MPS plans to demolish Cooper, build $90-105 million facility for Anishinabe Academy

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MPS plans to demolish Cooper, build $90-105 million facility for Anishinabe Academy_Cam Gordon.mp3

Plans to demolish Cooper School and the newly rebuilt playground that the community raised funds for to construct a new building for Anishinabe Academy are moving forward despite the district’s $50 million projected deficit.

The project is expected to cost between $90 and $105 million to construct. Funding for the new school would come from a capital budget, likely through bonding, and the money would be paid back with interest over many years. Costs have not been released on how much it will be to operate each year.

The Minneapolis Public School Board voted to authorize staff to continue the design process for a new Anishinabe Academy school at its meeting on June 9, 2026.

The Cooper School building has been closed since 2005.

While other locations for Anishinabe Academy may be considered as the district eyes school closings as part of its school transformation plan, Cooper remains the preferred site.

“Over the summer, we will continue to request feedback from students, staff, caregivers, and neighbors to guide the design,” Mauricio Ochoa, the district’s project manager and architect, wrote in an email after the June 9 vote.

Ochoa encourages people who want to learn more and provide feedback to attend a meeting on July 8 at 6 p.m. at Sanford Middle School hosted by the Longfellow Community Council and MPS.

Anishinabe Academy is currently located within the Anne Sullivan School at 3100 E 28th St. It has 220 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Its mission is to “engage urban Indigenous students by integrating and reclaiming Native American identities, cultures, and languages through authentic academic experience.”

PLAN TO DEMOLISH AND REBUILD

A finalized budget, further design details and a funding structure for a new Anishinabe Academy will be presented to the school board in December 2026. The school could open in fall 2028.

The project includes demolishing the old school building, and removing the new playground that just officially opened in May 2026.

A new three-story building and two new playgrounds will be constructed. There will also be green space, including a new playing field located where the current school now sits.

The new school would be designed to serve 700 students from prekindergarten to the eighth-grade level with three sections per grade.

The design was the preference of an advisory committee the board appointed in 2025. The group looked at several options, including two that would have renovated the existing building but they did not include priority elements the group had identified.

SCHOOL COMMITS TO DOING MORE FOR INDIGENOUS STUDENTS

Anishinabe Academy opened in 2003 as a magnet school, and there have been discussions about a stand-alone school since at least 2009.

At that time the academy was moved out of the Brown Institute near Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue so the district could sell the building.

Reports from the time indicate that the move to Sullivan School was to be temporary while the district looked for a new site.

MPS entered into a formal memorandum of agreement in 2006 with the Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors and its member organizations that outline needs and strategies to improve education services for Native families.

An MPS American Indian Parent Advisory Council shared findings in 2024 that the district was not doing enough for American Indian students in the district. The council  created the Anishinabe Academy Facility Advisory Committee to make recommendations about a future home.

They directed the Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams in 2025 to implement the group’s recommendations and develop a comprehensive plan with a description of project scope, schedule, and costs.

The district hired Full Circle Indigenous Planning & Design, Cuningham Architects, Urban Ecosystems Landscape Architects and H+U Construction, who provided a written report to the board on March 26, 2026 and a public presentation on May 12.

NEIGHBORS CONCERNED ABOUT LONG-TERM VITALITY, NEW PARK

Residents near Cooper School shared their concerns about the plan during the June 9 MPS school board meeting. 

“When I first heard about that Anishinabe was moving into the Cooper School I was thrilled,” Cooper resident Jennifer Simms said at the June 9 meeting. “But last week when I saw the plans that will demolish our beloved park, I was shocked and saddened.” 

Simms also shared doubts about the enrollment projections, concerns about the high cost that could be used for needed improvements in other buildings, mental health impacts for Cooper families, and harm to the “critical ecological infrastructure” provided by the park.

Jay Reed, a nearby neighbor, said he was concerned about building size, traffic, and long-term viability. His comments before the board centered on the loss of park space and the destruction “of an historic park at the heart of the neighborhood that is deeply loved.”

“At a time when most cities are trying to create more parks,” he said, “this proposal moves in the wrong direction.”

Having the decision come soon after the new playground’s grand opening on May 16 may have added to the disappointment for some.

Lisa Priest, a nearby neighbor who was a key leader in getting the new playground, is open minded about the plan.

“I feel blessed that we have the playground,” she said. “We can still enjoy it as long as we can.”

She is hopeful that there will be two new playgrounds the community will have access to if the new school is built. She has ideas for relocating the equipment and suggested Longfellow School.

School board members were unanimous in moving the project forward.

At-large school board member Joyner Emerick said it was a pathway to be accountable to a memorandum of agreement the district has with MUID.

District 5 school board Director Lori Norvell, who represents the Longfellow area including Cooper, addressed some of the community concerns. She pointed out that green space and outdoor play areas were included in the design.

Most of her comments, however, focused on the needs and desires of Native American families in the city.

“I would encourage us to think about what is best for our Native students and families. One of the reasons we are talking about a whole new space is so families will feel comfortable with that space,” Norvell said. “Remind yourself of the harm that we have caused our Native American community with boarding schools. I do not want to put our Indigenous families aside any more.”

Cynthia Towne is a Longfellow Community Council board member who was at the June meeting. While LCC has yet to take a formal position on the project, Towne is “fully supportive of creating a specific and intentional space for the reclamation of Native American culture, language, and learning,” and “the creation of a school to achieve this using the Cooper School site.”

Towne said she is looking forward to the school site serving Minneapolis children again and “providing an educational environment that truly supports Native American youth in a manner that incorporates all aspects of their culture as well as the necessary academic structures for overall success – in body, mind and spirit and in life.”

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES WEIGH IN 

School board elections are this year and Norvell is not seeking re-election.

Both candidates running to replace her, Becca Dryden and Molly Chase, are supportive of the current path.

“I support the board continuing the work of researching and planning potential options that meet the needs of both our Native community and also the neighborhood surrounding the old Cooper site,” said Dryden.

“A commitment is a commitment,” said Chase. “Fifteen years ago, the Minneapolis’ Indigenous community was promised a dedicated Anishinabe Academy. History is filled with broken promises and mass funding of schools specifically designed to undermine Native culture.“

They are both looking for a win-win

“I believe the new Anishanabe Academy site, if done well and with buy-in from all stakeholders, can be mutually beneficial to both our Native community and the surrounding neighborhood,” said Dryden.

“MPS decisions will shape neighborhoods for decades to come. We must have meaningful community engagement on specific proposals,” added Chase.