[CPEO-BIF] St. Croix Prep, Minnesota

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Activists in the Stillwater/Bayport area tell me that this site is over 
the leading edge of a TCE plume, but no soil gas testing has been 
conducted and standard vapor intrusion mitigation has not been designed 
into the campus. - LS]


St. Croix Prep school site is safe and fully vetted

Opinion by Jon Gutierrez
Pioneer Press (MN)
November 20, 2008

On Nov. 12, the Pioneer Press published an article that led the reader 
to believe St. Croix Preparatory Academy's new school was being built on 
a contaminated land site and that the school had circumvented public 
processes related to its site approval. Both conclusions are false. In 
addition, the outstanding academic record of St. Croix Preparatory 
Academy students was ignored. The hard work of our students, families 
and staff deserves a more balanced and accurate account.

St. Croix Preparatory Academy opened in 2004 with 200 students in grades 
K-7. We now have 720 students in grades K-11. Our success is due to many 
factors, but chief among them are our mission-driven emphasis upon 
academics, character and leadership, our focus on classical education 
and our business approach to operational execution, 
academic/fiscal/professional accountability and human capital management 
strategies. Since its inception, the School's MCA proficiency scores for 
reading and math have been between 81 percent and 93 percent, making St. 
Croix Prep one of the highest performing schools in the state.

The school site approval process was comprehensive and thorough. 
Governing authorities involved in the approval of this project included 
Baytown Township, the city of Bayport, Washington County and the Met 
Council. Public hearing opportunities were available for citizen 
participation. Finally, bond issuance required the school to endure an 
exhaustive due diligence process performed by an


...

For the entire column, see
http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_11034837?nclick_check=1

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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