In a vote at the January 23 School Board meeting, the Rochester Public Schools School Board voted 6 to 1 to approve the proposals set forth by Superintendent Dr. Kent Pekel in Version 3 of the Attendance Options Redesign proposal. The proposal was brought forth to enable the school district to implement new school starting and ending times, expand access to several popular school district programs, and increase the efficiency of the school district’s transportation system and building utilization.

Version 3, listed below in detail, is what the school board approved.

1. Move Pinewood Elementary into the building currently occupied by Longfellow Elementary and operate Longfellow and Pinewood as two schools within the same building, one of which will operate on the 45-15 calendar and one of which will operate on the traditional calendar.

2. Move the Spanish Immersion program from its current location at Gage Elementary and Willow Creek Middle School into the building currently occupied by Riverside Elementary. This move will be implemented in two phases: the K-5 program will move to the Riverside building for the 2024-2025 school year, and the middle school program will move to Riverside for the 2025-2026 school year.

3. Make the following changes to the school district’s current attendance boundaries:   

   1. A neighborhood where students used to walk to John Adams but have been bussed to Dakota for the past two school years will return to the John Adams walk zone.

   2. A neighborhood where students used to walk to Mayo High School but have been bussed to Century High School will return to the Mayo High School walk zone.

   3. A neighborhood and a developing area west of Hy-Vee on West Circle Drive that is currently shared by Sunset Terrace and Gibbs will be assigned to Sunset Terrace Elementary School.

4. Revise the level of transportation service provided to current districtwide option schools (DWOs) to provide them with transportation within regions of the school district rather than from any location within the school district boundaries. The drop-off sites for DWO regional transportation are listed in the table below.

5. Revise the school attendance system to enable families who do not live in the attendance area of an elementary school or middle school that is not a districtwide option school to enroll their student in the school if all of the spaces at the school are not filled by students who live in the attendance area and the family can provide transportation to and from the school.

6. Expand the Montessori program located within Franklin Elementary to fill the spaces that will no longer be occupied by approximately 120 students who live in the Longfellow attendance area and currently receive transportation to Franklin Elementary because their families have indicated they do not want to send their student to a school that uses the 45-15 calendar.

7. Expand the Newcomers program for students who are new to the country by offering the program at Gage and Franklin elementary schools, Kellogg and Willow Creek middle schools, and Century, John Marshall, and Mayo high schools.

8. Expand the School Age Child Care (SACC) program to provide more students and families with high-quality care before and after school.

9. Create a middle school alternative learning center (ALC) for students who perform substantially below grade level, have experienced physical or emotional abuse, struggle with mental health concerns, are homeless or have recently been in transition from homelessness, or have withdrawn from school or are chronically truant.

These changes will be implemented beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.