Debate over the fate of a Woodbury school building will play out at the Capitol free of an April 1 deadline that could have brought an early demise to the arts magnet program housed there now.

The Perpich Center for Arts Education wants control of the Crosswinds Arts and Science School so that it can keep the current multi-district integration program running.

But the South Washington County School District aims to claim the building, too.

The school's governing board agreed two months ago to turn over Crosswinds to the Perpich Center, provided it could win House and Senate approval by April 1. If the Perpich Center failed, the board said, the building would go instead to South Washington County, which plans to use it for other purposes.

On Wednesday, Jay Squires, an attorney for the East Metro Integration District, told board members that the state agency that granted funds to build Crosswinds won't sign off on a deal to turn over the building until legislators act. The April deadline, he said, "is no longer operative."

A bill authorizing the Perpich Center takeover has been approved by two House committees. A hearing has yet to be scheduled in the Senate.

Anthony Lonetree