Crookston Schools Losing Students

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Angie Menge’s son Jayden, is currently attending school here at the elementary school in Crookston.

Menge says she doesn’t mind the smaller classrooms compared to Fargo’s classrooms busting out the seams with students.

“We had gone in and had Jayden move to the front of the classroom maybe with the focus because in the back when there is a lot of students it’s hard to concentrate,” said Menge.

He’s one of 1,215 students in the district. Earlier this year the district predicted 33 more than that. It cost $9,000 per student who decide to leave. This year it’s costing the school almost $300,000 from the general fund.

Crookston Superintendent Chris Bates said, “We’ll absorb that in our general fund balance and we have a policy that it should be about ten percent and even after this we’ll be about 11.4. So we’re certainly not flushed but we’re certainly not hitting the panic button yet.”

With 560 students attending Crookston High School, why exactly are students leaving the district?

“You know we live in Crookston, we work in Grand Forks four or five of them drop their kids on their way to work and that was about the largest cell that we found,” said Bates.

Board members will visit each school to find out what needs to be changed and improved.

Angie is not worried about the enrollment.

“Crookston has a lot of people that support the school and show their support through going to different sport activities and donating money any way possible, so i think they might be able to take that windfall without it being a huge disaster,” said Menge.

The superintendent is also considering doing a survey to find out exactly why kids are moving out of the district.