Dispatches from the first day of school in Minneapolis

INTERVIEWER: Most Minnesota students are back in school today, meeting their teachers and getting reacquainted with classmates. Our education reporter Elizabeth Shogren visited Nellie Stone Johnson Elementary School in Minneapolis this morning. She's joining us right now to talk about how the morning went in the state's fourth largest school district. Elizabeth, thank you for joining us.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: Thanks for having me.

INTERVIEWER: So how'd the first morning go? It was pretty exciting, I bet.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: Well, there was a lot of excitement at Nellie Stone Johnson Elementary this morning. We saw hundreds of first graders through fifth graders arrive on school buses or with their families. The school had someone outside playing welcome music on the drums and a pair of adults giving out high fives and telling kids how glad they were to see them.

There were lots of great hairdos, new clothes, new backpacks. Minneapolis elementarys started their first through fifth graders today, and younger preschool and kindergarten students will start on Thursday.

INTERVIEWER: OK. Say, I know parents are talking about this, and there's been some media reports, too. A lot of schools are implementing new cell phone policies this year. Is Nellie Stone Johnson one of them?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: That's exactly right. The state legislature this year voted in a requirement that all Minnesota schools need to have some sort of cell phone policy in place this academic year. The deadline for that is not until March.

But a lot of Minnesota schools are already implementing those policies now, including bans on cell phones in schools or in classrooms. The rules on cell phone use in elementary schools are generally more strict than what we're seeing in middle and high schools. At Minneapolis elementarys, including Nellie Stone Johnson, phones are not allowed in classrooms.

I asked Principal Kelly Wright what she thought of the rules. Here's what she had to say.

KELLY WRIGHT: I love it. I love it. And I get it. You know, some parents do want their scholars to have the phones for safety reasons, especially when we have scholars that walk, and they need to know where they are.

But they don't need it for in class and all of that and taking it out for recess. And they start these snapchat fights, you know? And it just gets messy.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: So all the school staff I've talked to about cell phone policies say they are in favor of tighter restrictions. Students sometimes disagree with that, but that is a big theme that I think a lot of students and families might notice in Minnesota this year. There are a lot of new rules around using cell phones and other electronic devices in schools.

INTERVIEWER: Hm. I wonder what students and parents think about that. Are the rules different-- you mentioned this. Are the rules different for elementary versus middle and high school students?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: They are. The Minnesota Principals Association came out with guidelines for schools this summer. School leaders know that high school students have different responsibilities than younger kids. So often you'll see different rules in high school versus elementary. In South Washington County, for example, elementary and middle school students need to keep their devices in lockers or in the main office for the entire school day. But in high school, they're allowed to use phones during passing time, lunch, and before and after school.

INTERVIEWER: OK. So getting back to Nellie Stone Johnson here for a moment, the school you visited in Minneapolis, a lot of schools, as you know, are struggling to increase student attendance. There's these huge absenteeism rates. How do things look at the first day of school at the place you were at?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: The first grade class that I went to was well-attended with 29 students in just one class. But attendance has definitely been a problem at Nellie Stone Johnson, or NSJ, since the pandemic, which is similar to a lot of schools. Last year, only about 42% of students at NSJ attended classes consistently, or more than 90% of the time. That's better than in 2022, when only a quarter of students were attending consistently.

But it's worse than in 2019, when 2/3 of kids were consistently attending. It's also far below district and state averages. Principal Wright told me that this is something she worked on a lot last year.

KELLY WRIGHT: Last year we really did a campaign on attendance. I started giving out incentives. I started doing assemblies, giving out certificates for students who had 100%, or 90% and above attendance. Then at the end of the month, they would get to have a special attendance luncheon with me.

Some of our scholars had under 80%, and we created a spreadsheet and we assigned them a navigator. And it was to help them navigate anything that was causing them to not be able to come to school.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: She says her team was able to get consistent attendance, up from 57% to somewhere closer to 70 or 80% of students consistently showing up by the end of the year last year.

INTERVIEWER: OK. So many people know that the Minneapolis school district has been dealing with a budget crisis for a number of years now. And that's driven in part by declining student enrollment. What's going on with that budget deficit?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: That's right. The district is doing several things to deal with the deficit. They made some significant cuts last year. This year, they're planning to ask voters to approve a $20 million levy. But even if that levy is successful, district leaders still anticipate needing to make cuts.

I know you talked to School Board Director Collin Beachy earlier today. He and his colleagues have spent the last several weeks going through different school locations and programs trying to understand where they should make cuts or closures. They've been organizing listening sessions with students, staff, and community members. Over the next two months, we should see more details about how exactly they're planning to address their budget issues, including possible closures.

Nellie Stone Johnson has been struggling with enrollment for several years, which might put them on a list for possible closures. But of course, we won't know anything more about that until later this fall.

INTERVIEWER: Say, were you able to talk to any students or parents at Nellie Stone Johnson this morning?

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: I met Aniyah Brown and her family outside the school this morning, where some staff members were playing the drums to welcome kids back. Aniyah is going into fifth grade, and this is her first year at Nellie Stone Johnson. I asked her how she's feeling.

ANIYAH BROWN: I'm kind of nervous. And I don't know if I'm going to be introduced to new people and if people are going to be kind. But I hope that they're going to be kind, because I'm shy, very shy to people I don't know. So hopefully, I meet new and kind people.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: Hoping to meet new and kind people, isn't that what we all want on the first day of new school.

[LAUGHTER]

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Aniyah. Everyone I met there today, of course, was very kind. So I think she's in good hands.

INTERVIEWER: Good for her. And thank you, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH SHOCKMAN: Thanks for having me.

INTERVIEWER: That's NPR Education Reporter Elizabeth Shockman. You can tune in to All Things Considered a bit later on this afternoon and hear Elizabeth's report on the first day of school.