Mom graduates.
Baby is learning down the hall.
Don’t break what works.

A school built for two generations

Longfellow is a small public high school in south Minneapolis for pregnant and parenting students. It is a place where a young mother never has to choose between her education and her child.

• A 4-Star Early Learning Center in the same building

  Rated 4 stars by Parent Aware, Minnesota’s highest quality rating. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers get ready for kindergarten while their mothers earn a diploma.

• Free meals

  Breakfast and lunch every school day. Nobody learns on an empty stomach.

• Clinic and mental health

  An on-site clinic, counselors and social workers who understand young parents.

• Door-to-door bus

  Rides from anywhere in Minneapolis.

• 94% graduate

  Longfellow’s graduation rate was 94% in 2024 and 95% in 2025. Nationally, only about half of teen mothers earn a high school diploma by age 22.

60

high school students

~40

early learning students

~45%

are homeless or highly mobile

1

building for mother’s classes and child’s early learning

2

generations served every day

Why North High is the wrong place

North High already hosts a small child care site for parenting students who choose it. Moving all of Longfellow there is different: it takes away the one option that was built separately, on purpose.

1. Moving Longfellow to North failed once already, in 2009.

   In 2009 Longfellow was moved to North High School. The child care space wasn’t big enough. Students were bullied. Enrollment dropped. Graduation rates suffered. These outcomes are why Longfellow moved to its current building.

2. Longfellow is built around families.

   All students receive parenting classes. Neighborhood families come to learn from the Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) classes hosted in the same building.

3. Nearly half of the students live closer to North High, yet choose Longfellow.

   They cross the city every day for a school where mothers and their children both belong, and where they feel safe, supported and able to graduate.

4. Moving schools creates instability for current students and their children.

   About 45% of Longfellow students are homeless or highly mobile, and many came here after struggling in traditional high schools. For 15 years, Longfellow has succeeded in its current building. A new building, new routines and new child care would be one more upheaval, just as students and their children have found a place where they can thrive.

Take action before November 10

It takes five minutes. Officials notice every email and every person in the room.

Dear Members of the Minneapolis Board of Education,

I am writing to ask you to keep Longfellow Alternative High School open, in its own building, and to remove it from every closure option before the November 10 vote.

Longfellow serves about 60 pregnant and parenting high school students and about 40 young children, who learn down the hall in a Parent Aware 4-Star Early Learning Center. About 45% of its students are homeless or highly mobile. Even so, Longfellow graduated 94% of its students in 2024 and 95% in 2025. Nationally, only about half of teen mothers earn a high school diploma by age 22.

Longfellow was moved into North High once before, in 2009. The child care space wasn’t big enough, students were bullied, enrollment dropped and graduation rates suffered. That is why Longfellow moved to its current building. Today nearly half of its students live closer to North, and they still choose Longfellow.

Moving Longfellow would save less than $500,000 a year, and the district says this plan is not about saving money. In October 2025 this board called for a cost/benefit analysis of closing or consolidating schools (Resolution 2025-0045). Where is Longfellow’s? Keeping Longfellow where it is protects two generations of Minneapolis students.

Please vote to keep Longfellow open.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your neighborhood or address]

Where Longfellow is

Longfellow has served students from this building in the Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis for 15 years.