After a wide-ranging discussion telecast into four overflow rooms at the District 279 headquarters in Maple Grove, the Osseo school board on Tuesday night passed a controversial plan to cut $16.3 million from its budget for next year.

Despite an outcry from parents, the board voted 4 to 2 to close Osseo and Edgewood elementary schools; to house the science and math magnet school now at Edgewood at Weaver Lake; and to combine programs from Cedar Island, Fair Oaks and Oakview elementary schools, creating two prekindergarten-through-third-grade programs and one serving fourth through sixth grades.

The action also gave the go-ahead for other cuts, including laying off as many as 166 licensed teachers, several administrators and nonlicensed staff and specialists.

The cuts come in the aftermath of the failure of two of three levy-increase requests put to voters in November.

Board members Linda Etim and Dean Henke both voted against the proposal after their attempt to separate the school closure vote from the rest of the budget cuts failed. Etim had supported the combination of programs at Fair Oaks, Cedar Island and Oak View, but opposed the closures of Edgewood and Osseo elementary schools.

Woodland Elementary parent Shelly Korby noted that despite the opposition to school closures, the situation would be worse without them. "If these schools weren't to be closed, it would be even more of an impact, for everyone," she said.

Rice Lake Elementary parent Rachel Laurie said the school-closure controversy has received more attention than teacher layoffs, and how those losses will affect class sizes, because it feels less immediate to many.

Since the proposal was made public early last month, parents and community members have mobilized against the school closure plan, flooding school board meetings and "community cafe" public hearings.

The outcry felt a little late to Korby, who was active in last fall's funding campaign. "I wish more people had been more proactive before this. ... If we could have had all that energy up front, we could've done so much more."

Still, Superintendent Susan Hintz says she won't spend time thinking about the failed levies.

"That's where everyone wants to start," she said. "We have to deal with the current reality and make the best of what we can for the future and try to create it together."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409