By Meryn Fluker, Staff Writer

A standing-room-only crowd of about 50 people filled the room Monday during a public hearing on the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District’s recently proposed budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.

Some attendees wielded band instruments while others wore bright, yellow stickers proclaiming “Synergy is important.” Many members of the audience did both.

Members of the community will have a chance to voice their concerns tonight at the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board meeting, where the board will host a public hearing regarding the district's proposed budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.

At the board's February 22 meeting, Director of Business Affairs Margo Nash unveiled a list of planned budget cuts totaling $3.7 million. These reductions include cutting 22.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching positions and eliminating the Synergy program for gifted and talented students at Prior Lake High School.

By Meryn Fluker, Staff Writer

On March 4, less than two months after applying for the program, Minnesota was left off the U.S. Department of Education’s list of finalists for Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion effort to re-shape America’s educational system.

To receive the funds if their states were selected, local school districts were asked to submit a memorandum of agreement to their state departments of education. The Prior Lake-Savage Area School District was among the Minnesota districts to sign on for Race to the Top.

By Meryn Fluker, Staff Writer

The Prior Lake-Savage Area School District’s 2010-11 budget plan document includes some financial jargon referencing allocations and cash flow borrowing fees. But between the five-dollar words are some pretty clear sentiments:

“Increased class size K-5.”

“Eliminate high school Synergy.”

“Additional increase in class sizes.”

Prior Lake resident Brianna Larson, a seventh-grade student at Twin Oaks Middle School, packaged food at the Eagan headquarters of Feed My Starving Children, on Thursday, March 4. In just two hours, Larson and more than 50 of her peers packaged enough food to feed 68 children for an entire year. (Submitted photo)

WASHINGTON – More than 1.7 million American children attend “private public schools” where low-income pupils make up less than 5 percent of the student body, a new analysis finds.

“By serving only well-off children, these schools are arguably more private than many private schools,” said Michael J. Petrilli, a co-author of the report and vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the nonpartisan education policy think tank that published it. “Perhaps they should stop calling themselves “public” schools, because they are hardly open to the public.”

By Chuck Friedbauer, Correspondent

CHASKA - The Eastern Carver County School Board narrowed the list of potential candidates for the superintendent position to two finalists.

Corey Lunn, superintendent of the Montgomery-Lonsdale School District and a former principal at Prior Lake High School, will be interviewed Monday, March 15; and James Bauck, superintendent of the Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose school district, will be interviewed Tuesday, March 16.