ROLLINGSTONE, Minn. – A committee organizing a charter school for Rollingstone reported having enrolled 36 students. Fifty are needed to be sanctioned by the state. The small Winona County town, population 160, has been without a school since 2018, when the Winona School Board closed it for budget reasons. Students are being bused 10 miles to Winona. A leader in the town’s charter school movement, Richard Gaffron, sees a school as a heart of community. “That’s where everybody met,” he said in an interview on radio station KWNO. “That’s where everything went on. People from the community volunteered. Seniors would read to kids. It’s a missed thing in the community.” What about finances? State-approved charter schools don’t have tuition and would not increase taxes, he said.
