Minnesota School District and Attendance Boundaries, School Year 2003-2004

This page last updated: 08/18/2004
Metadata created using Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines


Metadata Summary

Originator Land Management Information Center
Abstract This file represents the boundaries of all public school districts and school attendance areas in the state of Minnesota for school year 2003-2004. Each year Minnesota school districts identify their current elementary, middle and high school attendance area boundaries. This district attendance file is maintained at LMIC but is also supplied to the State of Minnesota Legislative Coordinating Commission. The LCC keeps the 'official' school distirct information for the State of Minnesota.
Browse Graphic none available
Time Period of Content Date 2004
Currentness Reference School district attendance boundaries updated for school year 2003-2004.
Access Constraints None
Use Constraints If you obtain data from LMIC, it is understood that you and/or your organization have the right to use them for any internal purpose. If you modify them, you should document those changes in a metadata record that should accompany all redistributed data. If you transmit or provide these data in any form to another user, the data MUST be accompanied by a copy of LMIC's disclaimer NOTICE.TXT and all documentation provided with the original data set including the full metadata record.
Distributor Organization Land Management Information Center
Ordering Instructions 1. GIS data: this data set is distributed on the internet by clicking below after Online Linkage. Doing so will tell your browser to start downloading a self-extracting 'ZIP' file which will contain the following:

- The school district and attendance area boundary data in both shapefile (.shp, .shx., .dbf) and coverage (.e00) formats
- Documentation (.htm)
- NOTICE.RTF, an important notice about this data set that can be read by most word processing software, and an ascii text version of the same notice (NOTICE.TXT)

After downloading this self-extracting 'zip' file (which will have an 'exe' extension), simply execute (run) the file. (For example, you can double click it from Windows Explorer or File Manager). Doing this will automatically extract the files described above.

2. School district maps 2003-2004: These maps show district and attendance boundaries, and public and non-public school program locations. Download in PDF format or order printed wallmaps from:
http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/maps/SchoolDistricts/
Online Linkage Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" in Section 6 of this metadata.

Full Metadata

Minnesota School District and Attendance Boundaries, School Year 2003-2004

Go to Section:
1. Identification Information
2. Data Quality Information
3. Spatial Data Organization Information
4. Spatial Reference Information
5. Entity and Attribute Information
6. Distribution Information
7. Metadata Reference Information

 
Section 1 Identification Information   Top of page
Originator Land Management Information Center
Title Minnesota School District and Attendance Boundaries, School Year 2003-2004
Abstract This file represents the boundaries of all public school districts and school attendance areas in the state of Minnesota for school year 2003-2004. Each year Minnesota school districts identify their current elementary, middle and high school attendance area boundaries. This district attendance file is maintained at LMIC but is also supplied to the State of Minnesota Legislative Coordinating Commission. The LCC keeps the 'official' school distirct information for the State of Minnesota.
Purpose Through a partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education, Food and Nutrition Service (MDE-FNS), LMIC asks school districts for any changes to district attendance boundaries on a yearly basis. This information is developed into a GIS data set and, along with additional information, is used by MDE-FNS to identify program financial priorities. It also provides a map of school district boundaries and school attendance area boundaries to support a variety of mapping and data analysis applications.
Time Period of Content Date 2004
Currentness Reference School district attendance boundaries updated for school year 2003-2004.
Progress Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency Annually
Spatial Extent of Data Minnesota
Bounding Coordinates -97.269854
-89.389133
49.404388
43.435253
Place Keywords Minnesota
Theme Keywords school, school district, attendance boundary, attendance area, elementary school, middle school, high school, K-12
Theme Keyword Thesaurus None
Access Constraints None
Use Constraints If you obtain data from LMIC, it is understood that you and/or your organization have the right to use them for any internal purpose. If you modify them, you should document those changes in a metadata record that should accompany all redistributed data. If you transmit or provide these data in any form to another user, the data MUST be accompanied by a copy of LMIC's disclaimer NOTICE.TXT and all documentation provided with the original data set including the full metadata record.
Contact Person Information Scott Freburg, GIS Project Coordinator
Land Management Information Center
658 Cedar Street, Room 300
St. Paul, MN 55155
Phone: 651-296-6600
FAX: 651-296-1212
E-mail: scott.freburg@state.mn.us
Browse Graphic none available
Browse Graphic File Description none available
Associated Data Sets 1. Previous years of school district boundaries: ftp://ftp.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/pub/gis/shape/

2. School district boundaries, SY2003-04: http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/metadata/sd04.html

3. Public school program point locations, SY2003-04: http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/metadata/pubsch04.html

4. School district maps 2003-2004: These maps show district and attendance boundaries, and public and non-public school program locations. Download in PDF format or order printed wallmaps from:
http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/maps/SchoolDistricts/

 
Section 2 Data Quality Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Attribute Accuracy Each school district checks the previous year's map for accuracy of school names and boundaries. Changes are verified by LMIC and the Minnesota Department of Education.
Logical Consistency Data (in coverage format) are topologically structured and verified within ARC/INFO.
Completeness All school districts within Minnesota are included.
Horizontal Positional Accuracy Positional accuracy of the data sources varies widely. Source scales range between 1:24,000 and 1:100,000. Many of the boundaries are hand-drawn by the school districts. See notes on potential boundary inaccuracies under 'Lineage'.
Lineage The original 1990 School District file delineation work was done at LMIC on contract to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau was under contract to the U.S. Department of Education to create a nationwide school district file and population totals that matched the 1990 Census boundaries. LMIC provided delineations of the school district boundaries to the Census Bureau, based on map information provided by the County Assessors' Offices to LMIC. The Census Bureau did the automation of the 1990 file.

Subsequent annual updates have been made to the file to reflect boundary changes, boundary corrections, and school district consolidations. Beginning in 1998, school attendance area boundaries were added. These updates have been done by the Minnesota Legislative Coordinating Commission GIS Office (LCC), the Land Management Information Center (LMIC), and the Office of the Secretary of State, with assistance from the Minnesota Department of Education (formerly the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning).

The steps used to create the original 1990 file and subsequent updates to 1999, are outlined below.

CREATION OF THE ORIGINAL 1990 SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARY FILE:

1. Delineation of school district boundaries (LMIC):

LMIC's role was to delineate school district boundaries to match Census county, MCD (minor civil division), tract, and block boundaries. LMIC received a set of large-scale (approx 1:800) maps of census boundaries from the Census Bureau. These census boundary maps included MCD, tract, and block boundaries.

LMIC obtained school district boundary maps from the County Assessor's office in each county. LMIC sent blank Minnesota Department of Transportation County Highway Maps to each County Assessor, and received back those maps with the school districts delineated on them. The Assessor's Offices drew the boundaries according to their official records. LMIC still has these maps on file.

Using the County Assessors' delineation maps, LMIC transferred the school district boundaries onto the 1:800 Census maps. The Census had very specific guidelines, which they enforced. Delineations were to match to within 1/16 of an inch - basically, a fine pencil-width.

2. Automation of School District Boundary Linework:

The Census Bureau did the automation of the maps to create the digital file. This was done in two steps:

1. Wherever the linework matched the Census tract, block, MCD, etc., boundaries, exactly, the census units were assigned a school district code via a lookup table.

2. Where the school district boundaries did NOT follow the Census boundaries, then the Census Bureau digitized the necessary linework. These base maps for automation eventually came back to the state, and are stored in the State Demographic Center files.

3. Population totals (LMIC):

Where the school district boundaries did not match the Census boundaries, LMIC also provided population figures to apportion the Census unit population into the school districts. Rather than apportioning population strictly on the basis of area, this was done through examination of other maps, sometimes, as in the metro area, by counting the houses on aerial photos. The demographic distribution by school district was important as a basis for funding.

4. File distribution (Census Bureau):

In 1992, the automated 1990 School District Boundary files were delivered by the Census Bureau to the Legislative GIS Office (LCC) in TIGER/Line format. LCC extracted the data from the TIGER format and created an ARC coverage, which was then provided to LMIC and other agencies. LMIC did not receive the digital files back from the Census Bureau for any type of review or verification. Errors in the school district boundary file were reported to the Legislative GIS Office and the Secretary of State's Office. These errors were corrected on the final file. Many of the errors relate to the Census boundary alignment problem - i.e., school district boundary lines were moved to coincide with the appropriate Census boundary.

ANNUAL UPDATES AFTER 1990:

1. (1992-1996) The LCC made updates to the file as needed, based on boundary changes, boundary corrections, and school district consolidations. Information on necessary updates was forwarded to LCC by the Secretary of State's Office or the Department of Education (formerly the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning). Most updates to the files involved school district consolidations. LCC did updates for the years 1992 through 1996.

2. (1997) LMIC obtained 1996 School District boundary file from the LCC. This file was updated with coding changes and consolidation information for SY 1997. As part of a project for the Minnesota Department of Education, LMIC added school attendance area boundaries to the file.

3. (1998-2004) LMIC maintains this file on a yearly basis while adding and changing attendance boundaries based on revisions sent from school districts.

NOTES ON SCHOOL DISTRICT UPDATING:
Each year, school districts provide to LMIC their current contact information and changes to school building or attendance boundaries. If a district has changes, LMIC sends a large-format (36 inch x 48 inch) school district map and asks the district to identify any school location and/or attendance boundary changes. Many boundaries are hand-drawn by the school districts. LMIC digitizes the hand-drawn changes. If boundary lines follow existing streets, waterways or public land survey lines, LMIC uses the following reference layers to help determine boundary location:

1. Street centerline information from The Lawrence Group (for Twin Cities metropolitan area):
http://www.datafinder.org/metadata/tlg_roads.htm

2. TIGER 2002 streets from the U.S. Bureau of the Census (outside the Twin Cities metropolitan area):
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tlmetadata/tl2002meta.txt

3. Lake and stream boundaries (mostly 1:100,000-scale; some 1:24,000-scale):
http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/metadata/dlghyne2.html (100K hydrography from USGS DLG files)
http://deli.dnr.state.mn.us/metadata/full/dnrlkpy3.html (24K lakes from DNR)
http://deli.dnr.state.mn.us/metadata/full/dnrstln3.html (24K streams from DNR)

4. Public land survey township/range/section lines (1:100,000-scale):
http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/chouse/metadata/trs.html

Files are maintained and edited in Arc/Info coverage format. Shapefiles are created for distribution.

NOTES ON MISMATCHES OF DATA:

1. The County Assessor's office is required to delineate school district boundaries by law, and maintains the official record for tax purposes. It must be noted that the school districts also have boundary maps, and that, while the two sets of map boundaries should match, they do not always do so. In cases where the school district and the county assessor records show different boundaries, this should be resolved locally. It becomes an issue for the maintainers of statewide files when updates are obtained from both sources.

2. Mismatches between the Census Boundary lines and the School District lines: although the school district boundary file generally matches Census lines, it does not always do so. Therefore, mismatches can be legitimate, based upon the original maps from the County Assessor's Offices, and can be verified against the maps on file at LMIC and the State Demographic Center.
Source Scale Denominator
 
Section 3 Spatial Data Organization Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Native Data Set Environment ArcGIS 8
Geographic Reference for Tabular Data
Spatial Object Type Vector
Vendor Specific Object Types Polygon
Tiling Scheme State
 
Section 4 Spatial Reference Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Horizontal Coordinate Scheme UTM
Ellipsoid Geodetic Reference System 80
Horizontal Datum NAD83
Horizontal Units Meters
Distance Resolution not applicable
Altitude Datum Not applicable
Altitude Units not applicable
Depth Datum Not applicable
Depth Units not applicable
UTM Zone Number 15E
 
Section 5 Entity and Attribute Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Entity and Attribute Overview The file contains school district and attendance boundaries. The school district is subdivided into school attendance area boundaries. School district attendance area boundaries aggregate to the school district. The smallest unit is the elementary school boundary, which, for the most part may be collapsed up into the middle school boundary and the high school boundary.

SDNUM - School district number
SDNAME - School district name
ELEM - Elementary school name
MIDD - Middle school name
HIGH - High school name

COL ITEM NAME WDTH OPUT TYP N.DEC
1 AREA 8 18 F 5
9 PERIMETER 8 18 F 5
17 SD_2004# 4 5 B
21 SD_2004-ID 4 5 B
25 SDNUM 4 4 I
29 SDNAME 40 40 C
69 ELEM 40 40 C
109 MIDD 40 40 C
149 HIGH 40 40 C
Entity and Attribute Detailed Citation
 
Section 6 Distribution Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Publisher Land Management Information Center
Publication Date 08/18/2004
Contact Person Information Nancy Rader
GIS Data Coordination Specialist
Land Management Information Center
658 Cedar Street, Room 300
St. Paul, MN 55155
Phone: 651-297-3281
FAX: 651-296-1212
E-mail: clearing.house@state.mn.us
Distributor's Data Set Identifier School attendance areas 2003-04
Distribution Liability The Geographic Information System (GIS) Data to which this notice is attached are made available pursuant to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13). The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Land Management Information Center (LMIC) do not warrant the results you may obtain by using this dataset. This dataset is provided ''as is'' without express or implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event will MDE or LMIC be liable for any consequential, incidental or special damages, including any lost profits or lost savings, even if an MDE or LMIC representative has been advised of the possibility of such damages or any other claim by any third party.
Transfer Format Name Shapefile and coverage
Transfer Format Version Number
Transfer Size 5 megabytes
Ordering Instructions 1. GIS data: this data set is distributed on the internet by clicking below after Online Linkage. Doing so will tell your browser to start downloading a self-extracting 'ZIP' file which will contain the following:

- The school district and attendance area boundary data in both shapefile (.shp, .shx., .dbf) and coverage (.e00) formats
- Documentation (.htm)
- NOTICE.RTF, an important notice about this data set that can be read by most word processing software, and an ascii text version of the same notice (NOTICE.TXT)

After downloading this self-extracting 'zip' file (which will have an 'exe' extension), simply execute (run) the file. (For example, you can double click it from Windows Explorer or File Manager). Doing this will automatically extract the files described above.

2. School district maps 2003-2004: These maps show district and attendance boundaries, and public and non-public school program locations. Download in PDF format or order printed wallmaps from:
http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/maps/SchoolDistricts/
Online Linkage Click here to download data. (See Ordering Instructions above for details.) By clicking here, you agree to the notice in "Distribution Liability" above.
 
Section 7 Metadata Reference Information Top of full metadata Top of page
Metadata Date 08/18/2004
Contact Person Information Nancy Rader, GIS Data Coordination Specialist
Land Management Information Center
658 Cedar Street, Room 300
St. Paul, MN 55155
Phone: 651-297-3281
FAX: 651-296-1212
E-mail: clearing.house@state.mn.us
Metadata Standard Name Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines
Metadata Standard Version 1.2
Metadata Standard Online Linkage http://www.gis.state.mn.us/stds/metadata.htm


This page last updated: 08/18/2004