Securing public buy-in
Brooklyn Center Community Schools has seen a nearly 20 percent jump in enrollment during less than five years. Roughly half of the district’s 2,500 students open-enroll to the school system, which serves a diverse population that often lives in poverty (40 percent) and overwhelmingly qualifies for free- or reduced-price meal programs (80 percent).
Cramped conditions at the district’s three schools demanded solutions. But the November 2017 referendum vote to increase the operating levy and issue nearly $30 million in construction bonds faced an uphill battle. In addition to economic concerns, Brooklyn Center had to overcome the idea that taxpayers would be footing the bill for families who live beyond the immediate attendance area.
“We were out there, talking to community groups, appearing on TV, making sure people understood that the having the right spaces makes a difference for our academic programming,” Superintendent Mark Bonine said. “Kids who aren’t as wealthy deserve the same experiences as everyone else.”
Learn how TSP’s early involvement helped other clients realize their project visions.
Bonine credits TSP Office Leader and Architect Von Petersen for bringing a positive energy to the challenge. “He can see our vision and developed it,” Bonine said. “TSP helped us form a committee around our facilities needs and assess our schools to say, ‘This is what you have and this is what you should have to fit what you want to do in the future.’
“They told us, ‘Let’s go through this together,’ ” Bonine said. “It was a year and-a-half, with a lot of meetings. I think the powerful thing about working with TSP is they didn’t just tell us what this process should look like for our community. I’d say 95 percent of the people here had no experience doing something like this, so that degree of collaboration from TSP to work behind the scenes and do the planning work in a way that felt authentic to us was really helpful.”
The community, which passed both referendum questions, has high expectations. “I believe 100 percent that working with TSP, we’re