Full STEAM Ahead for Olson School—Part II

Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part series about Olson School, which the district plans to revive in the 2012-13 school year.

When Anne Borgen's husband, Dan, took a job with North Memorial Hospital back in 1974, the couple moved from Iowa City, Iowa, to the Twin Cities. They could have chosen other cities or other neighborhoods, but they ended up in Golden Valley.

"Olson School is the reason we bought a house here," Borgen said. "We were excited for our girls to attend the school and it seemed to be the center of a lovely neighborhood."

Sigurd Olson Elementary School was named after the environmentalist and first opened its doors for the 1971-72 school year. The Borgens loved the school on Kelly Drive so much that when they needed a bigger home, they decided to build one just down the street.

"Before the roof was put on, we found out Olson would close," Borgen said.

In the nearly 10 years the school was open, the Robbinsdale District's enrollment shrunk by nearly 10 thousand students—from about 27,500 to about 17,000. So in 1980, the school board decided to close the school.

Borgen said when she read the headline on Jan. 24, 1980, (see attached photo), she was shocked and saddened.

"My two kids just loved it there. It gave the neighborhood an identity," she said. "It had become a community center of sorts, and then it was just taken away."

Since the school's closing, the building has been and on-again, off-again home to various school and community programs. But in the minds of Borgen and other neighbors, it's essentially been an empty building filled with memories of children's laughter and unique learning.

"It wasn't pleasant when it's been vacant," Borgen said. "People trashed the building, and it would become an eyesore. As long as it's in use, it's fine. But even when it's used for something other than an elementary school, it's just not the same. It hasn't been the same for 30 years."

Then last November, a divestiture committee recommended that the district hold on to Olson. STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. According to the district, the program would integrate the arts into "a rigorous academic framework focusing on research and critical thinking."

When she heard talk of bringing STEAM to Olson School, Sonia Casey was excited. She, her husband and her two children live in the Olson neighborhood, and she's been shopping for a kindergarten for her preschool-age son, Dylan. 

"This is what I find interesting looking at my neighborhood—the families around us within a one-block radius mostly send their kids to with a few exceptions," she said. "Otherwise, one , one RSI (Spanish Immersion) and one charter school within this one-block radius."

Casey attends a book club with friends who live about four blocks south of her. She said everyone seems to attend a different school—Noble, RSI, , Meadowbrook, and City of Lakes Waldorf.

Borgen describes the Olson School of the 1970s as a "community center of sorts." The Olson of 2012-13 will be much different in that it will draw a third of its students from outside the district and will use a lottery system for the other kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the district.

That's OK with Sonia Casey. "It will entice families to move here and not move out—like across the border to the Hopkins district," she said. She said she hopes it will also keep high-achieving students and their families in the district, as well.

Casey said she hopes STEAM will be a new way the district can market itself, and that's a relatively new concept in public education. In fact, STEAM didn't come to fruition because the district was looking for innovative ways to educate its kids—it was looking for an innovative way to build revenue.

"The (divestiture) committee found that over time, the model would pay for itself and bring additional revenue," said Lori Simon, executive director of education services for Robbinsdale Area Schools.

Simon said in the end, STEAM is actually one of the positive side effects of state budget woes.

"I raised two sons in a more traditional school system," she said. "And I just think it's really exciting for families to have more options."

Casey said she'll be at the Feb. 13 parent information night, and said having her first choice of elementary schools right in her neighborhood is great, even if her son doesn't get to attend. She said she's confident they'll find the right fit somewhere close to home.

"I am just happy that I'm not in the Chicago Public School system, where my sister-in-law is pulling her hair out researching some 200 school options for her son," she said. "She then applies for 20 schools for the lottery and not at all guarantee her top choices."

Borgen said she had hoped for years that Olson School would re-open. And while many of the children might not all be from the neighborhood, Borgen said it will still bring people together.

"Just seeing the principal greeting the kids in the morning and at lunch—it gave the neighborhood an identity," she said. "And I think the new Olson School will do the same thing."