A charter school with locations in Vadnais Heights and Little Canada will close in June amid financial difficulties, according to school officials.<\/p>\n
The Academy for Sciences and Agriculture, which serves prekindergarten through 12th grade, will have its last day of instruction and its graduation for seniors June 5. The school has become financially unsustainable and its authorizer, Osprey Wilds, decided to terminate its contract effective June 30, according to school officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder state law we are required to dissolve the school at that time,\u201d Sam Wakefield, the school\u2019s executive director, said in a notice on the school\u2019s website. \u201cWe want all students to end the year on a high note. AFSA\u2019s teachers, staff and Board are here to support both you and your children as you navigate finding a new school for the Fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school enrolls 451 students and was founded in 2001 with a focus on providing agricultural literacy to an urban and suburban population, according to the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools. It later expanded to focus on career opportunities in five areas of science and opened its Vadnais Heights location in 2005, which now serves 7th through 12th grades. An elementary school building opened in 2019 in Little Canada at 2925 Country Drive. Prekindergarten was added to the school in 2024.<\/p>\n
Around 30% of students attending AFSA come from St. Paul, 21% from Roseville, 15% from the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale school district and 15% from White Bear Lake, according to school officials. Another 19% come from other districts.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a challenging time for charter schools, Wakefield wrote in an update to families last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are going through is not easy, and the road ahead will have challenges,\u201d Wakefield said in the update. \u201cBut it will also bring new opportunities that we may not yet see. And if this week has shown me anything, it\u2019s that we will face what comes next with strength, care, and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
A farewell celebration of the school will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 6 at AFSA High School at 100 Vadnais Boulevard in Vadnais Heights. Those interested also can submit messages, memories and pictures to share on a \u201cFarewell to AFSA Wall.\u201d More information on the event can be found at tinyurl.com\/54y48w6e<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A charter school with locations in Vadnais Heights and Little Canada will close in June amid financial difficulties,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,171,13286,116,13287,3062,13288],"class_list":{"0":"post-27966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-little-canada","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-ramsey-county","13":"tag-uncategorized","14":"tag-vadnais-heights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}