District 191 Looks to Shuffle Students for Socio-economic Balance

Over the past five years, the socio-economic demographics of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District have shifted dramatically, and district officials are considering plans to reverse the trend.

“What we are striving for is diversifying our schools and creating a better socio-economic balance across our district,” Superintendent Randy Clegg told the Star Tribune.

• One plan, the “blue option,” would significantly redraw boundaries, making them contiguous and attempting to balance enrollment numbers and poverty. Students would likely be “grandfathered in” to the new boundaries, so older students could finish at their current school.
  
  
• The “yellow option” would pair schools, with one serving kindergarten through third grade and the other grades four through six. With four pairings, the two elementary schools at the district’s outer edges would stand alone.

• Finally, the “red option” involves boundary changes and also pairs schools together.
  
  While many districts make boundary changes every few years, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage hasn’t done so since 1996. Three years ago, a proposal to change boundaries resulted in a wave of parent protest, so no action was taken.