Mpls. using bus for mobile school enrollments
The Minneapolis school district is reaching out to families who have yet to enroll their children in school. For the first time the district is using a bus outfitted to perform mobile enrollments.
The bus will be parked for a few hours at north and south locations on Saturday, said Ryan Fair, director of enrollment at Minneapolis Public Schools.
"We want to go there and be available to families who have not had a chance to make it to one of our offices to get their child enrolled in school," Fair said
Fair said that the staff on the mobile enrollment bus will also be able to provide English language assessments for students.
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Fair said they hope to reach parents who may not realize they need to enroll their children before school starts on Monday.
"This is an opportunity for us to go to them," he said, "as opposed to waiting for them to find out through someone else that they must come to one of our offices."
The bus locations over the weekend included:
-- 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday at Lake Street Cub Foods, 2850 26th Ave. S.
-- 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Farview Park, 621 29th Ave. N.
The St. Paul district has done enrollment outreach in recent weeks as well. About a hundred school employees have canvassed neighborhoods signing up students for school. In St. Paul classes start the day after Labor Day.