The Crookston School Board held a special meeting on Wednesday at Crookston High School to discuss and consider keeping Washington School for future expansion.
The city of Crookston and the Crookston Economic and Housing Development Authority (CHEDA) have had many discussions, meetings, and negotiations regarding the potential purchase of Washington School in hopes of making it a childcare facility for which the city seems to have a very high demand. The School Board ultimately decided to keep Washington School for future expansion.
“It’s no secret we’re building onto Highland School,” said Crookston Public Schools Superintendent Randy Bergquist, “We’re planning on moving preschool and kindergarten over there, but in light of new information, our preschoolers are growing. We now have four full-time sections of preschool classrooms and two half-time sections. We have students who want to come to preschool that often have to be on a waiting list, so that was one decision brought forth.”
With Crookston schools also seeing increased numbers in elementary students, grades 1-5, the school board believes it is necessary to keep the Washington building to be able to house and educate all students and the growing numbers that come with it. “As a superintendent, I want to plan for an expansion, not decline,” said Bergquist, “I think Crookston has a lot to offer. So, what we’re going to do, and the board voted unanimously to do this, we’re going to put kindergarten teachers over to Highland and keep Washington as it stands for preschool.”
The board reviewed the possible issues that could’ve occurred if following through with the sale of Washington, which included the financial hardship the district would’ve faced when dealing with the addition of classrooms and teachers to the Highland preschool facility. “We would’ve tried to keep kindergarten and preschool isolated as much as possible from the other grades,” said Bergquist, “But because of that, we would’ve had to spend more money on lockers, spend money for teachers to change classrooms, and overall moving costs. We would’ve also installed age-appropriate bathrooms and sinks in those classrooms, and that would’ve cost money.”
The negotiations and offers that were given to the school district from the city of Crookston regarding the purchase of Washington have not been released to the public. However, the city offers included playground equipment and kitchen materials. The board determined that constructing a new playground would cost an additional $380,000-$400,000.
Along with the board unanimously approving the decision to keep Washington School, Superintendent Bergquist believes this will help the growth of the school district and help give all students the possibility to be enrolled without having to be placed on a waiting list. “I support this decision. The information that we put together,” said Bergquist, “Concludes that it’s a good decision to keep Washington. The bottom line is we’re already strapped for space as it is for grades 6-12, and we’re gaining kids in elementary school over at Highland. It would’ve been worse for me to go to the community and say, ‘Guess what, we want to have your taxes go up because we want to expand over at Highland.’ I think parents would’ve looked at us and said, ‘You’re nuts. You just built an expansion, and you want to do more.’ Prices aren’t going down. Building costs are going up. I think this an opportunity for us just to try this.”
As it stands, the preschool students and teachers will still be based out of Washington School. Kindergarten will be placed in the new add-on facility at Highland, and elementary school students grades 1-5 will be enrolled at Highland Elementary.
