Governance of Crosswinds on Hold for District 833

From South Washington County Schools

After a few more weeks of waiting, District 833 learned on Wednesday, Jan. 23, that the East Metro Integration District (EMID) voted for the Perpich Center for Arts Education as the preferred choice to take on governance of Crosswinds East Metro Arts and Science School.

The qualifier, governance belongs to the Perpich Center only if by April 1, both the Minnesota House and Senate pass special legislation providing Perpich with the funding required to operate the school.

Until then District 833, a member of EMID, will wait to see whether the school is within reach to accommodate students and programs within South Washington County Schools.

During the meeting, the first proposal voted on was to either give Crosswinds to District 833 or to the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley. The vote ended in a five-five tie, with five Board members in favor of giving governance for Crosswinds to Perpich and five in favor of giving District 833 governance rights. After a recess and an amendment to the vote, the EMID School Board voted six to four to shift governance of the school to Perpich. However, District 833 will acquire Crosswinds if the Minnesota House and Senate have not passed legislation providing Perpich with the funding required to operate the school by April 1.  

In November, District 833 began exploring the possibility of acquiring Crosswinds East Metro Arts and Science School. As one of 10 school districts that comprise EMID, District 833 has the option of taking over the school, which was built with state funds. Due to declining enrollment at both Crosswinds and Harambee, EMID is more interested in a focus on providing programming to its member districts than in operating schools. EMID currently also operates Harambee, an elementary school located in the city of Maplewood.

The EMID board asked their member districts to submit proposals related to an interest in taking over these two schools, while taking into consideration how it could be a smooth transition for the current students. The schools were built with state funds and if a member district (such as District 833) were interested in acquiring the schools, the building could be transferred over to that interested district as long as the building is used for educational purposes. 

As such, District 833 Superintendent Keith Jacobus submitted a letter of intent to acquire the school to the EMID School Board on Nov. 28, and visited at least two other EMID board meetings to discuss the issue. If the building is acquired by District 833, the current Crosswinds programming will be discontinued and a plan for the building will be shared when it has been fully developed.