South Education Center is a special education and alternative school in the 7400 block of South Penn Avenue in Richfield, Minnesota.[1] It is part of Intermediate District 287.[2] Eleven school districts from Minneapolis and environs send their students to the center.[3][4] The population served is from pre-Kinder to 21 years of age. The school defines its upper-age limit as "Transition".[5] In 2022 there were 200 students.[6] In the early 2020s, the school served about 80% minority students.[7] Federally, the school is classified as suburban.[8]
Built for 350 students, the $25.4 million building construction began in 2006, and has lockdown capability: classrooms and areas can be electronically isolated.[9] The school features an Accessible Art Garden opened in 2012,[10] and in 2020 the students and teachers extended their art practice to the school's fence.[11] In 2016 the school phased out its use of metal detectors and instead provided with school safety coaches.[12][13] The school trained its staff in "trauma, crisis and de-escalation".[14]
In September 2021, the Superintendent said that the school "serves some of the highest-needs students in the state".[15] In 2022, she added that the school's focus is to provide "destigmatized mental health support".[16] That same year, following the fatal shooting of a student outside the South Education Center, the school district reinstated the metal detectors it had retired in 2016 because of "concerns about criminalizing student behavior."[17]
Shooting
In early 2022 a student was killed in front of the school and two injured,[18] one seriously.[19] A 20-year old was convicted for his involvement in the killing of a fellow student[20] and sentenced to three years in prison.[21] The 19-year old who shot and killed the student would later be sentenced to 23.5 years in prison after being convicted for murder and also pleading guilty to assault.[22][23]
^Neil Vigdor; Isabella GrullóN Paz (2 February 2022). "Student Killed in a Shooting Outside a Minnesota School". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 February 2022. South Education Center in Richfield, Minn., a school that serves about 200 students with special and alternative-learning needs from prekindergarten to age 21
^Adam Johnson (24 October 2006). "Function and flexibility governs the design of South Education Center in Richfield". Finance and Commerce (Journal). BridgeTower Media Holding Company, LLC. ISSN8750-6149. Retrieved 7 February 2022. $25.4 million project at 7440 Penn Ave. S. [...] will serve about 350 students [...] The building also will possess lockdown capability, with electronic locks that can isolate sections and classrooms
^Marsha Trainer (29 July 2011). "Richfield SECA's Journey to the Top of Healthy Kids Recipe Competition". Patch. Retrieved 16 July 2022. at the reception that evening, Guthrie, a Richfield South Education Center Alternative (SECA) teacher, along with Parasole corporate chef Todd Bolton, student Dolores Popescu and Bloomington Public Health Nurse Mary Lair, made and presented a recipe, which are mini turkey burgers, that her life skills class had helped to create and refine [...] the SECA group won top honors
^Carina Storrs (4 January 2016). "Rules to make school lunches healthier are working, study finds". CNN. 3 of 13. p. 3. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2022. GRAND PRIZE WINNER [...] dreamed up by Chef Todd Bolton and students, community members and school professionals from the South Education Center Alternative School in Richfield, Minnesota((cite news)): CS1 maint: location (link)