Agenda - Council Work Session - 09/08/2008

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( ~.. MEMORANDUM Defendant is a charter schoollo~ated in the City of Ramsey, Minnesota, and enrolls students in kindergarten l:!lld grades one through twelve. Plaintiff Look and PlaintiffDehen are residents of the City of Ramsey, Minnesota, and each seeks to enroll his minor child in Defendant's 2008-2009 kindergarten class. Based on its interpretation of Minn. Stat. ~ 124D.I0, subd. 9, Defendant accords admissions preferences to applicants who are the siblings of an enrolled pupil or who are the foster children, in a "long-term placement," of the parents of an enrolled pupil (together, the "Sibling Preference"), as well as those who live within two miles of the charter school but more than five miles from the next closest public school (the "Proximity Preference"). The s~hool does not extend an admissions preference to applicants who reside in the City of Ramsey. Under Defendant's current admissions policies, applicants falling under either the Sibling or Proximity Preference are admitted before all other applicants. If the number of applicants qualifying for Sibling or Proximity Preferences exceeds the number of places in an entering class, Defendant determines which students will be offered admission through a random lottery among only those applicants qualifying for a preference. If tl,1e number of places in an entering class is greater than the number of applicants qualifying for a Sibling or Proximity Preferenc~ but not the total number of applicants, Defendant first offers admission to those students qualifying for a preference, and conducts a lottery among the remaining applicants to determine which will be offered admission. As of February 8, 2008, a total of 156 children made timely applications for the thirty-six places in Defendant's 2008-2009 kindergarten class, including Plaintiffs' minor children. Twenty-six of the applicants were siblings of students attending PACT Charter School, and