Mankato Public Schools cooperative (co-op) agreements were originally put in place to help sustain certain MSHSL athletic programs.  Mankato East currently has a cooperative for girls’ hockey with Mankato Loyola.  There are several criteria that are used by the Activities Council when considering cooperative agreements, including team size, competitiveness of the activity and whether adding schools moves the team into a higher class (i.e., from A to AA, AA to AAA, etc.).  Based on lower participation numbers, Mankato West is in greater need of the Mankato Loyola cooperative.  In order to move Loyola players to the West team, the Board is required to first dissolve the existing cooperative between Mankato East & Mankato Loyola.