South Education Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
South Education Center is a special education and alternative school in the 7400 block of South Penn Avenue in Richfield, Minnesota.[1] It is part of Intermediate District 287.[2] Eleven school districts from Minneapolis and environs send their students to the center.[3][4] The population served is from pre-Kinder to 21 years of age. The school defines its upper-age limit as "Transition".[5] In 2022 there were 200 students.[6] In the early 2020s, the school served about 80% minority students.[7] Federally, the school is classified as suburban.[8]
Built for 350 students, the $25.4 million building construction began in 2006, and has lockdown capability: classrooms and areas can be electronically isolated.[9] The school features an Accessible Art Garden opened in 2012,[10] and in 2020 the students and teachers extended their art practice to the school's fence.[11] In 2016 the school phased out its use of metal detectors and instead provided with school safety coaches.[12][13] The school trained its staff in "trauma, crisis and de-escalation".[14]
In September 2021, the Superintendent said that the school "serves some of the highest-needs students in the state".[15] In 2022, she added that the school's focus is to provide "destigmatized mental health support".[16] That same year, following the fatal shooting of a student outside the South Education Center, the school district reinstated the metal detectors it had retired in 2016 because of "concerns about criminalizing student behavior."[17]