Mendota Elementary Parents Mobilize Against Move

Parents alarmed by to move Mendota Elementary into Friendly Hills Middle School have ramped up activity to learn everything possible about the plan and stop approval of the move for at least next year.

Parents gathered last Thursday at a community meeting at City Hall to get ready for the public comment period tonight, March 14, preceding the school board’s business meeting, also at City Hall.

The co-location would make room for to have a central hub in the vacated building, and could create additional lease revenue in addition to cost efficiencies of $400,000 over the next two years, according to the district.

However, there is a clamor from some parents for answers about what is behind the and how their children, most of them younger, will fare in a middle school environment. For most, a transition next fall appears too fast to be properly planned and thought out by next fall.

Joanne Logan Mansur, a parent of a Mendota Elementary kindergartner, organized a Facebook group called “No change to Mendota Elementary,” shortly after learning of the proposal. The group has garnered over 100 “likes.” According to posts on the page, parents have gone so far as to check with fire marshals to determine if the plan could be rejected based on fire codes. (The proposal does not violate any fire codes.)

Mansur said she has contacted every family of Mendota Elementary either by email or standard mail encouraging them to get involved.

Since the plan was announced Feb. 22, dozens of parents have been attending coffee hours with the schools’ principals, contacting school board members, commenting on the district’s Web site and organizing a petition. But specific questions, such as how kindergartners will navigate a flight of stairs and what the actually lease revenue will be haven’t been addressed, said Mansur.

Parents at Thursday’s meeting also said closing the elementary school at its current location could permanently hurt the neighborhood. Mendota Elementary was named a Blue Ribbon school by the Department of Education in 2006, and a number of young families have moved to the older neighborhood specifically to attend the school.

Billie Jo Rassat, a Mendota Elementary alum and the parent of a Mendota Elementary student, heads up one of those families. Rassat moved into the neighborhood last year, while her husband continues to work in Louisiana, specifically so her son could attend Mendota Elementary. Rassat attended a packed working group meeting March 7 to get more information on the co-location. Rassat said that she’s concerned about the impact the move to a bigger school with bigger kids will have on her son’s autism spectrum disorder. “It really worries me he could slip back.”

Beyond next year, the parents seem willing to keep the option open. “I’m not completely opposed to the idea of it,” said Mansur. “It just seems that it’s not being well thought out.” 

Kelly Keis, a parent of a Mendota Elementary first-grader and three students at Friendly Hills, said at Thursday’s meeting that if the district could make their case, “We are the best group of parents in the world. We could make it work.”

IF YOU GO:

What: District 197 school board public comments and business meeting

When: Comments begin at 6 p.m. Business meeting begins at 7 p.m.

Where: Mendota Heights City Hall, 1101 Victoria Curve, Mendota Heights