Fate of East Metro Integration District's schools to be decided tonight

Leaders of the East Metro Integration District will decide Wednesday whether to close the district's two schools.

The East Metro Integration District (EMID) was formed in the 1990s as a way for St. Paul and nine neighboring districts to create integrated schools.

Board members face two choices Wednesday night: close its schools in Woodbury and Maplewood, or keep them open under a new financial arrangement in which member districts send less of their state integration funding to EMID.

EMID interim Superintendent Jerry Robicheau said that buys time to consider other options.

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"It really will cause some creative and innovative thinking about what those two sites might look like in the future," he said.

EMID parents also say they support the option.

"Both the families and the schools get more time to figure out how they fit into the future," said Eric Celeste, who has a son at Crosswinds. "The districts get a little bit more funding to deal with the desperate straights they're in right now and we see that as a reasonable compromise."

State lawmakers are reviewing integration funding and are expected to find new ways to allocate it next biennium.