BEMIDJI — A proposal to close one of the last walkable elementary schools in the Bemidji Area Schools district led to a packed Board meeting Monday, Feb. 23.
More than a hundred concerned teachers, parents and community members attended after learning of the potential closure. Hours after the Board approved a purchase agreement for the former Central Elementary School the previous Friday, staff at J.W. Smith Elementary School learned their school may also close.
The district is looking to trim more than $3 million from its budget this spring to avoid a deficit next school year. The Board is expected to vote on the closure in early March.
J.W. Smith Principal Bruce Goodwin was among those who spoke against shuttering one of the last neighborhood schools in the district. He said the “Home of the All-Stars” is more than a school, but also a stable and safe place to land for the neighborhood’s children.
J.W. serves more than 200 students, nearly 70% of whom are American Indian. Goodwin said this school year, J.W. hit a 90% attendance rate for the first time.
“I'm so proud of the fact that we have such a strong American Indian student body. Each day we start out with an Anishinaabe greeting. We teach language and culture every chance we get. We have a teacher dedicated to teaching language,” Goodwin said. “I wish you could have seen our fall powwow, and ‘Jingle Bells’ sung in Ojibwe at our winter concert.”
Central Elementary near Bemidji’s downtown was closed in another wave of budget cuts five years ago, with most of those students redistricted into nearby J.W. Smith’s boundary.
The Board recently accepted a purchase agreement to sell the old school to Sacred Bundle, a nonprofit that aims to be an Indigenous focused, community education center for all.
The Bemidji Education Association, the bargaining unit representing the district’s teaching faculty, is also fighting for a contract amid the district’s projected budget deficit. Many members arrived at Monday's meeting wearing their symbolic black T-shirts, including Maggie Larson, a first-grade teacher at J.W. Smith.
“Is J.W. Smith being considered because it is perceived as the path of least resistance? Because our families may be working multiple jobs? Because some of our parents are navigating food insecurity or housing instability? Because people assume this community won't push back as loudly?" Larson asked. “Because if that's the calculation, it's a grave misjudgment.”
During the meeting, Superintendent Jeremy Olson said if the Board approves the closure of J.W. in a special March 2 meeting, the board will host a public hearing afterward.
Declining enrollment plus lowered birth rates since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in excess building capacity in Bemidji Area Schools, as well as an operating shortfall. Enrollment peaked in the 2019-20 school year at 5,100 students and is now down by about 600 students, representing a loss of $6.5 million in state enrollment funding over the years, according to the school district.
District voters approved a referendum to build a new fourth- and fifth-grade elementary school in 2016. When that building opened in 2018, area elementaries shifted to grades kindergarten through third, with some, like J.W., piloting preschool programs.
J.W. Smith Elementary is the district’s oldest school building, built in 1954. School Board Chair Todd Haugen said the district’s budget woes come with some ugly choices, and J.W.’s age brings its own challenges.
“It requires more maintenance. It has a lunchroom and a kitchen in the basement and no elevator, so disabled kids’ opportunities at J.W. Smith are limited by that,” Haugen said. “It's still a very good building, but it seems like the most logical candidate. Now, if somebody has a better idea, again, I'm willing to listen, and I think the Board is, too.”
Other K-3 elementary schools are miles away from the walkable neighborhoods of Bemidji’s Old Town, including Lincoln Elementary in Nymore, Northern Township’s Northern Elementary, Solway Elementary near the Clearwater County line, and Horace May Elementary, which is just north of the Hubbard County line.
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