spring the Saint Paul Public Schools superintendent decided not to bring the issue to the school board, which had the authority to drop Cretin. The superintendent cited that the issue was too political to remove the only Catholic school in a heavily Catholic city. He also reasoned that it would be better to improve the competitive level of the public schools including the elementary and junior high sports teams. That plan would have cost seven figures and was quickly discarded. In the fall of 1998 Cretin expressed interest in joining a new athletic conference. In 1999 supporters of Humboldt High School asked the Saint Paul Public Schools superintendent to either remove Cretin or find a new conference for Humboldt to compete in because of the large gap in talent. A month later the public school's athletic directors agreed to support a proposal to remove Cretin for the 2000-2001 school year. Cretin applied at the same time to the now defunct St. Paul Suburban Conference. In March 2002 Cretin began making steps away from the Saint Paul City Conference. The football team announced plans to compete as an independent beginning in the fall of 2002. The team later agreed to play the Classic Lake Conference schools in 2003 and 2004 as an independent. After the 2002-2003 season, Cretin-Derham Hall left the conference and began competition in the Suburban East Conference. Nine conferences had rejected Cretin before the Minnesota State High School league placed Cretin in the Suburban East Conference. The Suburban East Conference and Cretin both appealed the decision but it was upheld. Cretin had wanted to be placed in the Classic Suburban Conference. Recent history The most recent addition was in 1996 when the newly built Arlington Senior High School joined. Arlington did not compete at the varsity level in athletics until the fall of 1997. Twin Cities Conference In 1985 Minneapolis proposed merging the Saint Paul and Minneapolis City Conferences. One plan had a two division alignment with Saint Paul and Minneapolis schools in separate divisions. The ease at scheduling non-conference games with teams from the other division was seen as acceptable to Minneapolis officials. The proposal did not happen but talks returned the following year when the Saint Paul City Conference was planning to remove the four private schools from the conference. At that time the scheduling proposal was seen as being more restrictive and not favorable to