on a March recommendation by the Saint Paul Public Schools superintendent and a two-year study by the Saint Paul Public School Coaches' Association. Cretin High School and Derham Hall High School were allowed to remain because they were located within the Saint Paul City limits. The vote also let St. Bernard's, St. Agnes and St. Paul Academy join the Conference if they desired although they all were in different athletic conferences. The decision allowed Saint Thomas Academy and Hill-Murray to remain for the 1986-1987 school year and guaranteed them a non-conference schedule during the 1987-1988 school year but forced them to find a new conference for the 1989-1990 school year or to schedule games as an independent. Hill-Murray and Saint Thomas Academy applied for entry into the Twin Cities Federation or Umbrella Conference, then a twenty three school athletic conference split into three distinct conferences. Hill-Murray was accepted into the North Suburban division while Saint Thomas Academy was rejected for not meeting the criteria of the original twenty three schools. Saint Thomas Academy applied twice to seven different conferences but was rejected by all of them including the Saint Paul Suburban Conference three times. A month after Hill-Murray and St. Thomas were dropped the Minnesota State Legislature held a legislative task force to discuss the Minnesota State High School League's role in placing school's in athletic conferences. The MSHSL stated that they did not want the authority to do so. However, in the following year in the Spring of 1987 the Minnesota State Legislature passed a law requiring the Minnesota State High School League to place a high school in a conference if certain conditions were met. Eventually in the Spring of 1988, the Minnesota State High School league placed Saint Thomas Academy in the Saint Paul Suburban Conference, a member of the Twin Cities Federation Dropping of Cretin In 1987 Cretin and Derham Hall merged into a co-ed facility to form Cretin-Derham Hall High School. In September 1996 the athletic directors of the seven public high schools voted to recommend the exclusion of Cretin when the new Arlington High School began competing in varsity sports for the 1997-1998 season. Whenever the public school coaches were polled about removing Cretin they were overwhelmingly in favor. They offered to allow Cretin play the conference as an independent and as a result not be eligible for Conference titles or awards. The following