Anoka-Hennepin To Send 120 Kindergartners To Johnsville Elementary Instead Of Sunrise

The Anoka-Hennepin School District will move about 120 kindergarten students from Sunrise Elementary School to Johnsville Elementary School in the fall to lessen the impacts of overcrowding at Sunrise.

The School Board approved the decision Feb. 28. The board also moved up the boundary review process by a year to begin this fall, rather than in fall of 2023.

Sunrise enrollment numbers exceeded city and district projections, Mary Wolverton, associate superintendent for elementary schools, said.

Sunrise, which opened in Blaine in 2019, has a building capacity of 1,000 students, but current enrollment sits at 1,135. Next school year, that number likely would have exceeded 1,200 students if nothing were done about overcrowding.

Without shifting students to Johnsville, which is also in Blaine, Sunrise would need 53 classrooms to meet district guidelines, but only 46 are available. Art, music and other specialist teachers wouldn’t have a permanent classroom if nothing were done about overcrowding, Wolverton said. Lunch would also become a problem with too many kids in the cafeteria.

Class-size ratios would also exceed guidelines if nothing were done.

The 120 kindergarten students going to Johnsville next school year will be from the neighborhood bound by Radisson Road on the west, Lexington Avenue on the east, the Blaine city boundary on the north and the district boundary on the south.

The district approved the current elementary school boundaries in 2018 for the 2019-20 school year. These boundaries are meant to last five years.

Johnsville has about six classrooms available, which could accommodate about 120 kids. Students will have similar academic experiences at Johnsville compared to Sunrise, according to the district.

Students who are involved in Adventures Plus and are being moved to Johnsville will come to Sunrise for the Adventures Plus program and take a shuttle to and from Johnsville.

Teachers at Sunrise can volunteer to go to Johnsville in the fall, but if there are no volunteers, the district will choose based on seniority, Wolverton said.

The other Blaine-area elementary schools — McKinley, Johnsville, Madison and Jefferson — aren’t experiencing significant increases in enrollment like Sunrise.

Each of those elementary schools decreased in enrollment from 2019 to 2021. Jefferson decreased by 2.6%, Johnsville by 11.3%, Madison by 5.5% and McKinley by 8.5%.

Sunrise increased enrollment by 17.9%, which amounts to 168 more kids.

That data is based on enrollment counts on Oct. 1 in 2019 and 2021.

The district held two public informational meetings in January and February.

Board Member Jeff Simon was grateful for the amount of public outreach and communication that went into the proposal.

“I ask and encourage flexibility as we move forward,” Simon said. “Of course, we’re not going to be able to accommodate everything, but when we can accommodate, when that’s possible, we should. And if we cannot, we just need to clearly communicate why it’s not possible.”

SOURCE: Hometown Source