Sun Thisweek Burnsville-Eagan 11-23-18

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Burnsville • Eagan SunThisweek.com

Nov. 23, 2018 • Volume 39 • Number 38

Established 1975

Too many elementary schools? Falling enrollment raises question by John Gessner SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

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Ed Delmoro, who heads Burnsville’s winter lighting program, posed with one of the snowflakes for which he sells sponsorships through the Burnsville Community Foundation.

Falling enrollment in School District 191 has reached a point where officials are asking whether they can continue to keep all 10 elementary schools open. The Burnsville-EaganSavage district’s Oct. 1 enrollment report, presented to the School Board Nov. 15, shows more decline this year and lower projections over the next five. With falling enrollment and “a lot of small, neighborhood schools,” Board Member Eric Miller asked

by John Gessner SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

A salesman by trade, Ed Delmoro often expects “no” for an answer, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to take it. This is the 20th year Delmoro has raised funds on behalf of the Burnsville Community Foundation for the city’s winter streetlighting display. “It takes some tenacity,” said Delmoro, 84, a retired vice president of sales for the old Soo Line Railroad who started as a clerk-typist. “Everybody has their hand out asking for money. And if you just take ‘no,’ you’re never going to

get the money. I sort of take it as, ‘No, I didn’t talk to the right person, and I’ll try another avenue.’ ” The on switch was thrown Wednesday night at the foundation’s 20th annual lighting ceremony. The popular pre-winter event in Nicollet Commons Park also served as a tribute to the man who does the most to make the lighting happen. “It’s all about Ed Delmoro on Wednesday night,” said Burnsville Community Foundation President Michael Esch, who has seen the master fundraiser in action. “You definitely don’t want to say ‘no’ to Ed, because you can’t say ‘no’ to Ed,” Esch said. From now until Valentine’s Day, hundreds of thousands of white minilights See Delmoro, 17A

Glacier Hills annual event makes STEM ‘fun’ by Andy Rogers SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Students at Glacier Hills Elementary in Eagan proved last weekend that science, technology, engineering and math can be fun during the magnet school’s annual STEM day. “Students heard that STEM careers are not just men in lab coats, that STEM careers are dynamic, fun, challenging and engaging,” said Jill Jensen, IDEAS coach at Glacier

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18 months, Amoroso said. The district’s average target class size in the Kfive elementary schools is 24.5 students. Currently, the average size is closer to 23.5, according to the district. The report shows an Oct. 1 head count of 8,400 students in grades kindergarten through 12 and a projected year-end enrollment of 8,412, compared with 8,577 at the end of last school year. The report goes back to 2012-13, when enrollment was 9,460, and looks ahead to 2023-24, with a See Enrollment, 17A

Eyes open wide during STEM day

Lighting the way for 20 years Delmoro has led winter lighting efforts in Burnsville

if the district is reaching a “tipping point.” “I think we’re right at the tipping point,” where some schools’ small enrollments make it hard to manage class sizes, Superintendent Cindy Amoroso said. It’s the point at which two sections of a grade have too many students to combine into one, or at which adding a third section would result in unsustainably low class sizes, according to Amoroso. Administrators have begun studying the issue, which the board will need to address in the next 12 to

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Students at Glacier Hills Elementary took on several challenges during its STEM Day last weekend. Hills. “STEM careers are ter place and allow for a ways that our students variety of topics to be apcan see themselves help- plied.” See STEM, 17A ing make the world a bet-

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