A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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Rural schools in Carlton County showed marginal progress in the results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments released by the state Education Department last week. Students mostly eclipsed statewide averages at the Barnum and Cromwell-Wright districts, but, overall, the drop in scores since Covid-19 in 2020 was still evidenced with some lackluster performances in reading and math — the two subjects that are the primary focus of the tests. To better understand the proficiencies of rural-most students and the recovery arc since the p...
Wrenshall School opened Tuesday with 344 students - much to the delight of district officials, who projected enrollment at 315 earlier in the year. It was the latest piece of good news for a district that just two years ago was in financial turmoil. Momentum for the district appears to be building in other ways, too. In August, the district's teachers saw more than $6,300 in requests fulfilled during an online fundraising campaign. "I have goosebumps just thinking about how emotional I felt...
Thursday, Aug. 29 Football Duluth East 24 Esko 14 Barnum 9 ML/WR 6 Verndale 62 Carlton/Wrenshall 0 Mesabi East 52 South Ridge 6 Volleyball Cromwell-Wright 3 Cook County 0 Girls Soccer Cloquet/Carlton 4 Alexandria Area 0 Boys Soccer Benilde-St. Margaret’s 3 CEC 2 Friday, Aug. 31 Football Two Harbors 37 Cloquet 14 Cromwell-Wright 48 McGregor 8 Volleyball Barnum 3 ML/WR 2 Tuesday, Sept. 3 Volleyball Princeton 3 Cloquet 0 Esko 3 Rock Ridge 2 Mora 3 Barnum 0 Two Harbors 3 ML/WR 0 Carlton/Wrenshall 3 Nashwauk-Keewatin 0 Boys Soccer CEC 5 Duluth M...
The West End Flourish began with a pebble in the pond. In 2020, the state of Minnesota formed the Artists on Main Street program, designed to provide funding to projects in small town parks and business districts throughout Minnesota. The following year the city of Cloquet and the Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community (OACC) collaborated and received one of the four available grants out of some 41 applicants. Money was available for a two-year cycle. In spring of 2021 as the Covid pandemic was...
Cross Country Carlton/Wrenshall Thursday, Sept. 5 vs Superior at Pattison Park, 4 Tuesday, Sept. 17 vs Northwestern at Norwood, 4:30 Thursday, Sept. 26 at Hibbing, 4 Thursday, Oct. 3 at Ely, 4 Thursday, Oct. 10 vs Cook County at Pincushion, 1 Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Proctor, 4 Thursday, Oct. 24, sectional tournament,TBD Saturday, Nov. 2 state tournament, TBD Cloquet Tuesday, Sept. 10 at Mora, 4:15 Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Grand Rapids, 4 Tuesday, Sept. 24 at Hermantown, 4 Thursday, Sept. 26 at Hibbing, 4 Thursday, Oct. 3 at Ely, 4 Tuesday, Oct. 8 at...
Ian Erickson addressed the Carlton school board during Monday's regular meeting, informing the board he was taking two of his children out of the Carlton school district. Erickson emphasized that he liked the school district, teachers, and principals, "but we feel like the four-day week has forced our hand," he said. Child care was not an issue. Instead, Erickson thought his two younger children should be in school more than four days in a week to provide the kind of educational continuity they...
A summer’s worth of cooling off between sides in the proposed consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts is coming to a close without any sense of how the districts expect to proceed. Both sides say they’re waiting to hear from the other. Neither side appears prepared to nudge talks forward. A clearer picture of the division began to appear following recent Pine Knot interviews, data requests and school board meetings. In short, Carlton wants consolidation to run through superintendents and Wrenshall does not, pre...
Friday, Aug. 23 Volleyball Esko vs Hibbing, 7 p.m. Boys Soccer CEC vs Two Rivers, 2 p.m. Girls Soccer Cloquet vs Two Rivers, 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24 Girls Soccer Esko vs Proctor 2 p.m. Boys Soccer CEC vs Columbia Heights, 12 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26 Tennis CEC at Longview, Duluth East quad Tuesday, Aug. 27 Girls Soccer Esko at Cloquet, 7 p.m. Tennis CEC at Hibbing, 4 p.m. Swimming CEC vs Grand Rapids, 5 p.m. Volleyball Esko at Hermantown, 7 p.m. Barnum at Ogilvie, 7 p.m. Carlton-Wrenshall at Deer River, 7 p.m. Cromwell-Wright at Crosby-Ironton, 7...
The Esko school district updated its student handbooks to tighten rules on student cell phone use, including no phone on students while they sit at their desks. At Monday's school board meeting, superintendent Aaron Fischer introduced the revisions which are intended to standardize the rules for all the classrooms. The Minnesota legislature in the last session directed schools to set cell phone use policies by March 15, 2025. The legislation did not directly prescribe how the policies should be...
The upcoming back-to-school issue of a popular Wrenshall publication will be its final print edition. Images, the monthly Wrenshall school newsletter that's distributed community wide, is moving to an online-only format. Beginning in October, Images will appear only on the school's website, isd100.net. The school board approved the move at its business meeting Monday. The move will save the district roughly $6,500 a year. Images publishes 10 times a year, with printing, delivery and postage...
This was a big week in local politics, although it passed quietly enough. During Tuesday’s primary, voters in District 5 whittled down the number of county commissioner candidates to two — Dan Reed and Alex French — who will advance to the General Election in November. Countywide, we also voted for judicial candidates in a rare local race with no incumbent. Shawn Reed (an Esko grad) and Gunnar Johnson advanced to the general election in that race. But Tuesday was also the final day to file as a candidate in seven local school board races with 2...
A person can’t work for the FBI or CIA with felony convictions and yet they can be the president of the United States and have 34 felonies on their record. Some things must change regarding this policy, as it opens the door for felons to be commander in chief of our military. Many religious leaders and people who call themselves Christians will vote for the candidate who appointed justices to the Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the woman’s right to choose, and yet will vote for a womanizer, liar, convicted fel...
Filings for local school boards as well as municipal and township races closed at the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 13. Those candidates will appear on the General Election ballot, along with the top two candidates from any primary races detailed on Pages 1-19. Find the listing of local filings below, according to the Secretary of State website: School Board filings Barnum (elect 4): Louis Bonneville, Beth Dinger, Stephanie Ferrin, Mike Orn, Patrick S. Poirier Carlton (elect 3): Julianne Emerson, Ryan M. Leonzal, Ben Nilsen, Dan Solarz, Eryn...
In the only Carlton County board primary to be decided during Tuesday's primary election, six candidates will vie for two spots in the Nov. 5 general election for District 5 commissioner. The position was left open earlier this year after Gary Peterson announced the end of his three-term run in the seat. Peterson is seeking to keep involved by running unopposed to become a soil and water supervisor. District 5 spans the western half of Carlton County, including Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River and...
At Monday night’s Carlton school board retreat, board members had a freewheeling discussion about the major challenges to be faced in the coming school year. A large amount of discussion centered around the four-day school week which starts this September. Board members were supportive, but expressed doubts. Board member Ryan Leonzal was direct. “I’ve had anywhere from 10 to 15 families tell me that they’re leaving, and they’re not particularly ones that I would have assumed [would] go,” he said, and went on to warn the board about the gamble...
For the first time in anyone's memory, Wrenshall school will head into the new school year with multiple sections of multiple elementary grades as enrollment continues to rise during the summer offseason. A kindergarten split was approved in July as the class hit 25 prospective students. Last week, the board agreed to split fourth grade, as it approached 30 students. The board will vote at its Aug. 12 business meeting to post a job opening for a second fourth-grade teacher at the school. "This...
Anyone interested in running for local school board, township office or most municipal mayor and city council seats has until the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 13, to file an affidavit of candidacy and pay the minimal filing fee at the respective city, town or school office. Nate Sandman says it’s the best $2 you’ll ever spend. The Cloquet school board chair is wrapping up his eighth year on the board. He doesn’t plan to run again, but said anyone who cares about kids and is passionate about education should consider running. There were zero...
The annual Brickyard Days parade in Wrenshall took its time making its way down the main drag from the convenience store to the firehall, starting with all kinds of firetrucks and ending with three women on horseback, who stopped frequently to say hello to friends or visit children who wanted a closer look. There was no shortage of candy, nor of children to gather it into bags, pockets and even an upside down umbrella. The crowd migrated to the firehall for ice cream following the parade, which...
It's peak community festival season right now, with three Carlton County communities throwing hometown celebrations over the next nine days. On Saturday, Brickyard Days will bring the small town of Wrenshall together for a parade and fun in the park and at Bricks Pub and Grub. Esko Fun Days runs Tuesday through Saturday next week, and Ma and Pa Kettle Days returns next weekend in Kettle River. While all three events include food and community gatherings, Kettle River is the only community to...
Carlton social studies teacher Ryan Schmidt always dreamed of opening a hometown bookstore after retiring. Instead, he opened last week, just in time for Carlton Daze. The new N.P. Junction Books is located at 110 Third St., at the four-way stop, kittycorner from Third Base Bar. “It’s been an idea for six or seven years, then I started talking a little more seriously in about 2022,” Schmidt said. “Then I had the opportunity to do it a little sooner.” Schmidt did more than just open a bookstore...
Wrenshall will celebrate Brickyard Days (aka Brickyard Day) on Saturday, Aug. 3, with a range of family-friendly activities and even a nod to the Olympics. The day kicks off with a pancake breakfast at the town hall 7-10 a.m., followed by the parade at 11 a.m. Activities in the park after the parade include kids’ games, face painting, crazy hair, bingo and vendors, and 3-point shooting at 1 p.m. and “crazy Olympic partner” games at 2 p.m. Sign up for the shooting and Olympic games at the park....
The sixth annual Northland Baseball Classic drew 59 teams ages 9-14 to Cloquet last weekend. The teams played at four different locations in the Cloquet and Carlton area over the weekend. Champions were crowned in five different age groups. "We had games being played at Pinehurst Park, Mettner Field and Braun Park in Cloquet as well as at Chub Lake Park in Carlton, said tournament director Nate Knutson. "We had teams from all over the state of Minnesota as well as Canada." It was a group...
An upbeat Carlton schools superintendent Donita Stepan believes the school district's switch to a four-day school week in September will trigger an uptick in enrollments. Nothing definite in terms of filed paperwork, "But we've done several tours," she said in an interview Tuesday. "We've probably got at least eight or nine new kids interested in coming so far." Regarding families possibly leaving over the same issue, Stepan indicated she had not seen any paperwork for kids leaving the...
The challenge has vexed Jason Amundsen for a few years. He’s brought in engineering students from the University of Minnesota Duluth and St. Thomas University in St. Paul. He’s hired one of them full-time to tackle the problem. At Farm LoLa in Wrenshall, the mission is capturing water from the air — in a sense, making the concept of the indoor humidifier work outside. Amundsen said the world is starving, and he wants to find a way to better water crops. He cites endangered citrus crops in Texas...
The Wrenshall school board converged Monday on Holyoke, where board members watched a sudden downpour and a whistling train outside, and were met by Wrenshall mayor Gary Butala. Butala agreed with the board that the city and school district ought to examine how to share snowplowing duties in the winter as well as fuel costs and access, already located on school district property. “We would like to share if we could with the school,” Butala said, inviting board member Eric Ankrum, head of the school’s building and grounds committee, to the J...
