UPDATED 10:05 p.m. Dec. 20 -- Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive property owners—organized as advocacy group Unite Edina 273—asked to leave the Hopkins school district for Edina schools because they think Hopkins schools are not in locations that serve the families’ educational needs.
However, School Board directors voted unanimously that it’s in the district’s best interest for the neighborhoods to remain in the Hopkins school district.
The decision was made in part because of the financial ramifications to the district and other taxpayers. A Nov. 29 study that concluded that detachment , inch up taxes on remaining Hopkins property owners and cause taxes on the transferring properties to surge.
The School Board whipped through the vote without discussion following an administration presentation that echoed information in the report published prior to the meeting. At the conclusion of that presentation, Superintendent John Schultz recommended rejection of the request and presented directors with a resolution stating the district’s reasons for opposing it, including:
- The financial impact on taxpayers,
- A duty to be good stewards of the district’s resources and taxpayer money,
- The reasoned, representative process of putting the existing boundaries together,
- The availability of open enrollment and
- Opposition from other school district committees.
“Whereas, in our judgment detachment is not in the best interest of all the landowners and citizen’s (sic) concerned,” the resolution stated.
Click the PDFs to the right of this article to read the full resolution and select documents in the report.
While there was no discussion when the item was under consideration, a few residents did speak during the open agenda portion of the meeting—a time when anyone may address the board on issues that concern them.
Despite a crowd of United Edina supporters, two of the three people who spoke opposed the detachment request. Matthew McNeil—a Hopkins resident, Edina High School grad and former co-president of the Gatewood Elementary PTO—said it could lead to something like Vikings owner Zygi Wilf threatening to move the team out of Minnesota if he didn’t get a new stadium. Neighborhoods may shop around for a school district willing to include their preferred teaching agenda, for example.
“It’s a dangerous precedent to set to allow one neighborhood to rip itself out of a school district and put itself in a different school district,” McNeil said. “This comes down to personal accountability. It’s that plain and simple. People make choices. Every member of Unite Edina 273 knew what school district they were buying into when they purchased their house. Every single one of them.”
United Edina supporters mostly stayed out of Thursday’s discussion. Alan Koehler, who’s spearheading the detachment effort, was the only one who spoke on their behalf. He noted his disappointment with the report and the administration’s recommendation but largely limited his comments to thanking the board for a chance to bring the issue forward.
In an interview afterward, Koehler said he wasn’t surprised by the vote.
“When we talked to other members of the neighborhood and found out how far it went back, it wasn’t because people didn’t try or try hard,” Koehler said.
Still, he said it’s the first time he knows of that the board has actually voted on the request. Once the legislative session resumes, he plans to revisit bills that Edina lawmakers introduced last session to see whether the law needs to be changed.
For now, though, Koehler has more immediate plans: “I’m going to enjoy my holidays,” he said.
Wonderful news!!
In the School Board Report, the Board asserts that Hopkins schools are almost as close to the proposed detach. area as Edina schools.But the data provided are intended to mislead. You might think that, to determine the distance of the proposed detachment area to various schools, they'd measure from the CENTER of the detach. area to the schools. Instead, they measure from 2 points w/in the detachment area: --Point 1 which is in the far NW corner of the detachment area (the area closest to Hopkins schools and furthest from Edina schools) & --Point 2, which they refer to as the "Southeast corner" of the detachment area. (And you think this must be the point closest to the Edina schools, which they are using to be fair, since the 1st point was closest to the Hopkins schools). But this 2nd point is not the closest point to the Edina schools. It is not even in the southern part of the detachment area. (See map of detach. area.) HERE ARE THE CORRECT #'S: (using Mapquest, from intersec. of Vernon & Walnut Dr.) Dist. to Hopkins HS: 6.54 miles Dist. to Edina HS: 1.89 miles Using Mapquest's Bike option: Time to Hopkins HS: 42 minutes Time to Edina HS: 8 minutes (The Board's Property tax info. is equally misleading.) If they're truly in the right, why do they use deceptive #'s?
"*All distances and times are according to MapQuest. Distances for the northern portion were measured from the intersection of Lincoln Drive and Malibu Drive for the northwestern corner and Pine Grove Road and Blake Road South for the southeastern corner. Distances for the southern portion were measured from the intersection of Vernon Avenue South and Walnut Drive."
You do realize that the Hopkins School District is an independant organization than the municipal government of Hopkins, right? They aren't taking money from other communities, they are taking money from their school district. Would you feel better if the name of the school district wasn't 'Hopkins?' Chaska/Chanhassen schools went through the same thing about a decade ago. "Chaska School District" no longer exists. It moved from being called Chaska Schools, to ISD 112, to now being called 'Eastern Carver County Schools.' They made the name change in order to better reflect the communities they served. It also help quiet down the the people who struggled with such confusing topics as naming conventions for school districts.
In response to your comment, (below): When I plug-in the addresses to Mapquest, I get different distance #'s than you referenced in the earlier article. For example, when Mapquest calculates the driving distance from the intersection of Vernon Ave. & Walnut Dr. to Edina HS (6754 Valley View Rd.), I get a distance of 1.86 miles. Your article stated the distance was 2.36 miles. Furthermore, your article did not compare middle schools, and Hopkins middle schools are significantly further from the proposed detachment neighborhood than Edina middle schools. The apparent bias in your numbers and data selection is probably the result of internal Mapquest settings (such as whether to use freeways, etc.), and a desire on your part not to overwhelm the reader with too much data, in which case nobody is really "at fault." However, I'm sure you can understand how a supporter of detachment would see these numbers, along with which data were presented, and assume there was a bias. Going forward, could you and the rest of the Patch reporters please be a little more careful that, when you write articles regarding this detachment effort, you do so in a way that does not disproportionately harm people who support detachment (or those who oppose it, for that matter). Thank-you in advance.