MINNEAPOLIS — Educators from a Minneapolis Montessori school said they were evicted from their building on short notice last week following an ongoing conflict with the school's landlords from a Twin Cities Catholic church.
Both the school and church claim their uncertainty in their respective futures as a result.
Leaders from The Legacy of Dr. Josie R. Johnson School, also known as JJ Legacy or JJL, said Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church informed them on June 30 that they would need to move the school out of the building by July 6.
School leaders held a news conference on Sunday, three days after the deadline, asking the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for more time to relocate.
"We were only able to move certain things," said JJ Legacy board member Crown Shepherd. "As of right now, we are up in the air about what is going to happen with our equipment and our things within the school."
The eviction follows a years-long battle between the school and church over the state of the building. School officials say the church has neglected the facility and ignored requests for repairs; church officials disagree about who's responsible for repairs, and claim the school hasn't paid its lease in more than a year.
"This has been a gradual, gradual decline of a building and a space," said JJ Legacy Head of School Tonicia Abdur Salaam. "It is unacceptable to be okay with the conditions that this parish has allowed the building to become without consideration for our children."
Abdur Salaam said they've been unable to use all of the space they've rented because of poor building conditions. School leaders said the church fixed the roof of the church and convent but refused to fix a leaky roof on the school portion of the building; the school also claims it was left with kitchen appliances that don't work, bathroom facilities in need of repair, and trash that wasn't removed.
"We've just had too many broken promises," Abdur Salaam said. "We've spent five years behind the scenes, trying to negotiate, trying to be patient, trying to have grace, trying to wait on them to determine that our children are important enough to clean a building and keep a building safe for our children."
Church administrators claim many of these issues are the school's responsibility to fix.
"We have repeatedly pointed out to school leadership that most of the building conditions issues that they have identified are in fact the responsibility of JJL under the charter school lease that governs these questions for both the school and the parish," said Our Lady of Victory Parochial Administrator Rev. Michael Tix, in a statement.
According to Rev. Tix, the school has not paid rent since May 2022 and owes more than $175,000. The church said its congregation relies on rental income to maintain the building and operate the church; Rev. Tix said the parish is now insolvent and may need to suspend operations by Sept. 1.
"Since the school has not made payment of past due rent, the parish is left no other choice than to take possession of the building and seek a new tenant for the upcoming school year," Rev. Tix said. "Absent the payment of the past due rent, and without the income from a tenant in the school, the parish will not be able to continue operations."
In a letter to parents, the school said the withholding of rent was a strategic move to force the church to take its building concerns seriously.
"As our last attempt to be heard by our landlord, we chose to withhold payment," the letter acknowledged.
Abdur Salaam claims the school is owed money for thousands of dollars lost because of damaged educational materials and desks due to the poor building conditions.
"We don't want to be here anymore either," Abdur Salaam said. "What we want is the space and the time and the resource to find a clean building because our children deserve the best."
On Monday afternoon, Rev. Tix said in a statement to KARE 11 that Our Lady of Victory is "in conversation" with the school "to negotiate a reasonable move out date."
The Legacy of Dr. Josie R. Johnson School was founded in honor of Minnesota civil rights icon Dr. Josie Johnson, largely serving students of color in the community.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist:
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11's newscasts. You'll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
- Add KARE 11+ on Roku here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Roku Channel Store.
- Add KARE 11+ on Fire TV here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Amazon App Store.
- Learn more about the KARE 11+ app for Apple TV in the Apple App Store.
- Learn more about KARE 11+ here.