First-ever East African Magnet School aims to reverse declining enrollment in St. Paul
Abdisalam Adam, the principal of the new East African Elementary Magnet School, spoke at the school site in May 2023 flanked by community leaders including Mayor Melvin Carter and Superintendent Joe Gothard.
Dymanh Chhoun | Sahan Journal
The first day of school means new beginnings. Today, hundreds of elementary school students in St. Paul are going to class for the first time at the nation’s first East African magnet school.
A handful of schools have closed in St. Paul over the last several years as the district faces sharp enrollment declines. So this school’s success was far from certain.
Sahan Journal education reporter Becky Dernbach has been covering this story from the beginning — she talked with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about it.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: I mentioned at the top of the show that this is the first day of school, and of course, the first day always means new beginnings. Today, hundreds of elementary school students in St. Paul are going to class for the first time at the nation's first East African Magnet School.
A handful of schools have been closed in St. Paul over the last several years as the district faces big enrollment declines. So this school success was far from certain. Sahan Journal Education Reporter Becky Dernbach has been covering this story. She's on the line right now. Hey, welcome back, Becky. How are you?
BECKY DERNBACH: I'm good, thank you. How are you, Cathy?
CATHY WURZER: Good, good. Thank you. First day of school is always a big day. Let's talk about this new school. You were there this morning, and this is in the former Jackson Elementary School building in the Frogtown neighborhood. What was it like?
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, so it was a really exciting day for staff who have been working on this for months, and for parents who were excited to see their kids off for school. Students, you know, are sleepy. They're trying to figure out where the bathroom is. They're not necessarily focused on being part of a big historic event.
But Superintendent Joe Gothard was there, and he was saying that this is a historic day, not just for St. Paul, but for the nation in terms of recognizing the importance of historic-- of culturally responsive education.
CATHY WURZER: So tell me a little bit about the focus of this school.
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, so this is an East African Magnet School, and it focuses on the cultures from countries around the East African region, and provides language support in seven different languages which-- I might not all get off the top of my head, but they include Arabic, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya.
And yeah, so it's going to provide language support to students and parents who speak those languages, Swahili is one I just forgot, and focus on the on the cultures, the diverse cultures from around that region.
CATHY WURZER: Now, you've reported on this trend that many students appear to really prefer intentionally segregated schools. Is that right?
BECKY DERNBACH: Well, I found that a lot of students leaving St. Paul public schools are going to charter schools that have a specific focus on immigrant communities. So a lot of Asian students leaving the district are going to schools-- to charter schools where almost all of the students are Asian, and the majority speak Hmong at home. And a similar trend, many of the Black students leaving the district are going to charter schools where most kids are Black and speak Somali at home.
So yeah, so these culturally responsive charter schools have been really attractive to St. Paul students and have been eating at St. Paul public schools enrollment.
CATHY WURZER: And charter schools for folks are under different guidelines, right?
BECKY DERNBACH: Yes, so there is a state law that schools-- about desegregation in schools. And if a school is determined to be racially isolated or a district is isolated, it has to take certain steps to remedy that. But for charter schools, they don't have to follow that.
So-- but that's actually currently the subject of a supreme-- a state supreme court case that we're expecting to hear a decision from soon now as to as to what kind of segregation is legal and where-- so we're waiting to hear back on that. But yeah, charter schools have more license to experiment with that.
CATHY WURZER: We should say that this school, this new school really became on line pretty quick. I mean, it was a pretty short timeline to pull the whole school together.
BECKY DERNBACH: That's right. Yeah, so they announced that the school would be opening. They made a-- they had a press conference on May 16th. Today is September 5th, so that was 3 and 1/2 months ago. And yeah, they pulled the whole school together.
When I was there for the press conference, you know, in May, they had one employee, the principal. And in that time, they had to hire an entire staff and recruit an entire student body, and clean up the site because it had been used-- the school had been closed and had been used for storage for the past year.
CATHY WURZER: Now, I know you said students were probably maybe a little bleary eyed, and you know, they're not focused on the history of this. What are parents saying? What about the school attracted them?
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, so parents were really excited to see a school focused on their culture, where kids would not have to feel like, you know, they were the only one wearing a head scarf, or they would see teachers who looked like them. And some parents were excited too that this is part of the public school system and that it would have opportunities that come with a public school while providing that culturally responsive support.
CATHY WURZER: So the district, of course, has been having, as I mentioned, enrollment problems. I'm going to assume that this one school can't solve the district's enrollment trouble, right? But the school was able to draw on a number of students who wouldn't otherwise have stayed in the district, I'm thinking.
BECKY DERNBACH: That's right. So 70% of the school's first through fifth grade students were not enrolled in St. Paul public schools last year, and those are kids who were in school last year, right? They had already started kindergarten. So they came from other districts or charter schools or private schools to transfer into St. Paul public schools this year when they weren't there last year. So that's pretty significant.
CATHY WURZER: And this is a model first of its kind in the nation. Is that right?
BECKY DERNBACH: That is what school officials believe, yeah. And they're hoping-- yeah, some people today were saying, you know, maybe we could have a-- we could push for a middle school next year. And some people have said, you know, we hope this can be a model for other parts of the country or for other cultures. But yeah, a lot of people are hoping this can be a model in a lot of different ways.
CATHY WURZER: All right, Becky, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, thank you.
CATHY WURZER: Becky Dernbach is an education reporter for Sahan Journal. You can read more of her reporting at sahanjournal.com.
A handful of schools have been closed in St. Paul over the last several years as the district faces big enrollment declines. So this school success was far from certain. Sahan Journal Education Reporter Becky Dernbach has been covering this story. She's on the line right now. Hey, welcome back, Becky. How are you?
BECKY DERNBACH: I'm good, thank you. How are you, Cathy?
CATHY WURZER: Good, good. Thank you. First day of school is always a big day. Let's talk about this new school. You were there this morning, and this is in the former Jackson Elementary School building in the Frogtown neighborhood. What was it like?
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, so it was a really exciting day for staff who have been working on this for months, and for parents who were excited to see their kids off for school. Students, you know, are sleepy. They're trying to figure out where the bathroom is. They're not necessarily focused on being part of a big historic event.
But Superintendent Joe Gothard was there, and he was saying that this is a historic day, not just for St. Paul, but for the nation in terms of recognizing the importance of historic-- of culturally responsive education.
CATHY WURZER: So tell me a little bit about the focus of this school.
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, so this is an East African Magnet School, and it focuses on the cultures from countries around the East African region, and provides language support in seven different languages which-- I might not all get off the top of my head, but they include Arabic, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya.
And yeah, so it's going to provide language support to students and parents who speak those languages, Swahili is one I just forgot, and focus on the on the cultures, the diverse cultures from around that region.
CATHY WURZER: Now, you've reported on this trend that many students appear to really prefer intentionally segregated schools. Is that right?
BECKY DERNBACH: Well, I found that a lot of students leaving St. Paul public schools are going to charter schools that have a specific focus on immigrant communities. So a lot of Asian students leaving the district are going to schools-- to charter schools where almost all of the students are Asian, and the majority speak Hmong at home. And a similar trend, many of the Black students leaving the district are going to charter schools where most kids are Black and speak Somali at home.
So yeah, so these culturally responsive charter schools have been really attractive to St. Paul students and have been eating at St. Paul public schools enrollment.
CATHY WURZER: And charter schools for folks are under different guidelines, right?
BECKY DERNBACH: Yes, so there is a state law that schools-- about desegregation in schools. And if a school is determined to be racially isolated or a district is isolated, it has to take certain steps to remedy that. But for charter schools, they don't have to follow that.
So-- but that's actually currently the subject of a supreme-- a state supreme court case that we're expecting to hear a decision from soon now as to as to what kind of segregation is legal and where-- so we're waiting to hear back on that. But yeah, charter schools have more license to experiment with that.
CATHY WURZER: We should say that this school, this new school really became on line pretty quick. I mean, it was a pretty short timeline to pull the whole school together.
BECKY DERNBACH: That's right. Yeah, so they announced that the school would be opening. They made a-- they had a press conference on May 16th. Today is September 5th, so that was 3 and 1/2 months ago. And yeah, they pulled the whole school together.
When I was there for the press conference, you know, in May, they had one employee, the principal. And in that time, they had to hire an entire staff and recruit an entire student body, and clean up the site because it had been used-- the school had been closed and had been used for storage for the past year.
CATHY WURZER: Now, I know you said students were probably maybe a little bleary eyed, and you know, they're not focused on the history of this. What are parents saying? What about the school attracted them?
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, so parents were really excited to see a school focused on their culture, where kids would not have to feel like, you know, they were the only one wearing a head scarf, or they would see teachers who looked like them. And some parents were excited too that this is part of the public school system and that it would have opportunities that come with a public school while providing that culturally responsive support.
CATHY WURZER: So the district, of course, has been having, as I mentioned, enrollment problems. I'm going to assume that this one school can't solve the district's enrollment trouble, right? But the school was able to draw on a number of students who wouldn't otherwise have stayed in the district, I'm thinking.
BECKY DERNBACH: That's right. So 70% of the school's first through fifth grade students were not enrolled in St. Paul public schools last year, and those are kids who were in school last year, right? They had already started kindergarten. So they came from other districts or charter schools or private schools to transfer into St. Paul public schools this year when they weren't there last year. So that's pretty significant.
CATHY WURZER: And this is a model first of its kind in the nation. Is that right?
BECKY DERNBACH: That is what school officials believe, yeah. And they're hoping-- yeah, some people today were saying, you know, maybe we could have a-- we could push for a middle school next year. And some people have said, you know, we hope this can be a model for other parts of the country or for other cultures. But yeah, a lot of people are hoping this can be a model in a lot of different ways.
CATHY WURZER: All right, Becky, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
BECKY DERNBACH: Yeah, thank you.
CATHY WURZER: Becky Dernbach is an education reporter for Sahan Journal. You can read more of her reporting at sahanjournal.com.
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