Mired in a cycle of enrollment losses and budget cuts, St. Paul Public Schools leaders are eager to play offense in the arena of school choice.

The district’s share of K-12 students in St. Paul has fallen to 63 percent from 72 percent in the past decade, according to a recent presentation to the school board. Students are fleeing mainly to charter schools but also to nearby public school districts through Minnesota’s liberal open-enrollment law.

Board members say the district has been slow to react. And while they don’t share one vision for how to turn things around, they agree it’s time to start competing.

Steve Marchese, who has complained the past two years about piecemeal changes to shrinking budgets, said the district resembles a license plate stacked with several years of registration stickers.

“At some point, you’ve got to change the license plate and start with something fresh. And I think the district hasn’t done that in a very long time,” he said.

In January 2011, one year into the job, former superintendent Valeria Silva revealed her strategic plan, “Strong Schools, Strong Communities.” She converted weak magnet schools into neighborhood schools and strengthened K-12 pathways for special areas of study, such as arts and language immersion.

The specialized schools largely have succeeded, but in many places the neighborhood schools have foundered. In a city where school choice is abundant, families have not felt compelled to send their child to the school down the street simply because it’s the closest.

And without a critical mass of students and corresponding revenue, those schools have been unable to offer the sort of programming — music, arts and science teachers, social workers and librarians — that might draw families in. Related Articles Distance learning deal with St. Paul teachers calls for ‘regular’ — not necessarily daily — live teaching

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To be sure, St. Paul has some neighborhood schools that work. St. Anthony Park, boosted by strong parent involvement, is consistently among the city’s most sought-after elementary schools.

The trouble for the district is that when families can’t get their children into a chosen school, many leave the district altogether.

Teacher survey data highlights striking gaps in apparent school quality within the St. Paul district.

On such statements as “I would recommend this school to parents seeking a place for their child” and “I wouldn’t want to work in any other school,” teachers rated their own elementary schools as high as 91 out of 100 for Jie Ming Chinese Immersion and 8 of 100 for the grades K-8 Hazel Park Preparatory Academy.

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“We cannot be satisfied with having a certain number of our magnet and star schools be very attractive and all kinds of families want to send their kids there,” board member John Brodrick said.

“The question is, what can we do for other schools?”

So far, they haven’t done much.

Brodrick and Marchese were among the four board members who last year voted against Silva’s recommendation to close Galtier Elementary, the district’s smallest school by enrollment. Galtier remains open, but just barely.

The district has not committed the resources Silva’s team said were necessary to make it a “viable school” — citywide busing, a parent educator and additional teachers to keep student-teacher ratios small and avoid classes of students from multiple grades.

Galtier PTO president Clayton Howatt told the board in April that the school’s budget “borders on educational neglect.”

TAX INCREASE?

Board members say they’re not satisfied overseeing a school district of haves and have-nots, but whether they have the money to lift the least popular schools is up for debate.

The St. Paul Federation of Teachers has quietly called for a local property tax increase. That’s unlikely to gain traction, at least until the board and its new superintendent, Joe Gothard, develop a clear picture of where they’d like to take the district.

Gothard, who started as superintendent a month ago, hasn’t taken a position on a tax increase. But in his last job, leading the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district, a successful tax referendum followed the yearlong development of his strategic plan.

Gothard does believe Minnesota schools are underfunded. He says the St. Paul district would be getting roughly $25 million more per year — $600 per student — had state funding kept up with inflation. Related Articles Distance learning deal with St. Paul teachers calls for ‘regular’ — not necessarily daily — live teaching

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Board members haven’t publicly discussed a tax referendum. For now, they see the next teachers’ contract, to be negotiated in the coming months, as an opportunity to improve the district’s finances in at least three ways:

St. Paul teachers are paid better than any other in the state. Marchese has said they shouldn’t expect much of an increase in the next two years.

The board wants to access several million dollars a year from Q-Comp, the state’s performance-pay program, but the union has refused to participate.

Finally, the board wants to lift negotiated limits on class sizes, which are popular with parents and teachers but have suppressed enrollment at the city’s most appealing schools.

Board member Mary Vanderwert said class-size caps make sense only at schools with large percentages of low-income students.

“I think we’re wasting a lot of money on class sizes that are not making a difference,” she said.

Some board members also are convinced there’s an opportunity to grow more efficient by reorganizing the administration.

NEW VISION

If the district can somehow break its budget-deficit streak, there will be no shortage of ideas for new and increased investment.

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“I think if we want our kids to do well in the city, we have to invest in early childhood,” she said.

Brodrick said he’d like every school to offer something that sets it apart. He suggested replicating successful magnets at underperforming neighborhood schools, as the district has done by converting the West Side’s Cherokee Heights into a Montessori school.

Marchese wants to see more magnet schools, too, especially in buildings that have become racially segregated in recent years.

Gothard, meanwhile, has been gathering ideas on his own. One day last month, he crossed the city on a six-stop listen-and-learn tour, where parents, teachers and others described the school district they’d like St. Paul to become.

Among the suggestions:

Give kids more play time so they’re ready to learn.

Invest in athletics to keep students in the district for high school.

Offer a well-rounded curriculum that includes music and the arts.

Help underenrolled schools by ensuring they have the same resources as other community schools.

Katie Sterns, a consultant who presented to the school board on enrollment last month, gave a long list of suggestions, as well. She said the district should ramp up its marketing efforts, collect and analyze parent satisfaction data, and rebuild its arts offerings after years of cuts.

Sterns said the district has a lot going for it, from quality teachers and a strong tax base to a variety of academic programs. If the public schools can start thinking more competitively, she said, they have the tools to win students back.

“It’s not going to be that hard to move the needle,” she said.