New year, same topics for Carlton School Board

The new Carlton School Board elected officers with little tension during its first meeting Jan. 10, but ended up deadlocked on proposed wages for the board itself, voting three times on different proposals and ending each time 3-3.

In the end, they passed a temporary measure to keep the wages where they were - $37.50 per meeting plus $1,000 per year - and moved the discussion to Monday's Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting.

In addition to board wages, discussion about several more-contentious topics raised by board members at the otherwise fairly routine organizational meeting Jan. 10 were placed on Monday's agenda, including a response to the most recent Wrenshall letter, status of cooperative teams (particularly with Wrenshall), potential legislation for consolidated districts and facility construction funding and a strategic plan draft offered by Superintendent Gwen Carman.

On Monday, newly elected board chair LaRae Lehto revealed that she had been unaware of a letter sent by Wrenshall School Board Chair Matthew Laveau to Carman and former Carlton Chair Julianne Emerson on Dec. 26 until after the Jan. 10 meeting. Board member Jenn Chmielewski had asked during the meeting how the board was going to respond and gotten no answer; after the meeting Carman shared the letter with Lehto, noting that she hadn't shared it before because she didn't know who would be the new chair.

Laveau had requested to be added to the Carlton board agenda in January.

"... due to funding deadlines and the sensitive nature of cooperation between our schools, I feel that it is imperative that we begin to clarify the intentions of each board on the matter as soon as possible," he wrote.

The Carlton board discussed Laveau's request at length Monday, with two viewpoints emerging: a reluctance to say "yes" without knowing what Laveau wanted to say on the part of board members Tim Hagenah and Sue Karp, and a "why not" attitude from Chmielewski and Ann Gustafson. Ojibwe was absent and Lehto was in the middle. Several board members expressed disappointment that Wrenshall had rejected Carlton's suggestion of hiring a facilitator in their November letter.

In the end, Lehto said she would email Leveau for more clarification on the matter and email copies of his response to fellow board members (it would be public data as well) to be discussed at the board's Jan. 28 meeting, when they could take action if needed.

Board members also gave Superintendent Carman permission to testify for the state legislature on the possible benefits of the state passing some kind of legislation that would help consolidating school districts with construction funding, following a similar formula to the one used to help Moose Lake after its school was damaged by flooding in 2012.

Carman stressed that she would not be telling legislators that Carlton and Wrenshall are certain to consolidate - pointing out that Carlton also borders Cloquet, Esko and Cromwell school districts - rather that such legislation would be good for rural school districts across the state.

Regarding cooperative sports teams, the extracurricular committee agreed to revisit a request from Wrenshall to form cooperative teams for football and track - which they'd rejected last fall - when they are also looking at the budget for sports later this month.

Finally, board members voted to keep their current pay structure, but actually pay board members when they attend training sessions the same $37.50 that they get for meetings.