Robbinsdale board votes to end magnet school program
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Community members in the Robbinsdale school district packed a board meeting Monday to voice their concerns about a district plan to end programming at FAIR School, a middle school in Crystal that focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
The three-and-a-half-hour meeting grew tense at times, with more than one recess called after attendees began shouting. In the end, board members voted 4-2 with one abstention to end FAIR at the start of the 2026-27 school year.
Students from the program will be transferred to the district’s two remaining middle schools, Plymouth and Sandberg. The vacated building in Crystal will be repurposed for the district’s virtual academy activities and some education services center department work, the district said.
The board’s decision comes after it voted last month to close two elementary schools, Robbinsdale Middle School and the building which houses district offices.
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“These decisions are not easy, it’s not what I want to be doing tonight,” board member Aviva Hillenbrand said Monday.
The district “let COVID dollars pull us through for a while, but this is something that we have been facing for probably a decade. This is not new. This is not unique also to our district. We just got here a little faster,” Hillenbrand added. “The error in accounting just made us hit it faster.”
The decision to close schools comes just over a year after the Twin Cities north suburban district announced it made a mistake in its budgeting process, which led to a $20 million shortfall. District leaders say tight finances and declining student enrollment have also contributed to budget issues.
At that point, district officials said they would consider a range of cost-saving options, including school closures, staff cuts and a potential future funding referendum.
Stacie Swenson, whose seventh grade student currently attends FAIR School, told MPR News she worried the board was making a mistake.
“This is a driver to the district,” she said. “Every kid coming into the district means money for the district and so I have this very strong hunch … that we’re gonna lose kids on this. And I do feel like, overall, that’s going to be a net drain on the district’s budget.”
The board plans to meet again on Monday next week to discuss plans to address its statutory operating debt. It’s required to submit a debt reduction plan to the state by the end of January.
