The Crookston School District is looking at adding a self-contained Middle School and Preschool to the district. The preschool would be added to Highland Elementary School, while the Middle School would be a reconfiguration of current existing space at the High School.
Crookston Public Schools Superintendent Jeremy Olson said a few different factors for the preschool addition could drive the decision forward. “There are a lot of pieces were looking at for the preschool addition, and one of those is adequate facilities,” said Olson. “Having developmentally appropriate rooms where preschoolers can run around and play and have almost an indoor recess is appropriate for those students. It’s also important to have sinks and bathrooms that are the right sizes for those students.”
Olson also stated that the district has already invested a significant amount in the preschool program over the past couple of years, which has made the district look at how it can best prepare students for kindergarten. “We’ve identified the need to invest in a preschool,” said Olson. “In the last four years, there has probably been three big substantial changes to the preschool culture and environments. The district has really invested in our preschool program, and the preschool teachers have really stepped up to the plate with looking at how they best prepare our students for kindergarten, and we think having an all-day preschool would go a long way towards that.”
The district is also looking at adding a self-contained Middle School to the High School for 6-8 graders to help students get the necessary teaching and preparation they need before entering 9th grade. Olson said he believes a Middle School setting is crucial to a student’s growth. “Going back to what is developmentally right for kids, a middle school hits kids developmentally where they’re at,” said Olson. “So, we’re looking at a self-contained Middle School for grades 6-8. What that would look like, and our hope is that those students have separate facilities and separate bell schedules. This way, we can really focus on meeting kids where they’re at developmentally while also making sure we’re preparing them academically for that next step.”
Olson said the taxpayers won’t need to worry about how this project will affect them, as the funding will come from Federal Dollars given to the School District. “The funding for the project would be federal dollars,” said Olson. “These are funds that have come to Crookston and have an expiration date on them, which leads us to believe we should make a one-time purchase rather than continue current programming. If we use those funds for programming, eventually, when the expiration date hits, the programming will have to be stopped because we wouldn’t have the funding anymore, which wouldn’t be good for kids or programs. So, we want this to be a one-time purchase, and after analyzing our facility needs, we came up with this plan.”
The timeline and overall cost for the potential project is still not set, and no decisions have been made. If this is the path the district goes down, Olson said he would expect the reconfiguration to more than likely not be implemented and complete until the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic school year.
