Could a new high school be in the cards for Rochester Public Schools?
Even as Rochester Public Schools reports its lowest enrollment since the 2015-16 school year, internal projections show that high school enrollment remained high through the pandemic and likely will continue to increase — meaning a fourth public high school in Rochester may become necessary by the middle of the decade.
In Tuesday’s School Board meeting, RPS Finance Director John Carlson said Mayo High School would likely cross the 2,000-student threshold to start the 2021-22 school year (there’s currently 1,991 students enrolled for the fall, with seven months to go).
By 2025, projections say that all three public high schools could cross the 2,000-student mark, a number that Carlson says the schools are not properly equipped to handle. If the projections end up coming true — no guarantee, as the district comes out of the pandemic — Carlson says the district would have to ask the taxpayers to foot part of the bill for a new school.
“A referendum for building a fourth high school might be in the cards somewhere out there, if we continue to see upward trends in our high school numbers,” said Carlson.
Carlson did not note when a decision would be made, or where a potential high school would be located.
While high school enrollment increased by very slim margins in 2020, total enrollment dropped to 17,635 students in 2020 — a loss of 661 students, good for 3.7 percent of the total student population.
Roughly three-quarters of the drop in enrollment came from elementary school students, and the district’s models say enrollment among its youngest students won’t recover for at least a decade. However, projected increases in enrollment for secondary students lead Carlson to believe that total enrollment will top 18,000 again by 2023.
Carlson added that the district expects roughly 25 percent of students that left for the 2020-21 school year to return in the fall, with RPS presumably returning to full in-person learning by then.
New Elementary School Named
Also in Tuesday’s meeting, the School Board selected Overland Elementary School as the name of the district’s newest school, currently being constructed in northwest Rochester. The name was chosen in recognition of Overland Drive NW, on which the new school is being built.
The decision passed with a 6-1 vote, after the Board deadlocked 3-3 (with one abstention) at the previous meeting. Overland was one of two names considered finalists — the other finalist, Henry Plummer Elementary School, was voted down 5-2 on Tuesday after failing to receive a vote at the Feb. 2 meeting.
Other school names considered included Wóksape (the Dakota word for wisdom); Sarah Burger Stearns (a women’s suffrage activist and Rochester native); and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Potential names were submitted by community members in mid-October, and after the school board selected the five ‘semifinalists,’ the community narrowed the field to two. (Plummer was the most popular choice among community respondents.)
Board Member Dr. Jess Garcia was the lone “nay” vote against the Overland name. While she expressed a desire to follow the community’s wishes, she said her vote was on behalf of community members that she says weren’t properly represented in the naming process.
“The names that were brought forward do not reflect towards the equitable strides that we’re adamant of making in the district,” said Garcia. “I’m doing this on behalf of other minoritized groups that, even if they participated, would be outweighed by majority groups.”
Board members agreed to utilize a different process — likely more student-oriented — to name the district’s new middle school, planned to open on 65th Street NW in 2022.
The newly-christened elementary school is currently under construction and on pace to welcome students this fall.
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
