Reimagine 2025

The Forest Lake Area School Board is considering a proposal to reimagine the school district for 2025 and beyond. The proposal calls for two key changes that would take place one year from now, in the fall of 2025.

What would change?

The proposal has two large changes:

• Including all district 6th grade students at Forest Lake Area Middle School, creating a middle school for grades 6-8. Including 6th grade as part of the middle school will provide increased academic opportunities for students, including more consistent learning time in the core academic areas and expanded experiences in the arts and career exploration gateway courses. 

• Consolidating Forest Lake and Forest View elementary schools into one building. This will provide for greater efficiency across our elementary programming while also keeping the strong tradition of community-based elementary schools.

Why are these changes being proposed?

Forest Lake Area Schools, and the communities that the district serves, have changed in recent decades. There are less children in our schools and in our community today than there were 20 years ago. 

This trend is likely to continue as the current rate of children being born is lower than the rates of generations before them. We have more students graduating high school each year than we have students entering kindergarten to replace them.

As a result, the district must take a close look at its overall system to find a way to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of students and families in a community with fewer children.

One important thing to note: While the district is serving fewer students overall, there are communities within the district where the youth population is growing. It is likely that the school board may need to review attendance boundaries in the future, possibly for the 2026-2027 school year, in order to balance the number of students served by each school and provide a consistent educational experience for elementary students around the district.