JJ Legacy School's abrupt closure leaves parents and students in desperate situation
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Friday was the final day of classes for students and faculty at the JJ Legacy School in north Minneapolis, after a financial crisis abruptly forced its doors to close for good. Now parents are scrambling to find a school for their kids.
“I just never received that type of love and care in any other education institution with any of my children, so it was very, very heartbreaking,” said Kristel Porter, a parent with a student at JJ Legacy School.
Porter said JJ Legacy School supported her 12-year-old child who was falling through the cracks in traditional school settings. The charter school’s student body was diverse, and the faculty was primarily made up of people of color, something Porter valued for her son.
“It was something my son needed so bad that I am really worried that we’re not going to find anywhere else,” she said. “You know, not having a father in his life was really hard for him.”
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JJ Legacy, formerly known as Legacy of Dr. Josie R. Johnson Montessori School, also pulled from their pool of parents to allow Porter and others to get involved in some of the curriculum. Porter, a long-time environmentalist who works in renewable energies, came in to teach kids the basics on recycling and water-sensitive urban land design.
“They really did a really great job pulling the skills from the parents and bringing that into the school, and the science fairs that they did were just phenomenal,” she said.
According to reporting done by Sahan Journal, the move to close the school was announced only a week before at a school board meeting on Friday, Jan. 5. It was revealed then that JJ Legacy School had more than $700,000 in debt and that the funding, which was based off of student numbers, was overpaid since enrollment was inflated and inaccurate.
JJ Legacy had faced issues in the past following a rental dispute and eventual eviction from their original campus at Old Lady of Victory Catholic Church. Students, faculty and parents were protesting poor building conditions, including sometimes only being able to use one bathroom. They moved to Minneapolis’ Family Baptist Church at the end of August.
Porter said their next option is most likely online school.
“We’re very nervous about putting him in another school we haven’t seen anything like — my son is not interested,” she said.
“This is a sad ending for us all. The board and school staff would like to wish you and your family well in this next school year,” a statement on the school’s website said.
But for parents like Porter, the hole JJ Legacy leaves may be too large to fill.
“It is a very big hole. I went from my son going to school, would care less if he ever went, to coming home and saying, ‘I love school,’” she said. “He had men, Black men, in his life that loved him, that called him when he didn’t show up… it was something my son needed so bad that I am, you know, just really worried that we’re not going to find anywhere else.”