Thursday, December 20, 2012
Directors voted unanimously to keep Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive properties in the district.
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 would cost Hopkins more than $550,000 in lost revenue, inch up taxes on remaining Hopkins property owners and cause taxes on the transferring properties to …
44.933188
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Hopkins Public Schools Independent School District 270
1001 Highway 7, Hopkins, MN
/articles/hopkins-school-board-rejects-edina-detachment-bid
979768
/locations/8505398
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The homes in the detachment area are more valuable than elsewhere in the district—or the typical Edina neighborhood. Check out the numbers for yourself and share your thoughts on how much it matters.
About one out of four homes in the portion of Edina that wants to leave the Hopkins School District is worth $1 million or more—making the area much wealthier than the typical neighborhood in the school district or Edina as a whole. That information comes from school district data put together in advance of a Thursday School Board vote on whether to support a detachment request from Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive property owners. The demographics paint a picture of wealthy neighborhoods where even the vacant lots are worth more than the median home value in Edina and most of the Hopkins school district. Parcels with homes have a median value 77 percent greater than the city median. The role of money and wealth has been a particularly …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
A look at how Hopkins’ boundaries came about may add context to a debate over whether some Edina residents should be able to leave the district.
Even though districts are typically named after one of the cities they serve, they are separate entities, legally distinct from those cities. Hopkins Public Schools covers all of Hopkins, most of Minnetonka, half of Golden Valley and parts of Eden Prairie, Edina, Plymouth and St. Louis Park. Those boundaries reflect numerous votes and agreements between school districts and residents in the past. This week, the Hopkins School Board will examine the latest in a long line of boundary change requests. A group of Edina residents in the Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive neighborhoods wants to leave Hopkins because they think its schools are not in locations that serve the families’ educational needs. In preparation for the School Board’s vote …
44.933188
-93.412741
Hopkins Public Schools Independent School District 270
1001 Highway 7, Hopkins, MN
/articles/why-does-the-hopkins-school-district-cover-so-many-cities
979768
/locations/8409259
Monday, December 17, 2012
The Hopkins School Board will decide whether to support the request Thursday.
Edina residents who live in Hopkins school district boundaries only have to wait a few more days to find out whether the School Board will support their request to leave for the Edina school district. The Hopkins School Board will vote Thursday on a request from Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive property owners who want to leave the Hopkins school district because they think its schools are not in locations that serve the families’ educational needs. School district administrators will first report on their findings and present analysis from a Nov. 29 study that concluded that detachment would cost Hopkins more than $550,000 in lost revenue. After the presentation, School Board directors will vote on the detachment request. Click the PDFs …
44.933188
-93.412741
Hopkins Public Schools Independent School District 270
1001 Highway 7, Hopkins, MN
/articles/hopkins-prepares-to-vote-on-unite-edina-detachment-request
979768
/locations/8409189
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Hopkins property owners would see school taxes grow by about 1.5 percent, while Edina school tax bills would drop by about 2 percent.
A proposal to carve off a piece of Edina from the Hopkins school district would cost Hopkins more than $550,000 in lost revenue, increase property taxes for those who remain in the district and jack up taxes for those whose properties change districts, according to a report released Thursday. Click on the PDFs to the right of this article to read the full report. The district requested the report in order to determine the financial ramifications of a request from Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive property owners who want to leave the Hopkins school district because they think its schools are not in locations that serve the families’ educational needs. The district has never had a school in Edina in its 130 years. Even though districts are …
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Edina property owners who want to leave the Hopkins school district say detachment would only have a modest impact on the district.
Edina property owners who want to leave the Hopkins school district say Hopkins is better off than the district they want to join and that their departure would have minimal impact on Hopkins’ finances. Unite Edina 273 representatives made the arguments during a Wednesday morning meeting with Hopkins’ Citizens Financial Advisory Committee (CFAC) in which committee members also questioned the group’s motivations and how it’s funded. Unite Edina is made up of Parkwood Knolls and Walnut Drive property owners who say they want to leave the Hopkins school district because its schools are not in locations that serve the families’ educational needs. They say their request is about neighborhood schools and sense of community—not money. “When …
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Unite Edina 273 will present their request to at least two Hopkins school district bodies. The district could make a final decision by Jan. 24.
Hopkins school district officials have scheduled two meetings for Unite Edina 273 to make their case about why some Edina homeowners living in Hopkins school district boundaries should be allowed to join Edina Public Schools. The Citizens Financial Advisory Committee, a five-member group that helps the district with financial planning, will listen to presentations from Unite Edina petitioners’ representatives and legal counsel at 7:30 a.m. Oct. 24, the school district announced Wednesday afternoon. The Hopkins School Board’s Policy Monitoring Committee will hear from Unite Edina at 1 p.m. Nov. 14. The district may convene a hearing to listen to the public’s thoughts at 6 p.m. Dec. 11 as part of the Truth and Taxation meeting. Unite Edina …
44.933188
-93.412741
Hopkins Public Schools Independent School District 270
1001 Highway 7, Hopkins, MN
/articles/hopkins-lays-out-process-for-reviewing-unite-edina-detachment-request
979768
/locations/8029758
Friday, October 12, 2012
The most thoughtful, moving, controversial or just plain funny comments from around the west metro between Oct. 5 and Oct. 11.
Each week, Patch users contribute numerous insights, opinions and observations. The following is a collection of the most thoughtful, moving, controversial or just plain funny comments that appeared on Patch sites in Eden Prairie, Edina, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Richfield, Shakopee, Plymouth, St. Louis Park and St. Michael. Click on the headline to read the full story and join in the conversation. (The comments below are not meant to reflect the opinions of Patch or its staff.) *** Edina Property Owners Stuck in School District Boundary Limbo After handing off more than 400 signed petitions for detachment to the Hopkins School District, the members of Unite Edina 273 are stuck playing the waiting game. The group of Edina …
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
A group of more than 400 Edina property owners working to detach from the Hopkins School District need the district's consent before they can go before the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners.
After handing off more than 400 signed petitions for detachment to the Hopkins School District, the members of Unite Edina 273 are stuck playing the waiting game. The group of Edina property owners have been working to switch their homes from the Hopkins School District to Edina for quite some time now, both by talking with the two districts and by lobbying the state Legislature. Alan Koehler said 97 percent of property owners in the Parkwood Knolls area—in Edina's northwest corner—currently support annexation to the Edina School District. Koehler and the other Unite Edina 273 members presented their signed petitions to Hopkins administrators late last month, though it's not clear what sort of power those petitions have. The petitions are …
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
State law doesn’t specify a clear process for districts reviewing boundary realignment petitions.
On Sept. 28, residents dropped off a binder of petitions at the Hopkins school superintendent’s office from Edina property owners who want to leave the Hopkins school district. Because of vague state laws, it’s not clear what force of law—if any—those petitions have. “In the statute itself, there’s a lack of a process,” said Superintendent John Schultz. That lack of process has compelled Hopkins Public Schools leaders to devise a way for moving forward on a controversial school district realignment even as the specter of what the district will do looms over it and homeowners. Rumors have circulated about a set percentage of residents who must sign petitions in order for the issue to advance. But Schultz said he isn’t aware of any …
Amy M.
12:12 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Hi James, 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. … more ›