Lakeville school’s integration and equity budget presented to School Board
by Derrick Williams
Thisweek Newspapers
The Lakeville Area School Board got its first look at the 2010-11 integration and equity budget during its March 23 meeting.
Stacy Wells, the district’s integration and equity coordinator, said the plan calls for an increase of about $154,000 from last year’s $953,000 budget.
The $1.1 million budget hasn’t been approved by the School Board.
Wells outlined a number of expansions to current programming as part of the budget, including Advancement Via Individual Determination to seventh and 11th grades next year.
Wells said the budget will allow for the continuation of Preparing to Achieve a College Education program, which is a collaboration with Inver Hills Community College.
Mentor programs for fourth- through eighth-graders will be expanded, and Wells said some funds will go to support the district’s gifted and talented program.
Wells said this year is the final year of the four-year state grant given to the district.
The entire integration and equity effort is the by-product of a letter Lakeville received in 2006 from the Minnesota Department of Education deeming the district as racially isolated from the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District.
Minority students make up 35 percent of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage student population, compared with 12 percent in Lakeville.
Under state law, neighboring districts with a difference of 20 percentage points or more in their minority populations must work to find more ways for their students to interact voluntarily.
The state provides a grant for these programs.
The board will vote on the budget at a later meeting.
E-mail Derrick Williams at:
lakeville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com





