by Tom Loberg
Goodridge Superintendent
Goodridge Public School staff, administration, school board and stakeholders continue to make progress on our district’s long-range facilities planning process. Since our last update to residents, results have been finalized and presented on our listening sessions, educational adequacy assessment, and demographic analysis. Each of these is a critical component to understanding the full picture of our district’s facility and educational needs.
Here’s what our district found from those results:
Listening sessions: These sessions gathered feedback from various internal and external stakeholder groups. In gathering feedback from both audiences, our top needs remain — our existing boiler and HVAC systems require repair and/or replacement, additional classroom space, expanded or additional gymnasium space, and space to support Career and Technical Education.
Educational adequacy assessment: This assessment, as outlined by the Minnesota Department of Education, echoed similar themes identified from our listening sessions including additional classroom space to support our students, improving our HVAC systems, and improving our science lab to provide hands-on learning opportunities.
Demographic analysis: Over the last decade, our K-12 enrollment has grown 35.8% and we’re expected to continue that steady growth — a projected growth of almost five percent by the 2031-32 school year. Historically, open enrollment has contributed to this growth, and families in the region are attracted to our quality education, caring staff and academic and activity offerings.
The presentation given to our school board on Feb. 21, including results from our listening sessions and educational adequacy assessment, is available at https://bit.ly/3KbLJ0x. You can also find this information on our website, www.goodridgeforward.org. As we look ahead, we are continuing to develop various facility solutions and cost estimates, gather community feedback, and ultimately, work towards finalizing a plan to move our school, and our district, forward. Throughout our planning, input from district residents, school staff, and stakeholders will be one of the most important factors as we continue to navigate this process.
We invite all to attend an informational community meeting Tuesday, April 11 at 7 p.m. in the Goodridge Community Center. During this time, administration and project team members will be available to present and discuss the results of the listening sessions, educational adequacy, and enrollment projections for our district. We hope to see you there.
If you haven’t visited our dedicated website about this planning process, we encourage you to visit goodridgeforward.org. If you have any additional questions, you can reach out to me at tomas.loberg@goodridgeisd561.org or 218-378-4134. Go Chargers!