By Amy Baskin

Director of Community Education and Communications

Do you like to dream and work on new ideas? Do you have a passion for the Austin community?

If you said yes then we invite you to come to our community meeting on Jan. 29 and help us explore new ideas, spaces and ways to provide programming to Austin Public School students preschool through elementary.

Austin Public Schools currently leases space from Queen of Angels Catholic Church for the Community Learning Center. This is a great partnership and service to both the school and the church. Programs in this space include Adult English Language, Community Education, Early Childhood Family Education, Early Childhood Special Education, Early Childhood Screening and Kids Korner.

Our programs, like all programs in Austin Public Schools are growing and continue to grow. In fact, we have grown to a point that we are completely out of space at the Community Learning Center.  We have expanded to additional locations and have three preschool classes at Sumner and Woodson and our Adult GED and Transition to College classes at Riverland Community College to meet the demand and needs. Even with these moves we continue to have waitlists for our programs and no other programs in the community to send people to.

A task force is being formed to explore the current preschool and elementary school enrollments, space utilization and potential future needs. This task force will review the growth of the district and projected future growth, our current space utilization, future needs, spaces already explored in the community and the wants and needs of the community as it relates to our current programming. A final recommendation will be presented to the school board at the conclusion of the work.

The first meeting is from 5-7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, at the Austin Public Library large meeting room. Future meetings will be bi-monthly or monthly for about four months. Childcare is available for children birth through age 8 at the Community Learning Center by reservation.

To reserve a spot for your child, contact val.vaughn@austin.k12.mn.us or call 507-460-1700 before Friday, Jan. 26.