District counts on voters to ease crowding

Some days, Camden Heimerman eats lunch at his desk in the music room. Other days, he eats lunch in the storage closet turned music lesson room next door. Some days, he eats lunch on the floor in the hallway outside the rooms.
“It’s kind of musical chairs,” Heimerman said – ignoring the obvious pun.
He’s the band instructor and music teacher at Blooming Prairie Elementary School and one of many teachers who knows classroom space is at a premium.
But like Heimerman, every teacher is nothing but positive about teaching in situations that can change from day to day, said Principal Jacob Schwarz.
“This is just an excellent staff,” he said multiple times during a tour of the school last week. “They’re so positive and just do what’s best for the kids.”
Angie Carlson, the Title 1 teacher at the elementary school for the past 10 years, has moved classrooms four times. She’s currently in a regular-sized room, often sharing the space with other specialists.
Still, she said, “I thought I was going to be on a cart this year, so this is great.”
That would have meant pushing her materials from room to room on a wheeled cart instead of having students come into her specialized classroom setting.
Down in the basement of the building, art teacher Sandy Jones has set up shop at one end of the cafeteria, transforming it into a colorful, creative space that just happens to smell like whatever is for lunch that day.
“It’d be nice to have more art programs,” Schwarz said, “but…” He leaves off the unspoken refrain, “there just isn’t any room.”
The building itself – and its inner workings – have been well-maintained, he said. As enrollment has grown and curricula have changed, the staff and students have grown accustomed to things like stage risers and stacks of chairs in the bathrooms. Their former home is the small room where students now gather for music lessons – still surrounded by the stacks of metal chairs that didn’t fit in the bathrooms.
“If you know music, you know that blowing horns at those metal chairs doesn’t make for great acoustics,” Schwarz said.
Educational changes continue, he said, “and we’re offering programming to prepare kids for the future. But space is a learning tool, as well,” used for student or teacher collaborations, in addition to teaching new skills that may require more than a desk and a pencil.
Lauren Nelson, who teaches STEM classes to fourth- through sixth-graders, also uses her room for SMART programming for kindergarteners – and English language for all grades.
The kindergarten program, Stimulating Maturity through Accelerated Readiness Training, uses physical activities and equipment to help the kids develop large and fine motor skills, balance and coordination, eye-hand coordination, attention and more.
Some of the equipment – things like mini-trampolines and large plastic balls – is also attractive to those older students who are in the room for science, technology, engineering and math.
“At the beginning of the year, I have to say, ‘do not touch this stuff; it’s for the little kids,’” Nelson said. “And they’re good about leaving it alone.”
Schwarz pointed to a large standing cupboard in the Bridges kindergarten room.
“The Ed Foundation has been very generous to us, providing resources for the STEM program and activities, but we don’t have room for them,” he said. “So teachers need to come to this room to get their supplies. They try to get in here before or after school, so they aren’t interrupting this class.”
A suite of special education rooms – all less than half the size of a typical classroom – uses every available spot for instruction.
“As our (special ed) population grows, there’s not enough room for the students’ needs,” Schwarz said. Between 15% and 18% of the students at the school require special services in some capacity, he said.
Even the office conference room pulls double or triple duty, with special education coordinators, Zumbro Education District officials, occupational therapists or psychologists using it during any given day.
The Blooming Prairie School District has brought forward a two-question, $34 million referendum for the Nov. 2 election.
The first question asks for $27.6 million to reconfigure and renovate classrooms in the elementary school, upgrade the high school’s career and technical education space,  add a classroom and flexible learning space and build a performing arts and learning center.
If that question is approved, the second question seeks $6.4 million to build an additional gymnasium at the high school.
Extra space at the elementary school would be gained by sending fifth- and sixth-graders to the high school building, freeing up six classrooms.
“Everyone is doing what they have to,” Schwarz said of the staff and students at the elementary school.
“There just isn’t any more room.”