SStop the TransformationMPS transformation, explained
Elementary · Southwest pathway

Windom

This school stays open in all three options. What changes is who attends it and where its students go next.

All schools

What happens under each option

Option 1
Receives students

Receives Kenny students by home address.

MPS expects 460-500 students here in 2027-28 (92-100% of the building's design capacity).
Option 2
Receives students

Same.

MPS expects 460-500 students here in 2027-28 (92-100% of the building's design capacity).
Option 3
Receives students

Same. Some Windom students join Hale in the Washburn pathway.

MPS expects 480-500 students here in 2027-28 (96-100% of the building's design capacity).

Source: MPS proposed options pages, read Sept 17, 2026 [MPS], and the unprogrammed-building maps on slide 82 [presentation].

Unsolved in every option

Kenny's students would come here. MPS hasn't shown where they'd sit.

In all three options, Kenny closes and its students join Windom or Armatage by home address. Today, Kenny, Armatage and Windom together enroll 1,061 students. Armatage and Windom together have 1,038 seats of design capacity. MPS's own staffing model budgets the two schools at 1,027 students in Options 1 and 2, 99% of those seats. [MPS staffing model]

The capacity math at Windom

On Sept 28, MPS showed a new, larger capacity figure for Windom. Pick an option and switch between the two figures.

Today
364
73% of 499
MPS projection, 2027-28
460-500
92-100% of 499
MPS budgets for
485
97% of 499
capacity 499
Enrolled today MPS projection MPS budget Capacity

MPS's own planning target is 80-90% of a building's capacity. On design capacity, Windom reaches 100% at the top of MPS's Option 1 range.

Design capacity: MPS building reports [MPS]. "Maximum" and today's enrollment: slide 10 (MPS slides, Sept 28). Projection: MPS options pages, read Sept 17, 2026. Budget: MPS 2027-28 staffing model [MPS]. Target: April 2026 Parameter 4 example.

Count the classrooms

Whichever capacity figure you use, the classroom count doesn't change. MPS's April 2026 model for a school like Windom is 3 homerooms per grade, K-5, with at most 29 students each. That holds 522 students, and at most 87 in any one grade.

K
27.8
27.8
27.8
1
27.8
27.8
27.8
2
27.8
27.8
27.8
3
27.8
27.8
27.8
4
27.8
27.8
27.8
5
27.8
27.8
27.8

At 500 students, Windom's 18 homerooms average 27.8 students, against a cap of 29. Grades are never even: any grade that passes 87 students needs a fourth homeroom, and MPS hasn't shown one exists.

MPS says class size ratios "will not change" (slide 13). On Sept 28, staff told Kenny's Site Council the capacity analysis is not broken down by grade. (MPS slides, Sept 28)

Model: April 2026 program-size parameter, community elementary under 70% free and reduced meals, 24-29 per homeroom. Windom is under 70% in every option in MPS's staffing model.

Ask this at the Oct 8 Southwest meeting

MPS projects Windom at 460-500 students in every option, 92-100% of its 499-seat design capacity, against MPS's own 80-90% target. Where does Windom add a homeroom when a grade passes 87 students, and when will Windom families see the plan?

Send this to the board

Please do not vote to close Kenny until MPS publishes a classroom-by-grade capacity plan for Windom. MPS's own projections put Windom at or near full, and on Sept 28 staff told Kenny's Site Council the capacity analysis is not broken down by grade.

The building

Building use
0 of ~499 seats
0%
MPS: "efficient"
0%70%90%120%
Shaded band = MPS's "efficient" range (70–90% of design capacity).

Design capacity from MPS building reports, Table 2 [MPS]. Enrollment is the state's official Oct 1, 2025 count, grades K-12 [MDE].

Since the count the district is using, this school has lost 5 students.

The Sept 15, 2026 presentation uses Oct 2024 enrollment for every school. The state's Oct 1, 2025 count for Windom is 364, against 369 a year earlier.

On the district's own map
orange

Large enough for MPS student experience, approaching optimal enrollment

Slide 6 of the Sept 15, 2026 presentation [presentation].

What the district's own dashboard shows

MPS School Detail Dashboard (Tableau), publicinsights.mpls.k12.mn.us/transformation, printed Sept 2026. Capacity and enrollment use MDE and MPS building-report figures elsewhere on this page, not this dashboard -- the two sources disagree on those two fields for every school checked so far.

Enrollment, 2019 to 2025
581 → 366
Down 215 over six years, on this dashboard's own count.
FY25 school budget
$3,100,000
49 total staff
FY25 utilities cost
$114,000
Electric, gas, and water combined

Who attends from the boundary

48.6%Enroll here
8.4%Magnet/alt seat
43%Don't attend MPS
43% of children in Windom's own attendance boundary don't attend MPS at all.

We don't know the exact number of children that percentage represents, so this doesn't set a ceiling on the slider below -- it's context for how much room there plausibly is to recapture, not a hard limit.

0100 students

This school's FY27 per-pupil rate isn't in our data yet, so a dollar estimate isn't shown.

Per-pupil rate: this school's FY27 total school-based budget divided by its own FY27 projected enrollment. It's the district's core classroom funding only -- it excludes centrally budgeted costs like transportation and district administration, so it understates, not overstates, what each student is actually worth to the district.

Your community meeting

Oct 8, 2026 · 6:00 - 7:30 PM · Community meeting
Southwest pathway community meeting
Southwest High School
Interpreters (Spanish, Hmong, Somali) and childcare available.

Sourced from the MPS School Transformation page [MPS].

What the district has not answered about this school

  • How many of this school's students does MPS expect to stay in the district?
  • How many students would this school need to be sustainable, and what is the plan to recruit them?
  • What evidence ties the district's size minimum to student outcomes? MPS left the minimums out of the 118 slides and confirmed them on Sept 25: 432 students for a community elementary under 70% free and reduced meals, 360 at or above 70%.

Director Callahan asked about savings, retention and sustainability at the Sept 15 work session and asked for answers by the Oct 13 business meeting. What the board heard.

Who decides

All nine board members vote on Windom Nov 10. One represents this school's district; three more represent every school in the district, regardless of address.

The tag under each name is our read of their stance, based on the Sept 15, 2026 work session and Oct 14, 2025 votes on file — not their own statement of a position.

This school's district
Greta Callahan
Opposed
District 6 (Southwest)

Sept 15, 2026 work session: read the list of schools proposed to close and rejected all three options: "I find these options offensive... three options that close more than a dozen schools is not what we ask for." Asked for three answers by the Oct 13 business meeting: per-school savings, the share of displaced students expected to stay in MPS, and what each listed school needs to stay open. Oct 14, 2025: voted for defining the "sweet spot" as 70-89% capacity (failed 2-6) and for Resolution 2025-0045.

Hear her full comments
At-large · Chair
Collin Beachy
Undecided

Sept 15, 2026 work session: asked seven questions, including whether the board can combine options (staff: yes), what success metrics are (no target or date given), and how much of the deficit the plan solves. Staff answered that closures are "not a huge cost savings." Thanked staff in closing. Oct 14, 2025: voted against defining the enrollment "sweet spot" as 70-89% capacity, and for Resolution 2025-0045.

At-large · Vice Chair
Kim Ellison
Supports closures

Sept 15, 2026 work session: "You guys brought back exactly what we asked you to do... I think I have enough information." Asked no questions requiring answers. Suggested Afrocentric programming and raised the safety of adult Wellstone students at South. Oct 14, 2025: voted against the "sweet spot" definition and for Resolution 2025-0045.

At-large
Joyner Emerick
Supports closures

Sept 15, 2026 work session (virtual): said staff "followed direction exquisitely" and called the plan "courageous." Asked nine questions on North Minneapolis equity, walk zones, dual language, inclusion, interventionists and libraries. Oct 14, 2025: proposed defining the "sweet spot" as 70-89% capacity (failed 2-6) and cast the only vote against Resolution 2025-0045.

Email
The district does not provide a correct phone number for this director at this time.
Other district leaders

These board members represent other parts of the district. The administration doesn't vote, but sets the agenda the board votes on.

Abdul Abdi
District 1 (Northeast and Southeast) · Treasurer
Opposed
Sharon El-Amin
District 2 (North)
Leaning yes, timeline concerns
Lucie Skjefte
District 3 (South)
Unknown
Adriana Cerrillo
District 4 (South-central)
Undecided
Lori Norvell
District 5 (South) · Clerk
Leaning yes
Dr. Lametria Eaddy
Associate Superintendent · This school's Associate Superintendent
Ty Thompson
Deputy Superintendent · Deputy Superintendent
Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams
Superintendent · Superintendent

Board members' emails and phones are theirs directly, from the MPS Board of Education page. Administrator contacts are their own direct lines, from MPS's staff directory.

This school's board district is confirmed. Check it yourself.

The board votes Nov 10.

Ask them to stop the vote and wait for the newly elected board and for published goals to fix the budget.

Take action
Stop the Transformation

An independent community site about Minneapolis Public Schools' "School Transformation" process and the schools it would close. Not affiliated with Minneapolis Public Schools, any school, or any parent foundation.

Our standard

Facts link to their source. Our argument is labeled as argument. Where sources disagree, we show the range. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it publicly.