District 279, City of Osseo Settle Lawsuit

Almost five months after the filed a lawsuit against the city of Osseo, the legal action has been settled.

At the heart of the disagreement between the two was the former Osseo Elementary building located at 324 Sixth Ave. NE in Osseo. The District 279 School Board had previously proposed moving the district's alternative high school program from Brooklyn Park into the former Osseo Elementary building.

The Osseo City Council voted in February to deny the district the conditional use permit believed necessary to relocate the Osseo Area Learning Center (OALC) program from Brooklyn Park site to the former elementary school building in Osseo. The Osseo School District at the end of June to determine its authority to place educational programs in its own facilities.

The legal matter was essentially settled when members of the Osseo School Board unanimously voted in favor of the settlement agreement at the Nov. 15 meeting and authorized filing a dismissal of the case. No discussion took place.

The idea behind the proposed move was to save the district about $350,000 in leasing costs for facilities used by three other Osseo School District programs. Some of those programs would move into the Brooklyn Park building and the OALC program would move into the Osseo building.

The settlement agreement mediated and approved by the Osseo School District and the city of Osseo included several conditions.

Highlights of the settlement regarding the former Osseo Elementary building include:

• The school district contracting with the city of Maple Grove to provide a police liaison officer at the facility provided the annual cost doesn’t exceed $50,000. The liaison officer would be provided the first year of operation. Continued use of a police liaison officer would be at the school district’s discretion after consulting with the city of Osseo.

• No facility operations between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

• Loading and unloading of buses only will occur on-site.

• The school district will have two years to implement the conditional use permit (CUP) from the date the CUP was approved by the Osseo City Council, but “in no event shall the CUP be implemented sooner than the 2012-2013 school year, which begins in June 2012.”

• The school district will use “its best efforts” to cause an infant, toddler, and preschool day care center to be operated at the building capable of provide day care services for about 40 preschool-aged children of OALC students and Osseo-area residents.

• Instead of an OALC, the school district could decide to utilize the facility for an elementary school, early childhood education center, or a kindergarten through eighth-grade charter, magnet or immersion school.

To read the full settlement agreement terms, visit the Osseo School District website here.

For more about the Osseo City Council's vote on the agreement and the conditional use permit on Nov. 13, check out the Osseo-Maple Grove Press article here.