(ABC 6 News) — Wednesday morning, Rochester Public Schools sent out a letter to parents to announce a $10 million dollar gift from Mayo Clinic and a significantly revised Attendance Option Redesign Proposal.

“We know a strong performance of our schools is vital to our communities and to the health of our communities,” said Helena Gazelka the chief communications officer for Mayo Clinic.

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The original proposal, which was presented on November 28, included $3 million in budget cuts by closing down multiple schools. The plan would have moved some students to a different school to make transportation routes more efficient. For students living outside a certain boundary, they would have not had transportation provided by the district.

“This extraordinary contribution from mayo clinic means we will not have to make reductions is next year’s budget that would’ve been devastating to the academic agenda that we have,” said Superintendent Dr. Kent Pekel.

The district scheduled a series of virtual and in-person information sessions, but after about half of those, they delayed the rest of the scheduled sessions in anticipation of an updated plan.

The new updated plan would not close elementary schools, but rather move two schools into one building to maximize efficiency, as well as several other changes.

You can read the full letter sent to parents Wednesday morning below:

Mayo Clinic Invests in Rochester Public Schools With $10 Million Gift; Updated Attendance Options Redesign Proposal Available

Dear RPS families,

Today, the Mayo Clinic announced a gift of $10 million to Rochester Public Schools to enable the school district to sustain the implementation of the district’s strategic plan for academic transformation. 

“This extraordinary gift given at an extraordinary moment in the life of our community enables and empowers us to continue our work to raise the academic achievement of all students,” says Rochester Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kent Pekel. “This investment from Mayo Clinic means RPS can avoid closing schools, raising class sizes, and cutting programs.” 

“Strong performing schools set our kids up for long-term success, and are critical to the health and vibrancy of our community,” says Mayo Clinic Chief Communications Officer Halena Gazelka, M.D. “Our goal is to provide one-time support at a level that helps maintain the district’s academic momentum and serves as a bridge to achieving greater financial sustainability.”

As a result of the $10 million gift from Mayo Clinic, Dr. Pekel has made important changes in the Attendance Options Redesign proposal that was released at the meeting of the RPS School Board on November 28, 2023. Changes have also been made in the proposal that incorporates insights gained from the extensive feedback that the school district has sought on the proposal since the release of the first draft of the Redesign. At the School Board meeting on January 9, 2024, Dr. Pekel will present a revised version of the proposal, which will include the following elements:

1. School Closures and Locations: The revised proposal will not recommend closing Pinewood Elementary, Mighty Oaks Early Learning School, or Riverside Elementary. To maximize the efficient use of space and better meet the needs of many families, the revised recommendation will propose that Pinewood Elementary move into the same building as Longfellow Elementary and operate as two schools within the same building, one of which will operate on the 45-15 calendar and one of which will operate on the traditional calendar. To make high-quality early childhood education available closer to the homes of many RPS families, the revised proposal will recommend that Mighty Oaks Early Learning School move into the building currently occupied by Pinewood Elementary. Finally, the revised proposal will recommend that Riverside Elementary continue to operate as a K-5 school in its current building, and that the Spanish Immersion program that is currently offered at Gage Elementary and Willow Creek Middle School move into the building and expand to operate as a unified K-8 language immersion program. 
2. Attendance Areas: The revised proposal will not recommend making major changes in the school district’s attendance boundaries with the three limited exceptions outlined below. Students who are impacted by any of the following three boundary adjustments who want to remain enrolled at their current schools will be able to do so if they can provide transportation to and from the school.  

• A neighborhood where students used to walk to John Adams but have been bussed to Dakota for the past two school years will return to the John Adams walk zone. 
• A neighborhood where students used to walk to Mayo High School but have been bussed to Century High School will return to the Mayo High School walk zone. 
• A neighborhood west of Hy-Vee on West Circle Drive that is currently shared by Sunset Terrace and Gibbs will now be assigned to Sunset Terrace Elementary School. 

3. DWO Transportation: The revised proposal will not recommend that districtwide option schools (DWOs) be assigned geographic attendance areas and receive the same level of transportation service as neighborhood schools. Instead, the revised proposal will recommend that the current DWOs be provided with transportation service within regions of the school district. Each region would be larger than the attendance areas that are assigned to neighborhood schools. However, because the regions will not stretch across the entire school district, it will still be possible to eliminate the long bus routes that would make it impossible for the school district to implement improved school starting and ending times for the 2024-2025 school year. Families that send students to a DWO school and live beyond their school’s regional transportation area would be able to transport their student to a location within the region, and the student would be provided with RPS transportation from that location to and from the school. The pickup and drop-off location could be the residence of another student, friend, or family member; a daycare within the region; or a designated drop-off point at an RPS school located in the region. Maps of the regional transportation area assigned to each districtwide option school will be released before the RPS School Board meeting on January 9, 2024.
4. Start Times: The revised proposal will reaffirm the school district’s plan to implement the following school starting and ending times, which may be slightly modified after the new transportation route structure is finalized:
   1. Elementary schools: 7:55 a.m. – 2:15 p.m.
   2. Middle schools: 8:35 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. 
   3. High schools: 8:50 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
5. Self-Transport Option for Neighborhood Schools: The revised proposal will recommend that families who do not live in the attendance area of an elementary school, middle school, or high school that is not a districtwide option school would be able to enroll their student in the school if all of the spaces at the school are not filled by students who live in the attendance area, and the family can provide transportation to and from the school. Students whose families choose to self-transport to middle schools and high schools would need to meet all eligibility requirements established by the Minnesota State High School League to participate in sports and other MSHSL-sponsored activities. 
6. Longfellow and Pinewood Elementary Schools: The revised proposal will not recommend that the 45-15 balanced calendar be discontinued at Longfellow Elementary. The extraordinary gift from Mayo Clinic enables RPS to spend a year identifying a source of funding for the additional cost of operating Longfellow on the 45-15 calendar. The revised proposal will not recommend that Longfellow Elementary become a K-8 school. Instead, as outlined above, the proposal will recommend that Pinewood Elementary move into the building that is currently occupied by Longfellow Elementary and operate on the traditional school calendar while Longfellow operates as a separate school within the same building on the 45-15 calendar. As a result of this new arrangement, it would no longer be necessary to bus approximately 120 students from the Longfellow attendance area to Franklin Elementary because their families have indicated that the 45-15 calendar does not meet their needs. Families who live in the Longfellow attendance area and want to send their student to a school that operates on the traditional calendar would be able to send their student to Pinewood Elementary located within the current Longfellow Elementary building. 
7. Mighty Oaks Early Learning: The revised proposal will recommend that Mighty Oaks Early Learning School move into the building currently occupied by Pinewood Elementary, which will provide more families with nearby access to early childhood education in the southern half of the school district.  
8. Montessori: The families of approximately 120 students who live in the Longfellow attendance area currently receive transportation to Franklin Elementary because their families have indicated they do not want to send their student to a school that uses the 45-15 calendar. Because those families can now send their student to Pinewood Elementary, which will operate on the traditional calendar within the Longfellow building, their student will no longer receive transportation to and from Franklin Elementary. As a result, additional classroom space will be available within Franklin Elementary. The revised proposal will recommend expanding the Montessori program to utilize that additional classroom space. 
9. Lincoln K-8: The revised proposal will not recommend that Lincoln K-8 school move into the building that Riverside Elementary currently occupies. Instead, the proposal will recommend that Lincoln K-8 remain in its current building with no changes other than implementing the regional transportation structure for the districtwide option schools outlined above. 
10. Churchill and Hoover: The revised proposal will not recommend that Churchill and Hoover schools be reconfigured to create a single early childhood school in the building that is currently occupied by Hoover and a single K-5 school in the building that is currently occupied by Churchill Elementary. As a result of the revised proposal, both Hoover and Churchill will continue to operate under their current configurations. 
11. Spanish Immersion: The revised proposal will recommend that the Spanish Immersion programs currently located at Gage Elementary and Willow Creek Middle School be combined into a single K-8 Spanish Immersion program that will operate as a school-within-a-school at Riverside Elementary. 
12. Newcomers: The revised proposal will recommend that the Newcomers program for students who are new to the country expand from three schools to seven: Gage and Franklin Elementary Schools, Kellog and Willow Creek Middle Schools, and Century, John Marshall, and Mayo High Schools, reducing the need for students to travel across the entire school district to receive intensive support in learning English.
13. SACC: The revised proposal will recommend that the School Age Child Care (SACC) program expand as envisioned in the first draft of the proposal.
14. Middle School ALC: The revised proposal will recommend that the school district create a middle school alternative learning center (ALC) for students who do not thrive in our traditional middle schools.
15. Special Education Services: The revised proposal will ensure that all students who are identified for special education services will continue to have full access to their required services based on their individual needs, including transportation services if that is included in their Individualized Education Program (IEP). Program locations may be adjusted based on the final version of the Attendance Options Redesign that is approved by the Rochester School Board. 

Rochester Public Schools has received thousands of comments on the first draft of the Attendance Options Redesign, which was released at the meeting of the RPS School Board on November 28, 2023. That feedback has influenced the revised recommendations that are summarized above. RPS will continue to seek feedback on the revised version of the proposal, and further feedback may lead to additional changes in the updated version of the proposal, which will be presented at the meeting of the RPS School Board on January 9, 2024, and discussed at the School Board study session on January 16, 2024. The School Board will vote on a final version of the proposal at its regular meeting on January 23, 2024. 

“We are grateful beyond belief for this gift from Mayo Clinic, which provides us with a bridge to the referendum that I will recommend that the RPS School Board put on the ballot in 2024 to provide our system with the stable funding we need to meet the high educational expectations that the citizens of Rochester have for our students and our schools,” says Pekel.

The RPS Community can provide feedback about the updated proposal via email at redesign@rochesterschools.org or at the rescheduled information sessions on January 3, 2024, from 12-1 p.m. virtually or 7-8:30 p.m. in-person at the Edison Board Room (615 7th St SW, Rochester).

We will be hosting a press conference with the media today at 9 a.m. to make the announcement. You can view the live stream on our YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@ISD535. Thank you,
​​​​​​​Rochester Public Schools