Cityview leaves North Minneapolis special education students behind
July 24, 2012
Last week, the families of 40 Minneapolis students with significant special needs received an unwelcome phone call. The promise that their children would be able to return to their North Minneapolis classrooms when school starts in just over a month would be broken. The children, who have disabilities such as autism and Downs syndrome that make transitions particularly difficult, will not be welcomed back to the one-year-old charter Minnesota School of Science, which took over the district's Cityview Elementary School in August 2011.
In 2010, when No Child Left Behind mandated that the Minneapolis school district take drastic action to improve Cityview's test scores, the district school board voted to usher Cityview out and turn over the space to the charter Minnesota School of Science the following year.
The plan called for special education classrooms to stay in the building. Their occupants would remain Minneapolis Public School students in name. A one-year contract obligated MSS to provide opportunities for the high-needs students to mingle with