Little Falls Schools Make Tough Call To Close Randall Elementary

RANDALL (WJON News) --  One Central Minnesota school district has made the difficult decision to close a school. Little Falls Community Schools has decided to close Dr. SG Knight Elementary School in Randall, effective July 1st or as soon as practical. The district cited several factors for the closing, including a cost savings of over $1-million due to declining enrollment. Superintendent Greg Johnson says it was not an easy decision:

“It has been a really difficult process as we try to address harsh financial realities that we have in our district, like many districts across our state have but obviously the emotional impact of losing a school and especially in a school like the community of Randall.”

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How Much has the Little Falls School District Enrollment Dropped?

Johnson says enrollment has dropped from about 4,000 students in 1972, when the new high school opened, to roughly 2,300 projected students for this fall.  He says because of attrition, the only staff reduction due to the closing is that of the principal. Johnson says the closing of SG Knight is an emotional issue for the community:

“Some of the common themes that we’ve heard, people would like us to slow down the process, give it more time. We’ve asked for the community to share additional ideas on how we can address our budget, and we’ve received ideas, and the unfortunate part is that none of the ideas have the budget impact that closing a school does, which makes it really difficult.”

Johnson says the district has had some successes with reducing the budget by $3.5 million over the last two years, and the school banding of Lincoln and Lindbergh Elementary this past year, so overall, he feels good about the path the district is on. The school board voted 5 to 1 to close Dr. Knight Elementary.

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