Proposed Antioch Elementary School exit

Colleagues,

At our last meeting, I shared information about the proposed MNPS elementary school in my district and I submitted a CSP amendment to move an exit from Rice Road to Bell Road due to traffic and safety concerns. 

While our Antioch community needs this elementary school to address overcrowding, the needed facility must be paired with responsible planning that resolves traffic and safety hazards before the school is constructed.

Since our last meeting, I have spoken again with the MNPS design team and Director Battle about addressing the community concern as well as the overcrowding. But I would like to, again, provide context as to how we have arrived at this juncture.

February 2025: During a meeting with the MNPS project team, I was shown the proposed site plan before the school project entered the formal department approvals pipeline. I formally requested that MNPS staff move the planned entrance off Rice Road and onto Bell Road to protect adjacent residential streets from traffic and safety concerns. 

February 2026: MNPS presented the same site plan at my community meetin without incorporating the requested access modifications from a year prior, leaving the entrance situated on Rice Road. 

June 2026: Following continued community discussions, MNPS delivered a formal presentation detailing the exact scope and cost needed to adjust the entrance: $6.264 million, covering the purchase of 1.96 acres of land along Bell Road and the grading required to tie the new access point into the school site. 

Signalized Access vs. Unexpandable Two-Lane Road: Rice Road is a narrow, two-lane residential collector with physical constraints that prevent it from being fully widened or expanded. Funneling morning drop-offs, afternoon pickup queues, and buses onto Rice Road will result in severe neighborhood gridlock. In contrast, the Bell Road site would connect traffic directly to an existing signalized intersection designed to manage heavy peak-hour volume.

Managing turning movements at a traffic light on Bell Road provides protected pedestrian crossings, clear sightlines, and safe queuing lanes—eliminating the blind turns and cut-through traffic that would otherwise spill into adjacent neighborhoods.

Retrofitting roadway infrastructure after the school opens and the issues arise is significantly more disruptive and costly. Securing the 1.96 acres and grading the site now fixes the issues before they begin. 

Proposed Alternate Solution to the Previous Amendment:

The proposed amendment would take funding from MNPS' HVAC fund to address the exit. I have no asked MNPS if they would amend their budget to include $6.26 million from the current funding allocated to the school. They received 28 million last year, and this year's CSP is 15 million. With 43 million, they can address this repositioned exit and they can add the 6.26 million to their final installment next year. Currently, the final installment would be around 14 million and this would take the final installment to 20.26 million. But this solution would allow for addressing the safety, traffic and overcrowding issues. I have proposed this solution to MNPS and they have said they open to considering this if we are in support of the funding next year.

I would appreciate your consideration.