East metro school leaders reported progress Wednesday in talks aimed at keeping Harambee Community School — a magnet school promoting the integration of students in St. Paul and its suburbs — open during the 2013-14 school year.
Last week, the Maplewood school was put at risk of being shuttered after the state Legislature failed to approve an East Metro Integration District (EMID) proposal to turn over the school facility and its programming to the Roseville Area Schools.
Local officials now are pursuing an alternate plan calling for Roseville to manage the year-round program — and to leave the question of building ownership unresolved for now.
Roseville Superintendent John Thein said Wednesday night that district representatives met earlier in the day with state Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius, and that as a result of those talks, he was optimistic that a management agreement could be approved for 2013-14.
Thein appeared at Wednesday's meeting of the EMID board to seek a show of support for the proposal, which board members delivered unanimously. Now, attorneys for EMID and the Roseville Area Schools plan to work out details of the agreement.
Earlier this year, EMID agreed to turn over its two schools, Harambee in Maplewood and Crosswinds Arts and Science School in Woodbury, to the Roseville Area Schools and Perpich Center for Arts Education, respectively. The Harambee vote was unanimous, but board members were divided over the Crosswinds-to-Perpich proposal, with some EMID board members wanting the building to go to the South Washington County School District instead.
The building transfers required state legislative approval, but the session ended last week without floor votes on either proposal. EMID Superintendent Janet Mohr said then that the first priority was to save Harambee and attention would be turned to Crosswinds after that. She didn't want to see either building mothballed.
On Wednesday night, as he left the EMID meeting, Thein said he was grateful to have the support of both the EMID and Roseville school boards.
