Will new year bring thaw to Wrenshall, Carlton school talks?

Talk of consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts has been going on for nearly 60 years, starting with a study done in 1960. The debate on whether to join forces or not outlasted the Cold War, and “cold” would be an apt way to describe the current negotiations between the two tiny districts.

In September, before the November general election that had expansion and improvement levy questions on the ballot in Wrenshall, Carlton reached out.

A Sept. 18 letter from Carlton school board chairwoman Julianne Emerson asked the Wrenshall district to consider consolidation talks again, with a neutral facilitator and an eye on creating state legislation that would help fund consolidation costs. Emerson noted that a “community engagement” process last year showed that consolidation was of strong interest to Carlton residents.

Wrenshall responded tersely after the Nov. 7 election that saw its levy questions fail again.

Wrenshall board chairman Matthew Laveau wrote that the district would be willing to talk to Carlton after new board members were in place at the beginning of the year. He said the board did not want to pursue time and costs of a facilitator.

“The Wrenshall board would like to assess the seriousness of the effort before engaging in paid consultants,” Laveau wrote. He said there was a lot of talk in the past few years “without any gains to the students.” He said the Carlton board would need to “demonstrate a change of heart from the past two rounds of talks.”

Laveau said Wrenshall would stand firm on a “two-site option,” placing a consolidation high school in Wrenshall and an elementary school in Carlton. It’s the most “cost-effective” plan, Laveau wrote.

Carlton Superintendent Gwen Carman wrote back later in November, simply stating that her school board would discuss Wrenshall’s letter in February with newly elected members.

Carlton board members have opposing opinions about what plan is the most cost-effective. Emerson told the school board that she was disappointed in the Wrenshall response and voted against the approved resolution to bring up consolidation again in February.

Meanwhile, the Carlton district decided that it would not join in a cooperative football and track program with Wrenshall. On the football side, there was concern that pairing the schools would pull them out of nine-man status, pitting them against larger schools and tougher competition. In track, coaches and the athletic director deemed participation adequate without adding Wrenshall athletes.

The districts will continue to pair up in cross-country.

Carman said the uncertainty about consolidation played a part in the football and track decision. She told the school board that without long-term agreements “on-again, off-again cooperative teams (do) not benefit student athletes of the Carlton district.”

The cross-country pairing of the schools was deemed a success by athletes and coach Erik Holter, as he reported at the December meeting of the Wrenshall board. He said athletes from both schools adjusted to competing together despite the historic rivalry between the schools.

The latest consolidation flurry comes more than two years after a series of discussions and resolutions about how the combined districts would divvy up spaces. Carlton has since upgraded its elementary school — bonding for nonvoter-approved funds to make health and safety improvements — while Wrenshall continues to try to find enough votes to make its own improvements.

Carlton has about 100 more students enrolled, with 429 total. Of Wrenshall’s 319 students, more than a third come from open enrollment, namely Duluth district residents seeking smaller class sizes.

The Carlton board hasn’t been laser-focused on Wrenshall in the past few years. Superintendent Carman and board members have discussed folding into the Cloquet district as well. However, exploratory meetings with Cloquet ended with already crowded Cloquet expressing little interest in consolidation. Cloquet was not opposed to further collaboration for sports and other extracurricular activities. Cloquet, Esko and Carlton already combine for numerous sports — depending on the year and players from each school — including boys and girls hockey, skiing, boys soccer, tennis, golf and girls swimming most years. Girls soccer has recently been Cloquet-Carlton.

Tax news is mixed

In other news, the Wrenshall School District’s tax levy is down just more than 2 percent, or $21,000.

Catherine Erickson, formerly with the data management firm Arrowhead Regional Computing Consortium, called it a “good levy” and “solid budget” when presenting at a “truth in taxation” session during Wrenshall’s Dec. 17 board meeting. Erickson is now the chief financial officer for the Duluth district. There were no public comments at the hearing.

Erickson arrived in Wrenshall following a meeting with the Carlton school board, which approved a 43-percent increase in its levy. The jump is largely due to the $5.5 million bond passed by the school board in 2017 for improvements at South Terrace Elementary School. There were also no public comments made at Carlton’s taxation meeting.