The Perpich-Crosswinds bill is now headed to the floor of the Minnesota House, but it looks a little different than it did a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago the House Capital Investments Committee took our stand alone bill (HB592) and made it a part of the House bonding omnibus bill (HB270). It was added to the bonding omnibus bill because the office of Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) determined that any changes to the use of Crosswinds would mean a change in the intent of the bonds that had been used to build Crosswinds, and as such these changes needed the approval of three-fifths of the legislature. Since bonding bills require a three-fifths vote and this had become a bond-related question, we are now part of the bonding bill in the House.

This morning the House bonding omnibus passed the House Ways and Means committee and was sent on to the House floor for consideration. Unfortunately, it will probably wait there until all the other budget bills have been considered before it gets a vote. This means that we probably will not know the fate of Crosswinds in the Legislature until the very end of the session.

Another change in the language makes it very likely that even once the Legislature finishes its work, the final decision will return to the EMID Board. New language in HB270 allows the EMID Board to give Crosswinds to either Perpich or District 833 (South Washington County) “for use as an east metropolitan area integration magnet school.” Furthermore, if EMID wants to do anything other than that with Crosswinds, it must sell the school building “for an amount at least equal to” the cost of acquiring the land and building the school. (HB270, Sec. 51.) These provisions make it possible that both Perpich and District 833 will be coming back to the EMID board this summer for a decision.

The bottom line for now is that things are looking very positive for a Perpich takeover of Crosswinds for next school year, but we are far from done with this task. Stay tuned! We will need your voice raised and your concerns shared with your legislators as this matter heads to the House floor. And we will need you to contact your EMID Board members when and if this matter returns to their domain.

P.S. Though far less controversial, we should note that the Roseville-Harambee provision is also now part of the same HB270 bonding bill.