Minutes - Council Work Session - 04/01/2008

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Councilmember Jeffrey stated that he has children that, although eligible to attend PACT, have never applied for attendance. Councilmember Look stated that there was an article in the StarTribune on March 29,2008, and he feels the use of the word "sue" is inflammatory. He stated that the Minnesota Department of Education has given their opinion, but he would like to have a legal determination. He stated that he reviewed the minutes from the March 2007 work session meeting where a second PACT Charter School was discussed in which School Administrator Dan DeBruyn stated that enrollment would be held by lottery and siblings of students would get a preference. He stated that the lottery has been put on hold for now, but is empathetic to parents and would like to see a conclusion sooner rather than later. He stated that he feels District 11 has been willfully neglect in providing a school within the community to handle residents within the community. He stated that because of this, residents are required to, in most cases, go to Anoka, which is a 45 minute bus ride for some students. He stated that he feels this was part of the reason Ramsey was interested in bringing the PACT school here to offer a solution for many of the young families that live here. He stated that as it is currently set up, Ramsey residents have about a 7% chance to enroll at the school and if there was an additional charter school approved, this would be reduced even further to 3.5%. Councilmember Dehen reviewed some of the past discussions with the school. He stated that he has reviewed the legislative history and has concluded that the terms "city" and "town" are synonymous. He stated that through his research, he found the amendment to the Statute came from Senator Tom Neuville who introduced the language referring to the town of Nerstrand, which was actually incorporated as a city in 1897. He stated that, in his opinion, this language clearly applies to Ramsey and they are looking to have the district court support this and plan to provide them with the legislative history and a copy of the tape from the floor. He stated that in conversations with Mr. DeBruyn, the school does not want to give Ramsey residents preference because it dilutes their position and they want to pull in students from a broader area. He stated that he feels this is an elitist statement. He stated that he is looking for a consensus from the Council to adopt a resolution that rejects any interpretation of this language in a way that compromises or disadvantages Ramsey as a preference group. He stated that he would also like a consensus that the Council would not support a second PACT Charter school because he thinks the whole crux of the issue is that this creates an environment where the City doesn't want to help out our own residents. He stated that he feels the school was sold to the City back in 2003 as something that would benefit the community and while he understands that there are broad benefits to having a school located in a community, he would like there to be a benefit for Ramsey students. Councilmember Elvig stated that he was involved at the very beginning with the PACT school. He stated that there were discussions in which former City Administrator Norman tried to pitch the concept that the RTC had the opportunity to sell land for the school. He stated that his concern was that starting the RTC project by giving away land to an entity that wouldn't pay taxes was nothing he wanted anything to do with. He stated that he later received a call from Mr. Feges who explained that schools are a wonderful opportunity for a downtown region because it provides traffic and parents around that can support area businesses. He stated that he hadn't thought of it in this manner before, but one of the first questions he. asked was what benefit it City Council Work Session /Aprill, 2008 Page 11 of20