Faced with growing student population, Pine Island Public Schools closes child care enrollment for non-residents

Apr. 18—PINE ISLAND, Minn. — As Pine Island Public Schools' enrollment continues to grow, district leaders are beginning to look forward to how they might accommodate that trend in years to come.

With an eye to that future, the district recently made the decision to close enrollment for child care for non-residents in the year 2024-25 due to the district's child care capacity issues.

"We're really blessed to be in this position," Superintendent Tonya Constantine said. "Because we recognize that many rural districts are not faced with an increase in enrollment. Pine Island is a booming community and school district."

As of the 2023-24 school year, Pine Island Public Schools has a student population of 1,538, according to the Minnesota Department of Education. That's an increase of more than 28% from its enrollment in 2014, when Pine Island voters approved the referendum for a new elementary school.

According to Constantine, the growth of the school district's enrollment has been outpacing that of the city population, which is unsurprising considering the number of parents from other districts who choose to enroll their children in Pine Island.

Of the district's student population, 359 open-enroll from other districts, including 279 from neighboring Rochester alone. In other words, more than 23% of the district's students don't actually live within the Pine Island boundaries.

Part of the reason for that is because the boundary line between the Pine Island and Rochester school districts goes through the community of Oronoco. And since both districts offer busing, it's convenient for families living nearby to simply choose either district regardless of which side of the line they live on.

Pine Island's growth has been reflected in the district's building projects over the last decade. For the 2015-16 school year, the district opened a new elementary school south of the city's boundaries but near a growing area of town. In 2022, the district broke ground on the construction of a new early learning center, located right across the street from its secondary school in downtown Pine Island.

Though the early learning center has been open for less than two years, it's already nearing capacity. Constantine said they've already divided a large multi-purpose room in the building in half so they can dedicate more room to child care needs.

"We just can't make any additional space," Constantine said about the facility. "In order to serve our Pine Island community and school district, we have to close our child care now for non-residents."

That reality has prompted district leaders to start looking forward to how they will handle the growth moving forward.

Last year, the district made the decision to purchase nearly 74 acres for future growth. With that resource already in the back pocket, district leaders are starting the process of engaging the community about what the district's next steps may be.

On April 8, the Pine Island School Board had an initial meeting with representatives from the construction firm Kraus-Anderson to talk about the situation, such as when the district could possibly ask voters to approve a bond. The school board is set to have another study session on Monday, April 29.

Constantine emphasized, however, that the district is still in the early stages when it comes to considering what options it may choose moving forward.

"We are being so intentional in hearing the voices from our stakeholders before we make any big decisions that will affect our taxpayers," Constantine said. "We don't want to make this decision without hearing more from our community and constituents."

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