Because of a lower-than-expected student enrollment at Pratt Community School this year, the Minneapolis Public School district has reassigned one of Pratt’s teachers, kindergarten teacher Teresa Wisniewski, to Ramsey Fine Arts School in South Minneapolis. According to Principal Ellen Murphy, the school currently has 170 students, approximately 70 fewer than the 240 the district had planned on for the building.

As reported in the October issue of “The Bridge,” Pratt received a letter from the district’s human resources department on Sept. 20 stating that because of its low enrollment, the school’s staff would be decreased, and the teacher with the least seniority would be “excessed,” or reassigned. Parents and community members strongly objected, saying that 240 had been an unrealistic number to plan for and complaining that actions taken or not taken by the district had dissuaded families from enrolling at Pratt. The district did not change the decision to move one teacher, though Murphy said the district had originally been thinking about moving two Pratt teachers, and had decided to move just one.

With Wisniewski gone, another Pratt teacher, Colleen Theis, moved from her original first-grade class to teach the kindergarten class. The students in her first-grade class were divided between the other first grade class and a new class made up of first and second graders. The current class composition at Pratt, therefore, is two kindergarten classes, one first grade, one first/second split, one second grade, and one each of third, fourth and fifth grades.

Murphy said that while the staff was disappointed about losing Wisniewski, the students and teachers were adjusting well to the change. She expressed strong hope that the district would not make any more staffing changes at the school for the rest of the year.

last revised: October 9, 2007

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