Robbinsdale board votes to discontinue Fair Crystal magnet program, spares Pilgrim Lane

The Robbinsdale Area Schools school board voted Jan. 5 to discontinue middle‑school magnet programming at Fair Crystal at the conclusion of the 2025–26 school year and to repurpose the building for academic programming, part of a set of actions aimed at meeting a statutory operating debt recovery target.

The board simultaneously voted unanimously to remove the proposed closure of Fair Pilgrim Lane Elementary from consideration, a move that rendered the scheduled public hearing on Pilgrim Lane unnecessary.

Why it matters: District leadership said the actions respond to a statutory operating debt (SOD) condition that requires the board to submit a structurally balanced recovery plan to the Minnesota Department of Education by Jan. 31, 2026. Administration told the board its current deficit is substantially larger than the SOD threshold and that a combination of program and site changes is necessary to reach the approximately $1.7 million in additional reductions the board requested after previous cuts.

Superintendent Stalvo told the board there was "no last minute change" to the agenda and laid out the financial case for the actions, including a multi‑year plan to stabilize district finances. The superintendent also pushed back on public claims about internal conduct and staff, saying that some statements circulating in the community were incorrect.

CFO Kristen Hoheisel told the board the district entered statutory operating debt after its audit and that the district's deficit is "approximately $11,000,000," while the SOD threshold for the district would be about $4,300,000. She summarized SOD rules, including the Jan. 31 deadline for submission of a recovery plan and potential state monitoring if adequate progress is not made.

Board debate focused on tradeoffs between preserving unique programming and the need to stabilize district finances. Several directors urged creativity to preserve Fair Crystal's arts facilities for districtwide use (the building houses a black box theater and related spaces). Others stressed fiscal urgency and the requirement to show a path out of SOD to avoid further state‑imposed restrictions.

The vote to discontinue Fair Crystal's magnet programming passed on a roll call: four yes, two no, one abstention. Later, the board voted to move Highview RVA programming and some ESC departments into Fair Crystal; that motion also passed with a roll call showing multiple yes votes and two no votes.

On Pilgrim Lane, Director Bassett moved that the board "not close" Fair Pilgrim Lane Elementary; the motion carried unanimously, eliminating the need for the planned public hearing on that closure.

What remains: Administration will use the board’s decisions to refine the district’s SOD recovery plan and present a draft for board review at a study session and the Jan. 20 meeting. The superintendent said the board will continue to debate programmatic details, boundaries and transitions, but emphasized that the SOD process requires decisive steps to create a balanced budget.

Quote: In defending staff and responding to accusations about contracting disclosures, the superintendent said: "Those claims are false and defamatory." That statement referred to assertions about a district staff member’s alleged undisclosed relationship with a bond underwriter; the superintendent said the relationship had been disclosed in written records provided to the board.

Next steps: The board scheduled a study session to review the draft SOD plan and will vote on the SOD plan on Jan. 20, 2026. The administration said it will continue work on facility repurposing, programming transitions and demographic and capacity analyses to inform implementation timelines.