By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

On Dec. 11 the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School Board will discuss a performing arts magnet school … again.

The issue has been discussed many times before, but now the School Board is split about how to configure the school – as a standalone program or with performing arts classes in one location and core classes at another. The disagreement reached a climax last month when Vice Chairman Ron Hill and Board Member Nancy Banyard left a meeting.

Their protest was against a motion to house the school’s core classes at Burnsville High School. Hill and Banyard have said they want core classes at a facility separate from the high school to form an exclusive student group. Performing Arts Center

The protested motion will be re-presented next week, but in the meantime, the debate has caused a stir in the community.

Visual arts left out?

Jo Storey, an artist from Savage who runs the Savage Art Studios, said she feels the district is not making a wise decision.

Not only is the district excluding visual arts by creating a performing arts magnet, but it is also being financially irresponsible by trying to utilize multiple facilities for classes.

The district has established a desire to use the Performing Arts Center being built in Burnsville’s Heart of the City area for the arts magnet. But that building only has enough space for performance classes and other core curriculum classes, like science, math and English, must be housed elsewhere. Burnsville High School

The School Board is currently split on this point because Member Todd Johnson has been absent from meetings since September due to cancer treatment. Hill, Banyard and Member Dan Luth prefer housing core classes at a nearby facility to the Performing Arts Center. Board Chairwoman Vicki Roy and Members Sue Martin and Gail Morrison prefer housing core classes at BHS.

Secondary locations mentioned so far include the high school, Diamondhead Educational Center, Grande Market Place and River Ridge Arts School. Each location has varying degrees of interest expressed by the district. The Board has yet to discuss the River Ridge Arts building.

Storey maintains the River Ridge Arts building is the perfect place for everything -- arts and core classes -- because it ensures safety for students as all classes could be in one building.

“Students could stay there all day and not have to go to several locations in one day,” she said.

The three-story building includes private studios, galleries, vaulted ceilings, dance and music rooms and classrooms. The building was used as an arts academy in the past.

“Even with some modification, the River Ridge Arts building would work great,” she said.

But District 191 officials see it differently.

Eileen Abrahamson, magnet program specialist, feels the building has limits. “There’s no way that building is sufficient to house all the courses,” she said.

Assistant Superintendent Aldo Sicoli, who has toured the building a few times, said the building is too small for what the district  wants to provide. Diamondhead Educational Center

“This building just doesn’t have the space for this,” he said. “It’s a beautiful building, but the space isn’t right.”

Sicoli said the studios were built to accommodate a teacher and one artist, and the dance and music spaces are also small.

Also, a typical classroom is 850 square feet. “There are very few spaces (in the River Ridge Arts building) of that size,” Sicoli said,

The art school’s founder, Pat Jerde, said walls could be knocked out to create very large spaces. “The structure makes it flexible,” she said. “The walls have kind of came and went before.”

Jerde added the building has recently been revamped and wood floors were put in specifically for dance studios.

“This is perfect for all the arts … the feeling, the ambiance is one of the best things about this place. I love hearing music and (seeing) dance here,” she said. “Music and art grew together, it’s good to have them all under the same roof.”

Alan Tholkes, owner of the River Ridge Arts building, said the space could be modified to fit the district’s needs and would not displace the other programs already housed in the building. 

“I think what we have to offer is a lot of ambience, it’s a Class A space,” he said. “I’d be real excited to get a school in here.”

Sicoli said advice he’s heard from other arts schools is to “keep it simple, not try to do everything all at once.”

Why performing arts?

Storey said she thinks the reason the district honed in on performing arts as a focus for the potential arts magnet school is due to some political pressure and allegiance to the city of Burnsville.

“There is a history of the school district and the city of Burnsville not supporting visual arts,” she said. “I’m absolutely supportive of an arts magnet school – but it should be all arts.”

Tholkes echoed Storey and said excluding visual arts could be a limiting factor as to who is attracted to the magnet school.

“Performing arts is great but it’s pretty selective. Everyone can draw. There are shy people who can’t get in front of people and dance,” he said. “But I don’t know a child who doesn’t like to draw … they’re narrowing their options.” Grande Market Square

Sicoli disagreed with Storey’s and Tholkes’ perceptions.

“Absolutely false,” he said of political pressure. “That’s 100 percent false.”

He also said the focus of performing arts was not to exclude any group; rather it was what was most desired according to surveys and forums in the beginning stages of magnet initiatives.

A survey showed theatre, drama and music were the most desired focuses; while visual arts was the lowest, coming in a 5.56 percent interest.

“Not only was it the least desired, but we have this great opportunity to use the (performing arts) building right there for the kids,” he said, “If they weren’t building that, the fact is, we probably wouldn’t be doing this at all. We don’t have the space.”

Expanding the arts magnet program to include visual arts in the future is a possibility, Sicoli said.

Storey said she never heard about meetings and thinks the results are skewed.

“They received the outcome they were looking for,” she said of low interest in visual arts.

While she hasn’t been to any meetings regarding the magnet program, she said she has asked Burnsville city officials to help keep the River Ridge Arts building thriving.

Storey said she and a few others who were also invested in the building asked city officials in 2006 about trying to form an arts program with District 191. River Ridge Arts School

“The city said River Ridge would interfere with the performing arts center being built,” she said.

Coming up

While Sicoli and his integration and magnet team have not had any direction from the School Board since its last meeting on Nov. 20, he’s been doing some research.

He has been on tour of both the spaces in Grande Market Square and the River Ridge Arts building.

Grande Market has never been occupied and River Ridge has large amounts of vacant space because an arts school recently left the building.

And while no one’s talked about how much all this will cost, Sicoli is ready to find out, if that’s what the School Board wants.

His willingness to get the information comes with a sense of urgency. At meetings in the fall with potentially interested parents, Sicoli said approval for the arts magnet school was needed by November to ensure proper marketing was done for the school.

“Now, we’re not able to market the project the way we should which will undoubtedly bring in less students,” he said.

Integration efforts, including possible magnet schools, were mandated by the state in an effort to balance racial demographics between District 191 and the Lakeville School District.

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com