Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The district's student population centers are beginning to shift south and east, leading to shrinking elementary enrollments in portions of the district.
Follow Eagan Patch on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our daily newsletter The western half of Dakota County is getting grayer, and that could have a substantial impact on local schools, according to Independent School District 196 officials, who met on Monday to discuss long-range alternatives for the district's elementary schools. For decades, new housing developments in cities like Eagan and Burnsville have drawn in young families and buoyed school enrollment levels in those communities. But that pattern is starting to shift, as the residents of Dakota County's traditional population centers age in place and new developments spring up in the central and eastern portions of the county, according to Superintendent Jane Berenz…
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Northview Elementary School
965 Diffley Rd, Eagan, MN
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Thomas Lake Elementary School
4350 Thomas Lake Rd, Eagan, MN
/articles/elementary-school-demographics
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
On Monday night, the District 196 school board unanimously approved two measures that would give teachers more time to assess and train, but would mean less classroom time for students.
For District 196 School Board Chair Jackie Magnuson, it's a matter of quality over quantity. On Monday night, Magnuson and her fellow school board members unanimously approved two measures that will shorten the school year by three days for the district's middle and high school students and five days for elementary students. Although students will spend less time in the classroom, Magnuson believes the adjustments will allow teachers to thoroughly analyze classroom data and test results and hone their teaching to better address student needs. "We feel like what we give up isn't horrendous," Magnuson said following Monday's meeting. "Can we work smarter, can we give teachers more time to analyze this data and see where kids are, so they can…
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
The proposed changes would give teachers more time to train, but would mean less classroom time for students.
School District 196 officials want to make several changes to the District 196 school year in 2012-13 that they say will improve students' academic performance and help create a more personalized learning environment. District 196 Superintendent Jane Berenz brought two proposals before the District 196 School Board during the Feb. 13 board meeting. The first of the proposed changes includes the addition of three training days throughout the school year for district teachers, which would take the place of regular school days. During those in-service days, teachers at all levels would meet to analyze student data and receive targeted instruction training geared toward meeting the needs of individual students. The current 2012-13 school …
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Each Sunday, Patch revisits the headlines with our 'Week in Review' feature.
BLOGS: BUSINESS: COMMUNITY: GOVERNMENT: PUBLIC SAFETY: SCHOOLS: SPORTS:
Monday, February 13, 2012
Discussions of the district's capital expenditures and changes to the district calendar also are on the agenda for Monday's school board meeting.
The District 196 school board is slated to discuss Superintendent Jane Berenz's performance and potential new contract at its Monday meetings. Berenz's three-year contract ends this summer, and proposed is another three-year contract with a salary increase, as well as increases in number of sick days and vacation days, and an increase in her retirement plan match. Board members will discuss Berenz's performance and stipulations of her contract at their 5 p.m. workshop, and will report the results and decide whether to approve a new contract at the 6 p.m. regular meeting; both meetings will be held at Dakota Ridge School in Apple Valley. Also on the board's agenda is introduction of the district's capital expenditure budget and school …
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
District officials may implement the concept on a limited, voluntary basis, but many questions remain.
Could year-round schooling come to School District 196? At an annual District 196 School Board meeting on Monday night, district officials discussed the advantages and drawbacks of the concept—the first formal conversation on the subject in roughly two decades. At the meeting, school board members asked district staff to explore the concept and return to the board with answers concerning the cost, feasibility and desire for year-round school. If the idea is implemented, it would likely be on a limited, voluntary scale, with one school or magnet program choosing to adopt it on an experimental, pilot program basis, district officials said. "It’s not really an idea yet, it’s a concept," said Board Member Art Coulson. "I think the …
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Thomas Lake Elementary School
4350 Thomas Lake Rd, Eagan, MN
/articles/for-the-first-time-in-20-years-district-weighs-year-round-schooling
1446350
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Though selling advertising in school facilities isn't the whole answer to district budget problems, it's part of the solution, the school's communications director said.
The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District is looking at a leaner 2011-12 budget, so district officials are looking to another source to boost revenue—allowing advertisements in schools and other district facilities. The district's board on Monday voted 5-1 to use the company School Space Media to facilitate advertising, which students and community members could start seeing as soon as September, District 196 Director of Finance and Operations Jeff Solomon said. "The current budget process we're undergoing really stimulated the review of the advertising policy," Solomon said. School Space Media will give the district a 23 percent revenue share on all net proceeds from the advertising, with a guaranteed $40,000 payment up front, …
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The federal government requires districts to work toward having all students who get school lunch—free, reduced price or regular price—to bring the same amount of money to the district.
The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district board will vote on May 9 on a proposed 5-cent lunch price increase for the 2011-12 school year, which food and nutrition services coordinator Wendy Knight presented on Monday. This would bring the price of a basic lunch at the elementary school level to $2.10, and to $2.25 at the middle and high schools in the district. Adult lunch prices would increase to $3.30. Lunch prices last increased in the district in 2007-08, by 20 cents, Knight said. The increase is a federal requirement under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, to try to achieve “price equity,” Knight said, where all students who buy school lunch are contributing about the same amount of money to the school. For every …
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The district estimates about $10.53 million in capital expenditures for 2011-12.
The Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan school district board on Monday unanimously approved a capital expenditures budget of more than $10.53 million for the 2011-12 school year. Board members have discussed the budget multiple times in the past few months. A memo from Director of Finance and Operations Jeff Solomon shows about $10.21 million combined from revenues and 2010-11 fund balance, which would result in a fund deficit of about $325,000 by the end of the 2011-12 school year. But the district typically spends less than anticipated, the memo said. Superintendent Jane Berenz said the district keeps a contingency—for example, to repair a boiler that breaks unexpectedly—so the fund likely won’t end the 2011-12 year in the red. “We always try …
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
A new recommendation was to reduce the facilities department from four full-time staff to three, but most approved adjustments—including 48 full-time position cuts—were the same as initial recommendations.
At their Monday meeting, District 196 school board members passed budget cuts and added revenues totaling $8.5 million for the 2011-12 school year, which include getting rid of 48 full-time equivalent positions—27 of them teaching positions—reducing regular bus service and increasing student activity fees. The cuts and revenues are a result of the estimates that the district will see a state aid decrease of about 3.5 percent. About $3.4 million in cuts and new revenues are included in the $8.5 million. The district was be able to avoid another $5 million in cuts by using one-time federal education jobs funding, which became available to the district last year. The school board last fall decided to use the one-time funding for the 2011-12 …
Becky Hanson
9:13 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I am a teacher in District #196 and I would personally like this schedule change. However, it is a very big decision and it impacts the community in a huge way. What about summer employment for our older students? Day care for staff? Many businesses "off the ball" would be hugely impacted. I also think that in the past our community has tended to lean toward being more conservative with major … more ›