A resident group’s bid to save St. Andrew’s Church in St. Paul’s Como neighborhood hit a roadblock after a local school’s board has opted to tear it down.

The Twin Cities German Immersion School Board voted 6-1 on Monday in favor of replacing St. Andrew’s Church, located at 1051 Como Ave., with a new wing of the school to accommodate for growing class sizes. Members of the Save Historic St. Andrew’s neighborhood coalition say their preservation efforts will continue, while school leaders say they’re moving forward with planning the new building they hope to open in January 2020.

Save Historic St. Andrew’s member Anna Mosser said although the group is “back at the beginning” of its efforts to preserve the 1927 church, “we’ll continue on doing what we think is right.”

The group is pursuing an historic designation for the building, and Mosser said they aim to submit the nomination for the designation within a month. She noted the building’s owner doesn’t have to consent to the designation in St. Paul.

Neighbors and community members were alerted to the church’s possible demolition in April. One month later, the school board tabled a planned demolition following concerns raised by residents.

“I respect that they feel they’re doing what’s best for the school, but I feel like their vision of what’s best for the school is very rigid. They haven’t really considered all the options,” Mosser said.

Sam Walling, Twin Cities German Immersion School board chair and father of two students, said it was an “extremely difficult” decision for board members. “We needed to approach it from the perspective of what’s really best for our families and for our staff,” he said.

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St. Paul district reports enrollment drop as pandemic moves school online They considered purchasing the Central Lutheran School site, located at 775 N. Lexington Parkway, but found it came with “an unacceptable amount of risk,” Walling said. He cited the site’s purchase would separate the school across two locations, increasing annual operating costs by around $170,000.

Walling said he’s “hopeful” that a historic designation would not inhibit the construction of the building. “At the end of the day what that does is it takes money away from kids that we are entrusted with educating,” he said.

According to the neighborhood group, St. Andrew’s was designed by Charles Hausler, who has several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. The church was active until 2010 when it was decommissioned. The German Immersion School moved into the church and its adjacent building in 2013.