Pines keeps SAGE program,
but intradistrict transfer end

By Ken Anderson
News Correspondent

About 10 elementary students from Land O’ Lakes and up to eight elementary students from St. Germain currently attending Eagle River Elementary School will return to classrooms in their home school as a result of the Northland Pines School Board’s decision to meet the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program guidelines.

SAGE was originally designed to keep elementary school class sizes under 15 students in kindergarten through third grade. Northland Pines had previously been granted a waiver to exceed the maximum students until this year, when state law set the cap at 18 per teacher with no exceptions.

“If we want to keep SAGE and the dollars it brings in, we need to adjust our classes,” District Administrator Mike Richie told the school board last week. “We can opt out of SAGE building by building, but once we’re out, we can’t get back in.”

The district receives $307,583 in SAGE funding with $207,827 for Eagle River, $56,113 for Land O’ Lakes and $43,643 for St. Germain — dollars that would be lost by not continuing with the program.

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