Minneapolis plans to close up to 16 schools. Is yours one of them?
The board votes Nov 10. We are not against fixing the budget. We are asking the board to wait for the numbers, and for the members you elect on Nov 3.
of students at the closing schools MPS must keep just to break even, on its own figures. In the 2020 redesign's first year, MPS lost about 8% of its enrollment.
of the $39.7 million budget shortfall is what the closures save each year, by option, per MPS's Sept 25 handout as reported by KSTP.
between the Nov 3 election, with 5 of 9 board seats on the ballot, and the Nov 10 vote. New members are not seated until January.
The problem isn't one school. It's the plan.
- 3 of 9 board members face no voters for this decision.
- The board's required cost/benefit analysis has not been published school by school.
- Closing schools elsewhere hasn't fixed a budget like this one.
- Even the district's own deputy superintendent admits closures aren't "a huge cost savings" — 3:13 in the recording.
MPS's own minimum closes some schools and spares others below it.
MPS left its size minimum out of the Sept 15 plan and confirmed it on Sept 25: 432 students for a community elementary under 70% free and reduced meals. No board resolution names it. It works out to 18 homerooms at 24 students, a class-size formula, and we have found no outcome or cost evidence for it in what MPS has published. Here is every elementary school in MPS's own staffing model, measured against it.
21 of 31 community elementaries are below their own minimum today.
312 students today, 72% of its 432-student minimum (14% free and reduced meals).
The chart shows who is on which side of the line. It cannot show why a given school was chosen, and some open schools clear the line only because a closing school's students join them. MPS says openly that some schools stay below it. That is the question to put to the board.
See all 41 schools in this view
| School | Type | Students | Minimum | Share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wenonah | Community | 146 | 432 | 34% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Hiawatha | Community | 178 | 432 | 41% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Pratt | Community | 165 | 360 | 46% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Anishinabe | Magnet | 195 | 424 | 46% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Hall | Magnet | 208 | 424 | 49% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Cityview | Community | 186 | 360 | 52% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Howe | Community | 231 | 432 | 53% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Jenny Lind | Community | 202 | 360 | 56% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Hmong Int'l Academy | Community | 203 | 360 | 56% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Webster | Community | 209 | 360 | 58% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Bethune | Magnet | 271 | 424 | 64% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Lake Harriet Upper | Community | 286 | 432 | 66% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Waite Park | Community | 289 | 432 | 67% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Lake Harriet Lower | Community | 300 | 432 | 69% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Kenny | Community | 312 | 432 | 72% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Hale | Community | 314 | 432 | 73% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Loring | Community | 315 | 432 | 73% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Field | Community | 320 | 432 | 74% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Keewaydin | Community | 325 | 432 | 75% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Nellie Stone Johnson | Community | 284 | 360 | 79% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Las Estrellas | Magnet | 356 | 424 | 84% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Windom | Community | 364 | 432 | 84% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Kenwood | Community | 370 | 432 | 86% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Armatage | Community | 385 | 432 | 89% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Northrop | Community | 386 | 432 | 89% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Emerson | Magnet | 469 | 485 | 97% | Below its minimum, stays open |
| Dowling | Community | 434 | 432 | 100% | At or above its minimum |
| Lucy Laney | Community | 374 | 360 | 104% | At or above its minimum |
| Bancroft | Community | 457 | 432 | 106% | At or above its minimum |
| Burroughs | Community | 463 | 432 | 107% | At or above its minimum |
| Marcy | Magnet | 461 | 424 | 109% | At or above its minimum |
| Lyndale | Community | 392 | 360 | 109% | At or above its minimum |
| Bryn Mawr | Community | 397 | 360 | 110% | At or above its minimum |
| Pillsbury | Community | 402 | 360 | 112% | At or above its minimum |
| Seward | Magnet | 543 | 485 | 112% | At or above its minimum |
| Barton | Community | 486 | 432 | 113% | At or above its minimum |
| Green | Magnet | 557 | 485 | 115% | At or above its minimum |
| Folwell | Community | 421 | 360 | 117% | At or above its minimum |
| Ella Baker | Magnet | 547 | 424 | 129% | At or above its minimum |
| Whittier | Community | 482 | 360 | 134% | At or above its minimum |
| Sullivan | Magnet | 675 | 424 | 159% | At or above its minimum |
Minimums: MPS, Sept 25: community elementary 432 students under 70% free and reduced meals, 360 at or above; magnet elementary 485 and 424. [MPS] Enrollment: MPS's 2027-28 staffing model, which covers 41 elementary buildings (31 community, 10 magnet). "Today" is the model's base year, matching the state's Oct 1, 2025 counts. Options 1 to 3 use only MPS's own 2027-28 enrollment estimates from its Sept 15 transformation plan, unadjusted for families who leave or choose other schools, and MPS's projected free and reduced meal rate for each option. [MPS]
Stop the Nov 10 vote. Wait for the newly elected board and for published goals to fix the budget.
Five of nine board seats are on the Nov 3 ballot. New members take office in January 2027. As it stands, the outgoing board would decide the future of 14 schools one week after the election, with no school-by-school savings figure for any of them.
Three things the district has not answered.
Every figure below comes from the district's own presentation, resolution or recording. Follow any of them to the source.
MPS has not said what closing your school saves.
Resolution 2025-0045 required a cost/benefit analysis before this vote. MPS has not published one school by school. Its Sept 25 handout, as KSTP reports, shows net savings of about $721,000, $184,000 or $2.36 million a year, by option: roughly 1.8%, 0.5% and 5.9% of the $39.7 million shortfall.
"It's not something that's like a huge cost savings... that hasn't been the intent."
Deputy Superintendent Ty Thompson, asked how much of the deficit the closures solve.
The district's own map and its own minimum disagree.
Slide 6 codes every building red, orange or green. Slide 25 says only buildings without a large enough footprint get merged. Then the plan closes 9 orange buildings, which the district itself defines as large enough for the MPS student experience. On Sept 25 MPS confirmed a separate 432-student minimum for community elementaries. Both tests are MPS's, and they do not agree.
The board taking this vote is on its way out.
Five of nine board seats are on the Nov 3 ballot and the new members take office in January 2027. Three of the nine members voting face no voters for this decision at all. As it stands, the outgoing board decides the future of 14 schools one week after the election.
And closing schools elsewhere has not fixed a budget like this one. What happened after the 2020 redesign →
How to be heard before Oct 16
Three ways to reach the people making this decision, in the order they carry weight. The board sees a first feedback report Oct 20.
Key dates
Go deeper
Every section of this site, in the order it makes sense to read it.
The timing, the missing analysis, and the district's own track record.
What the plan does to your school under each option.
Nine problems in the 118-slide presentation, with slide numbers.
What the district is proposing, every board question, and what was said off the slides.
Nine board members, how they voted, how to reach them.
The survey, the meetings, the board, and what to say.
Every source, summarized.
Get an email when something changes
Options, meeting dates, votes. Nothing else.
Sharing this page is the fastest way to change that.