South Minneapolis Schools

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by QuietBlue

Yeah, I remembered the Eden Prairie boundary controversy too. The points I was trying to make are that 1) these sorts of things happen in some parts of Minneapolis just the same as they do in some suburbs, and 2) while Minneapolis as a whole may be diverse, people don't experience Minneapolis as a whole, they experience their own respective parts of it, which may or may not be diverse.

We are in complete agreement on this.

[northsub]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

There is no school in the Southwest attendance area, which is what was being discussed, that is 7.9% white! There may be diversity in SW Mpls but it's neither racial nor ideological.

So there are two types of people in Eden Prairie, "white, non-hispanic" and "free/ reduced price lunch?"

I also note your numbers don't add to 100% and this is not really an ethnic breakdown. I live next to the SW HS attendance area and used to live next to EP. Yes, they are both lily white.

Jefferson Elementary does appear to be in the Southwest attendance area and does appear to be 7.9% white. Do you dispute either of these 2 claims? I am getting data from the state education site:
MN Report Card

"White, non-hispanic" and "free/reduced price lunch" are two related categories. A student could be in 0,1, or 2 of those. You can go to the above link to get the numbers for each of the racial categories the state data is using. Those numbers will add to 100%. You could get the non-white % percentage by doing 100%-(% of white for a given school). I suspect you know this.

The initial discussion mentioned socio/economic characteristics. So, I thought I would throw in white/non-white (what I presume is meant by "socio") and free/reduced price lunch to address economic issues.

Are you still maintaining that Eden Prairie is "lily white" even in the face of data showing that no elementary school in Eden Prairie is more than 67.9% white? Do you not believe the data? You can find a few suburban elementary schools with %'s of white students in the neighborhood of Lake Harriet, but not in the places that have been discussed.

[St. Paulite]

Glenfield-

I've noticed several thoughtful comments from you on this forum regarding MA. We are seriously considering MA for our son for next year, and were very impressed on our tour of the school. I did have one question that I was reticent to ask of the admissions counselor. My wife is fairly religious (and subsequently my kids as well), but I am not. Do you feel like we could still connect with other parents there, or is it harder to break in if your family is not Christian (or part of the family is not)? We like socializing with the parents of our kids' friends and don't want that to be difficult or forced. Do you think the time spent on religious teaching there detracts from the overall education? It doesn't seem that way, but it is an awkward question to ask and we don't really know any families with kids at MA so I thought I would try a more anonymous approach. Thanks for your time.