New school sits empty in Minnesota district

At Redtail Ridge Elementary School in Savage, Minn., colored circles in the carpet mark where kindergarten students will someday sit at classroom meetings. In the computer lab, piles of blue electrical cable lie coiled, ready for computers and tables. Construction workers spent this month finishing up with flooring and stairwells in the new $16.8 million school. But the already crowded Prior Lake-Savage district won't be opening Redtail Ridge. When district voters rejected a property tax increase last fall that would have provided operating funds for the school, the school board decided it couldn't afford to open the facility.