The Crookston School Board voted unanimously (6-0) to close Washington School after this school year and to cut the three-year-old preschool at a special meeting Thursday evening in the large group room/auditorium at Highland Elementary School.
INFORMATION ON WASHINGTON AND HIGHLAND SCHOOL-
The meeting started with a lengthy, thorough, and informative presentation on the costs of operating Washington School. The district brings in $668,301.95 in revenue for early childhood, including over $230,000 in grant funding (34 percent of the funding), while costing the district $1,183,526.06, including $105,000 in annual building costs. That is a deficit of $515,224.11.
The three-year-old program costs the district $241,150, while bringing in only $42,041, resulting in a loss of $199,109 and serving 34 students. (The full PowerPoint presentation can be seen at the bottom of the story.)
Highland School Principal Chris Trostad talked about concerns that were shared with him and the board about the school and he talked about what they will be doing to make everything better.
One item was school occupancy, and he said that, according to state standards, they will be fine and well below occupancy limits. “Yes, we definitely are able to fit, no problem. We had a plan to fit without the portables. It just made things a lot tighter. And Randy Brruer, I think it was a great idea to bring those over,” said Trostad. “I think it’s going to really create nice spaces for everybody forever, instead of being crammed in and trying to figure out how many years till you finally get a classroom or a you know, band orchestra room, things like that. It’s really going to be nice, nice spaces for everybody across the board at Highland School.”
Another topic of concern was the one thing parents haven’t been happy with for decades, and pretty much in every school district. The drop-off and pick-up lines. Trostad said they will be making some changes at Highland. “I’ve worked with Rick (Niemela – Transportation Director), and I think we have a pretty good plan. I just remember back in the day, when I was a kid, we dropped off in front of Highland School, and there was a lot of space in front of the school. And a lot of times there’s one bus or two buses dropping off,” said Trostad. “If we can isolate the bus all the way down towards the nature center, I think we can open up a lot of drop-off in the morning. And then also the pickup in the afternoon, we’d have two pickup areas on the east side and on the south side, the main entrance.”
Trostad said while the four-year-olds will be changing schools next year, one thing remains constant: the outstanding staff in the Crookston School District. “The biggest thing is, you know, we have an awesome staff. We have great teachers. Washington School and Gina Gunderson do a phenomenal job over there. They have phenomenal teachers. And it isn’t about bricks and mortar. It is about the people. It is about the teachers,” said Trostad. “You’re going to get the same great quality education there. And I would just hope that, at some point, maybe the school district and Head Start working together, we can do something to help bridge that gap with a three-year-old program. Eventually, someday, maybe there’s more funding because, you know, everybody wants as much as we can for these little kids. It’s just you can’t spend money you don’t have.”
CLOSURE OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL
The board voted unanimously (6-0) to close Washington school, citing the information listed above. After the vote, some tears started from the Washington School staff, even though it was hard to hear the official vote, because a school bus driver for the district was protesting the vote so it was hard to hear the official vote, but KROX checked with the board when a 10 minute recess was started and it was confirmed it was a unanimous 6-0 vote. School Board Chair Tim Dufault said the closure of Washington School has been discussed since he was elected to the board. “I got on the board in 2011, and one of the first meetings, that’s what I heard. Why do we have three schools? And we started the process of planning for the Highland addition six years ago. And we got the grant five and a half years ago. And we moved slowly,” said Dufault. “You know, we brought kindergarten over. First grade, now we’re bringing over the pre-K. And so the rollout’s been slow, but it’s been very successful. Everything’s been working well. Of course, there are always a few little kinks here and there, but on the whole, it’s been a good deal.”
Dufault said change isn’t easy, but they still have great teachers and staff. “People get attached to the school buildings and education is the teachers. It’s not the building. We’re going to have the teachers. We’re going to have the staff. It’ll just be in a new location, new rooms,” said Dufault. “You know, there’ll be bathrooms in those pre-K rooms, which they don’t have now. They’ll be able to have lunch down in that area. Got a wonderful playground out there with the handicap accessible. Easier drop off. It’s going to be great. It’s a change and I understand people are nervous about change.“
THREE-YEAR-OLD PRESCHOOL CUT
The board unanimously approved (6-0) cutting the three-year-old preschool, which seemed to be the most contentious issue of the night. Crookston has a shortage of daycare, and cutting the three-year-old preschool will cause problems for some families.
The program runs the district a deficit of almost $200,000 per year. School Board Chair Dufault said he voted to start the three-year-old preschool program, hoping it would be a good feeder program. “We thought it’d be a feeder to keep more kids in the district. And over the course of a few years, we see that kids come here for the three-year-old program, maybe the four-year-old program, and then they go elsewhere for kindergarten,” said Dufault. “So I don’t think we’re really saving any of those students. And the program’s cost was basically out of pocket, and it was getting expensive. We couldn’t charge enough tuition to cover the bottom line.”
ECFE Director Gina Gunderson said, “We looked back at 3-year-old data, and from 2020-21 through 2023-24, we have had 99 three-year-olds enrolled in our district. According to our records from Tuesday, 3 of them are parochial and one day will hopefully attend CHS and 8 have moved. In 2023-24 (the current Kindergarten class), we had 35 of them in our three-year-old programming. Of those 35, 3 are still here, and 3 have moved. The other 29 are enrolled in Kindergarten at Crookston Public Schools.”
Of the 34 students currently in the program, only 14 have paid tuition. “Would we rather remove a couple of high school teachers to keep the three-year-old program, or are we going to drop the three-year-old program,” said Dufault.
FOUR-YEAR-OLD PROGRAM WILL MOVE TO HIGHLAND SCHOOL
The final vote of the evening was a unanimous vote to move the four-year-old program to Highland School next year.
If you want to watch the entire meeting and read the presentation, both are below.
You can watch the meeting recording by clicking on the video below-
