Welcome to Rum River Elementary School Written by: Judi McKay, Former Principal (Retired in 2008)

In November 1999, voters approved a bond referendum to build a new elementary school in northern Anoka County. Ground breaking occurred in October 2000. On April 5, 2001, the School Board named the school Rum River Elementary after the well-known historic river that flows nearby. Rum River Elementary is a 132,500 square foot building. It has a full size gym that can be divided into two smaller gym spaces. The cafeteria serves as a third gym space. Two art rooms and two music rooms occupy one wing of the school. The large media center offers instructional space for two different groups of students as well as a book browsing area. There are 41 full sized classrooms, 5 kindergarten rooms, two full sized special education classrooms, and two computer labs. The outside grounds include a playground, a running track, and both soccer and softball fields.

The school opened on September 4, 2001 with 540 students. It opened before construction was completed. Construction continued through out the first year of operation. The first fall there were just 12 regular classrooms ready to occupy. Temporary classrooms were created in the computer lab, art rooms, and music rooms. Two classes had to meet in hallway spaces the first months of the school year. The kitchen and cafeteria were ready for occupancy in mid October of 2001. Six weeks of eating bag lunches made everyone very excited to have hot lunches in our new cafeteria. In November the classes who were meeting in the art rooms, music rooms, computer lab, and hallway were able to move to newly completed classroom spaces. In January 2002 the gymnasium was ready for use.

The second year of operation began in the fall of 2002 with 780 students. Students, parents, and staff enjoyed having a completed school with room for everyone. Space was prepared for early childhood programs and an additional special education room. By the third year of operation Rum River grew to be a school for 830 students. By the fall of 2005 over 940 students called Rum River their school. It is expected that growth will continue as the community matures.

Rum River’s attendance area brings together families from five different communities: Burns, Oak Grove, Ramsey, Andover, and Ham Lake. As we have welcomed students and families to our school we have tried to create an environment that is an exceptional place for children and their learning. We continue to seek to find ways to provide a small school experience for our students even though we are becoming a very large school. We will explore a variety of instructional delivery models, involve parents as volunteers, and serve as a place where we can come together to form a community with children as the focus. Our school is a place where groups can schedule their meetings and activities. Athletic groups are welcome to use our gyms and fields. Meeting and athletic spaces can be scheduled by contacting our community education office at 763-506-8212. Students are offered a variety of activities in which to participate at Rum River including: peer mediation, dismissal patrol, Challenge Math, talent development groups, and Community Education programs. Our playground is open to community use. We continue to work with our students and their families to create nature areas around the school that can be enjoyed year round.

We offer fee-based daycare for school-age children before and after school. We also have a kindergarten daycare program available for the days kindergarten students aren’t in school. In the fall of 2004 Rum River began hosting a full day every day kindergarten program. Known as Kindergarten Extra, this full time opportunity for kindergarten students is a fee-based option available to parents from any Anoka-Hennepin school. Rum River offers a full range of special education services. We host a center-based special education program that serves moderately to severely impaired students who receive at least 60% of their instruction in the special education setting. In that program there are students from our school plus the neighboring elementary schools of McKinley, Andover, and Crooked Lake. Parents of students who receive services in the centerbased program have formed a parent group, EKG (Exceptional Kids Group), that meets monthly. Activities of EKG include the summer Twins in Training baseball teams, quarterly birthday parties, and winter gym activity nights. At Rum River we support students with a wide range of special education academic, social, communication, and behavioral needs. Each of these students has an individualized education plan (IEP) rewritten annually by a team. The team consists of the child’s parents, regular education and special education teachers.

We hope you will enjoy our website and find it both helpful and interesting. We thank Mr. Paul Dudley for his skills as Webmaster of our site.