Former Shakopee mayor Reinke dies
Depth carries Sabers to title
69-year-old had long history of service to the community
12 of 14 wrestlers place at Eastview Invitational
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www.shakopeenews.com
THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012
news
Boundary plan stays same BY KRISTIN HOLTZ kholtz@swpub.com
After questioning the proposal brought before the board two weeks ago, the Shakopee School Board on Monday agreed the fi rst was the best after all. School Board members approved
preliminary attendance boundaries for the two seventh- through ninthgrade junior high schools, set to open next fall. The boundaries follow the original proposal, which splits the district for the fi rst time. “Hands down this is the one we’d recommend tonight,� said Facility Planning Committee Chair Reggie Bowerman. The boundaries place all of Red Oak Elementary and Sun Path Elementary students in the “East� junior
high school, the current Shakopee Middle School building. T he li ne a l so crosses over Marschall Road into a portion of Sweeney Elementar y and Eagle Creek Elementary boundaries. It includes neighborhoods north and east of Spencer Street and First Avenue, the Garden Lane apartment complexes, and houses on and east of Shawmut Street, Aster Lane and Primrose Lane. Two weeks ago, board members,
including Bowerman, questioned the boundaries because they appeared to split neighborhoods west of Marschall Road. The board asked to see other boundary configurations. The Facility Planning Committee met Friday to review five proposals, Bowerman said. This one, while not perfect, makes the most sense. “It’s about as close as you can get, and based on the models we saw, it was
Boundary to page 9 ÂŽ
Caucus time with district realignment to come
Senior High
Pearson Middle School Sun Path
Red Eag Oak le C r Blvd eek . Eagle Creek
N
Grades 7, 8, 9 East Grades 7, 8, 9 West
Scott County Geographic Information System/ Graphic by Lorris Thornton
Session may shape future of county BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
Caucus to page 7 ÂŽ
169 Junior High
STATE LEGISLATURE OPENS
County to gain legislative seat(s) With redistricting on the near horizon, 2012 legislative candidates are starting to come out of the woodwork in Scott County. Republican Lee Bernick, a former Savage City Council member, recently announced a bid for state representative. And former Shakopee School Board member Chuck Berg is weighing a run for the state House as a DFLer. Local party leaders have been in touch with several people interested in making a run for the state Legislature, although they’re not releasing names just yet. “We’ve gotten a lot more [calls than normal] because of redistricting, because we know it’ll create opportunity for people to run in areas that open up,� said Bradley Johnson, Senate District 35 Republican chairman. Who these folks would run against and whether they’d face an incumbent is unknown because the political lines won’t be redrawn until after the Feb. 7 caucuses, one of the hiccups of moving the Minnesota primary season up a month. What else is unknown: Will the incumbents seek re-election? There’s also been much private speculation about whether Scott County’s longest-serving incumbents — Rep. Michael Beard of Shakopee, Sen. Claire Robling of Jordan and Rep. Mark Buesgens of Savage — will run again, fueling further interest in the races. Beard and Robling are both in their fi fth terms of office, while Buesgens is in his seventh. All three are Republicans. Although the three have had little difficulty holding onto their seats, that could change depending on how
Grades 7, 8, 9 - School year 2012-13
PHOTO BY SHANNON FIECKE / REPRINTS AT PHOTOS.SHAKOPEENEWS.COM
Shakopee High School seniors Jess Pauly (left) and Trevor Cox are full-time students at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. This is the first year McNally has offered a postsecondary enrollment options (PSEO) program, and Pauly and Cox are taking advantage of it.
No diploma? These high school musicians are already in college BY KRISTIN HOLTZ kholtz@swpub.com
T
o say Jess Pauly loves music might be an understatement. She lives and breathes it. So Pauly opted to forgo her senior year at Shakopee High School and get started on her music business career early. Pauly is one of two Shakopee seniors taking classes at McNally Smith College of Music through a new postsecondary enrollment options program aimed at helping high school students start earning college credit before they officially graduate. “It’s so different to be in the college setting,� Pauly said. “Every class is so focused on the music and the life I want to have in my future.� This is the first year McNally Smith has opened its doors to
“It’s such a great deal for students because you’re able to go to college while still in high school.� Molly Gilbert McNally Smith admissions director PSEO students. Sixteen high school students enrolled in the St. Paul music college’s fall semester, three of whom are full-time, including Pauly and fellow Shakopee High School senior Trevor Cox. Another five students are set to start this month, according to senior admissions director Molly Gilbert. With schools facing tight budgets — and arts funding often
feeling the short shrift — McNally Smith wanted to offer a program to meet the needs of highachieving music students, Gilbert said. Plus, students can earn college credit at no cost since the state pays for PSEO tuition. “It’s such a great deal for students because you’re able to go to college while still in high school,� Gilbert said. Cox will be just one semester from graduating with a McNalley Smith live-sound diploma when his senior year wraps up this spring. The 17-year-old first became interested in live sound back in junior high school while helping run sound board for Enigma Teen Center band nights. Pretty soon Cox was running the whole show and working on the tech crew for school plays.
Do you support or oppose a racino at Canterbury Park? Is a Vikings stadium south of the river a great idea or a traffic nightmare? Should a fence be built around the women’s prison in Shakopee? The next few months in St. Paul could decide these issues and greatly shape the future of Scott County. Bonding is the top priority of the 2012 legislative session that started Tuesday. Despite big-ticket decisions, the session is promised to be a short one, with state lawmakers anxious to return home after legislative districts are redrawn. With his release last week of a nearly $1.5 million bonding proposal, Gov. Mark Dayton said he’s focused on making long-term investments to create jobs. The proposal, which would issue $775 million in state bonds, would put an estimated 21,700 Minnesotans back to work by investing in improvements in infrastructure, colleges and universities, and several other regional economic development projects. With a half-billion dollars in bonding approved in last year’s special session, state Sen. Claire Robling, RJordan, believes this year’s package should be no larger, since $1 billion in bonding is typically what is approved every two years. “Some projects in there are more wants than needs,� she said. “I think we could whittle them out and that’s probably what will happen.� Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Savage, sees no reason to even pass a bonding bill this session. “I come from the school of thought where I don’t believe that borrowing money to create bonding jobs is good sound economic policy,� he said. “They just put $500 million on the state’s credit card in July. We’ve got almost $2 billion in [earmarked] debt that hasn’t been spent yet. In this fragile economy to add more debt to young workers and our children’s
Postsecondary to page 9 ÂŽ
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 CALENDAR/10 HAPPENINGS/13 SPORTS/15-16 CLASSIFIEDS/24-26 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6682 EDITOR: (952) 345-6680 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@SHAKOPEENEWS.COM.
Session to page 7 ÂŽ
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District sets walking distance at one mile
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