STOP the Trans­form­a­tion Plan

The Transformation Plan is an initiative led by MPS district leadership around programming and building usage. While the initiative began in 2023, families did not learn of any potential school closures or attendance boundary changes until the school board meeting on September 15, 2026 – just weeks before the final board vote.

Unless district leadership changes course, they could repeat the same mistakes they made implementing the 2020 Comprehensive District Design process, which undermined trust and drove families away, further destabilizing our school communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the CDD failed to achieve its goals, and actually increased transportation costs and the number of “racially isolated” schools in our district. Enrollment plunged by roughly 8% in the redesign’s first year. So what separates the Transformation Plan from the CDD? The Transformation Plan proposes eliminating 15-16 school communities AND redrawing attendance boundaries, while the CDD did not include school closures. 

• Destabilizing families and tearing school communities apart: Families, educators, and neighbors formed strong relationships during Operation Metro Surge. Closures and mergers would tear apart the school communities that hold us together.

• Decreasing enrollment and, along with it, per-student funding: Per-pupil funding from state and federal sources is the largest source of revenue for all Minnesota public schools. Closing schools leads to enrollment decline. With every student who leaves, MPS loses $21K in funding.

• Greater impact on BIPOC families: The research is clear: school closures hurt Black and brown families the most.

• Staff reductions and turnover: District leadership has not shared any details about how the options presented would impact staffing, but research shows closing schools negatively impacts staff retention and morale.

• A vicious cycle of cuts: Closures make it harder to attract and retain students and educators. Shrinking the upstream footprint of the district impacts long-term viability.

• Ripple effects across the district: These effects will not be limited to schools impacted by closure or merger. MPS is an ecosystem and closures, mergers, and boundary changes in one area of the district will impact every school and student through changes in staffing, resources, and student population.

Research shows school closures have an overwhelmingly negative impact on school districts, students, families, and neighborhoods. Recent research from Stanford University also shows closing schools does not solve district-wide budget crises. 

How closures impact students:

• Closures disproportionately impact Black, brown, and low-income students and families.

• The disruption caused by school closures results in behavioral issues, lowered test scores, and even lost earnings over students’ lifetimes. 

How closures impact neighborhoods:

• Closures disproportionately affect Black and brown neighborhoods. Minnesota already has some of the worst educational disparities in the country. We need to focus on addressing that fact – not making the problem worse.

• Research shows closures can negatively impact traffic to local businesses and diminish property values. When property values go down, so does property tax revenue for the school district, accelerating decline and exacerbating budget shortfalls.

• School buildings are notoriously hard to sell. Vacant buildings can be part of a domino effect of disinvestment in our neighborhoods. Even if buildings are sold, they often sell for less than projected, and new ownership doesn’t guarantee the building will be reutilized. MPS has publicly stated it does not plan to sell shuttered schools, meaning buildings will sit vacant in our neighborhoods.

• Our schools are one of the last free public spaces where we can interact with our neighbors. Research shows closures negatively impact civic participation. Our public institutions are under attack; we can’t afford to lose these community hubs.

How closures impact the long-term health of school districts:

• School closures harm enrollment in the long run by driving families away, ultimately harming a district’s bottom line and their ability to deliver on their responsibility to provide free, high-quality public education to all students.

We are all fed up with the annual cycle of budget cuts. Closures are proven to accelerate enrollment declines, leading to less funding for our district. Instead, MPS administrators should focus on increasing enrollment by implementing well-defined programs aimed at actively attracting more elementary school and early childhood students as well as retaining more families through high school. According to Minnesota Department of Education data, more than 25,000 MPS-eligible students attended charter schools, non-public schools, or open enrolled outside the district in 2025. District leadership should start by actively recruiting these students back to our schools to stabilize our district while also building robust pre-K options across the city to bring new families to MPS.

Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) brought students back into the district by listening to immigrant families and investing in language and cultural programs, including Txuj Ci HMong Language and Culture school, a new East African magnet school, and Adams Spanish Immersion School. These programs helped bring families back from charter schools and schools in other districts. 

Research shows that strong pre-K programming is one of the most effective ways to increase enrollment. Cities with successful programs include Saint Paul, Boston, Tulsa, and D.C. Students enrolled in D.C.’s pre-K programming were 35 percentage points more likely to stay in D.C.’s public schools through kindergarten, and D.C.’s public schools weathered the pandemic better than the national average. 

• Act with us to DELAY the vote: Go to our Linktree for a guide to organize your school and sign up for upcoming events. 

• Fill out our survey: Share your priorities for the future of the district.

• See impacts on your school: Learn more about the impacts of the proposed options for “school transformation.”

• Share your feedback with MPS online or at a community meeting.

• At every opportunity, families are asking MPS leadership: 

  • What are the financial impacts of this plan?

  • How many families do you estimate will leave and how will this impact the MPS budget?

  • Where is the data on racial impact?

  • Will you slow down until a review is complete of the mismanagement of the MPS finance department?