eisenhower.


Champlin Park High School attendance area:

• Park View’s kindergarten students return to their home attendance areas.

• Closing Champlin Elementary and Riverview consolidates those boundaries to the new location.

In-district transfer students at the following schools will return to their home school and must reapply: L.O. Jacob, Sorteberg, Washington, Sand Creek and Johnsville.

Anoka-Hennepin will honor all other current in-district transfer agreements.

Families that must re-apply for in-district transfer will be accepted based on available space.

First priority will be given to students currently enrolled in the attendance area, second priority goes to students currently enrolled from outside the attendance area and third priority will be given to new requests.

The open enrollment/in-district transfer deadline is Jan. 15, 2010 and notification of families on open enrollment/in-district transfer decisions will take place Feb. 15, 2010.

The timeline for boundary change next steps is as follows.

• Dec. 14: final decision on Madison/University Avenue boundary change.

• December: incoming kindergarten, K-5 and eighth-grade students are notified of school assignment for school year 2010-2011.

• Jan. 15, 2010: open enrollment/in-district transfer deadline.

• Feb. 15, 2010: notification of families on open enrollment/in-district transfer decision.

For more information and to see attendance area boundary maps, visit www.anoka.k12.mn.us.

Sue Austreng is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it