Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer
If you’re looking to use the long, dark days of winter to learn how to paint, play an instrument or learn a new language, you’re in luck. TriDistrict Community Education can help you learn those skills and many others. The entity is a partnership between South St. Paul Public Schools, ISD 197 and ISD 199, and offers dozens of low-cost adult enrichment classes ranging from cooking to exercise to creative arts. Classes are hosted in each community – South St. Paul, West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Inver Grove Heights and Eagan – and new ones are always being added to the pipeline. So, whether you’re 16 or 116, if you’re interested in learning or simply socializing, there’s likely a class for you.
“People were excited to come back out and be part of everything and start to socialize again [after the pandemic],” said South St. Paul Community Education Facilitator Linda Jacobs-Buse. “It wasn’t a slow ride, we just kind of jumped back in, and we’re still growing with participants and instructors.”
Jacobs-Buse has worked in the department since 2000 and said cooking classes are South St. Paul’s most popular offering. February’s lineup boasts the popular French Dinner cooking class, held at the high school, and Lovely Macarons, a class on how to create the finicky cookie. Also slated are a new Paint and Sip class and 4-week class entitled Power of Dream, which seeks to help people understand the meaning behind their dreams.
TriDistrict Community Education also offers youth enrichment programs in each community. Classes are offered in sports and recreation, health and safety, studying skills and more. Additionally, the organization offers before- and after-school care programming at elementary schools, and early childhood family education for families with pre-K children.
Instructors have considerable experience in their fields and often teach in several communities. Jacobs-Buse said new instructors are always approaching her and that she occasionally recruits people teaching in other communities to see if they’d like to come to South St. Paul.
TriDistrict Community Education in South St. Paul is housed at Central Square Community Center, the main hub for fitness and aquatic classes throughout the year. Aquatics and gymnastics programs have seen a resurgence following the pandemic, and the Senior Center and Adult Basic Education classes at Central Square remain popular.
The cities collaborate so each can offer popular classes at different times of the year.
“We’re all individually planning classes for our own districts, but we all work in tandem,” said Jacobs-Buse. “We have the brochure [mailed to residents] three times a year.”
For more information, visit Central Square Community Center, 100 7th Ave. N., call 651-306-3632 or visit tridistrictce.org.
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