WMEP, Robbinsdale Area Schools await legislative approval for planned school conveyance
After a legislative session that focused heavily on an education bill, administrations from the West Metro Education Program and Robbinsdale Area Schools are still waiting for state lawmakers to approve a decision that would convey a Crystal fine arts school to the Robbinsdale school district.
In early February, the education program’s board voted unanimously to send its FineArts Interdisciplinary Resource school in Crystal and another in downtown Minneapolis to Robbinsdale and Minneapolis Public Schools, respectively. That decision hinged on the state legislature approving the measure.
However, the language that would have approved the conveyance was attached to a state bonding bill that was not approved. Now that the regular legislative session has ended, school district officials hope the language is approved in an upcoming special session.
“We’re hoping it’s going to end up in a bonding bill in the special session,” said Keith Lester, the program’s superintendent. The measure could also be approved as part of the much-debated education finance bill.
The bonding bill could be a higher hurdle for the school districts to clear because the legislature needs a three-fifths majority vote to approve, Lester added.
If neither bill is approved, however, district administrators will turn to “Plan B:” an operations agreement between West Metro, Robbinsdale and Minneapolis that looks remarkably similar to an option that was floated while the conveyance was still being discussed late last year.
In Plan B, the schools would effectively be part of the education program in name only.
“The two schools will operate as if Minneapolis and Robbinsdale owned them,” Lester said in a May 28 statement. “For the most part, WMEP will have little participation in the operation of the schools beyond tuition collection and maintaining student records. Transportation will operate the same way for students, however on an administrative end, (Minneapolis) and (Robbinsdale) may facilitate it.”
Governance would be conducted by the Minneapolis and Robbinsdale school boards first, and the program’s board second. Student enrollment lotteries would be the same under either an approved conveyance or an operations agreement.
“We are hopeful that the legislature will take up the FAIR school conveyance in the special session,” said Robbinsdale Superintendent Aldo Sicoli. “During this transition, whether the school is conveyed or if we are managing the program, we are committed to providing a safe landing for families and continuing the FAIR school focus on equity, excellence and the arts.”
The backup plan is “essentially identical” to one used by the East Metro Integration District, which conveyed one of its buildings to Roseville Area Schools and the other to the Perpich Center for Arts Education in 2014 but needed to wait a year for the legislature to approve the change.
“East Metro officially kept ownership and had to deal with the financial stuff and student records. Otherwise, the building was used by Roseville,” Lester explained.
The education program is a multi-district effort that was founded in 1995 with the aim of integrating the ethnically diverse Minneapolis district with less diverse suburban ones – students at any member district could attend a West Metro program school in lieu of one in their home district. Program administrators began to question the continued relevance of that mission, however, citing the increasing diversity of the suburbs and the prevalence of integration and diversity-minded programs within each district.
If and when the conveyance occurs, the program will still maintain its student learning and professional development efforts, which are available to member districts. Those member school districts are Brooklyn Center, Columbia Heights, Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins, Minneapolis, Richfield, Robbinsdale, St. Anthony/New Brighton, St. Louis Park, and Wayzata.
Gov. Mark Dayton is widely expected to call the special legislative session before the end of June, when the state’s fiscal year ends.
Contact Joe Bowen at joe.bowen@ecm-inc.com.