Proposed School Restructuring Draws Concern From Parents

The parent of two students attending Hilltop Elementary School, Gwen Brummund is understandably concerned by a proposal laid out by the Inver Grove Heights School District to restructure both Hilltop and Salem Hills Elementary Schools.

Both schools currently house kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Under the proposed reconfiguration, however, only pre-school through first-grade students would attend class at Salem Hills, while second- through fifth-grade students from both schools would be shifted to Hilltop.

For Brummund, that means her two children would be separated into different schools — a decision that could potentially impact her family’s finances.

“I would suffer as a family that would end up with students in two different schools," Brummund said. “It would be an increased cost for gas to pick our children up from school.”

Brummund was among the more than 100 parents who attended the Inver Grove Heights School Board meeting last night. During the meeting, the board heard for the first time a series of more than 20 budget reduction recommendations from district administrators, including the proposal to reconfigure two of the district’s three elementary schools.

The school board may vote on some of the budget reduction recommendations as early as March 14. Other proposals, including the more-controversial restructuring of Hilltop and Salem Hills, won’t come up for a vote until later this year, if at all.

While many parents expressed appreciation for the district’s willingness to carefully consider the proposed restructuring, some, like Sheila Medina-Janikula, worry the proposal could disrupt the tightly-knit communities that have developed around each school.

“It would break up the little community, the neighborhood, the kids that know each other and hang out with each other,” said Medina-Janikula, the parent of a kindergarten student at Hilltop Elementary. Medina-Janikula also voiced concern over the clustering of similarly aged students in a single building. Having a wide spectrum of ages in a single school, she said, is a boon to younger students, who benefit from the experience of their older peers.

“If we bring all those children together, would they have the same opportunities…as they do now?” Medina-Janikula asked. “I need to know more information, I don’t really like the idea of [restructuring the schools], to be honest.”

Matthew Lassegard, the parent of two students at Salem Hills Elementary, said he worries that switching schools may psychologically impact his two daughters, who have grown used to their school, teachers and classmates.

 “They feel really attached to Salem Hills and their teachers there,” Lassegard said. “I’d like to see other ideas, I don’t know if that was their only idea.”

Others, like Wendell Buysman, said the proposed restructuring wouldn’t significantly impact his family. The proposed elimination of the district’s Gifted and Talented program coordinator, however, worried Buysman, who has a student in Salem Hill’s academically rigorous Atheneum program.

“I hope [the message] they take from the meeting is that there is worry or concern from the parents,” Brummund said. “I would hope that the board is positive and wants us parents to be active participants in the process.”

To read more about the budget reduction proposals, click here.