Carlton considers options to reduce deficit

The reality of a significant budget deficit for the current school year appears to be changing Carlton School Board attitudes about working with the Wrenshall School District, as evidenced by discussions held during the committee of the whole meeting Thursday, April 4.

How far board members might be willing to go still varies wildly, with Tim Hagenah expressing some willingness to discuss combining football teams with nearby Wrenshall — a change from previous discussions — while Jennifer Chmielewski brought up the idea of sharing a superintendent with the neighboring school district.

According to an amended budget adopted last month, the Carlton School District is expecting a “fund balance drop” of $464,000, which will bring the district fund balance to $672,000 at the end of the fiscal year June 30. That’s down from more than $1 million last year in reserves.

“That number is below current fund balance policy,” superintendent Gwen Carman explained to the board at the start of the April 4 meeting. “Another very important part of the conversation is that we know our largest class will graduate next year, which will have a significant budget impact moving forward.”

Board members then spent the next two hours discussing budget ideas for the 2019-20 school year, working their way through a worksheet containing recommended cuts, fee increases and expenditures from Carman and the secondary and elementary school principals. Included in that discussion were teacher and staff reductions, utility cost-cutting measures and sharing of sports and co-curriculars.

Chmielewski wanted to know why administrative cost-cutting possibilities were not included, as she had requested at a previous meeting.

“At this point, I’m not recommending any changes in the three [administrative] positions,” Carman said in response.

Board chair LaRae Lehto pointed out that the district has existing contracts with the superintendent and both principals, and noted that Carman would have to agree to any sharing arrangement.

Carman said she was aware that some districts have chosen to share a superintendent.

“I think you have to find the right district that has a need,” she said. “Would I be open to that conversation? Yeah.”

Hagenah also did not reject the suggestion, but noted that the board would need to do a lot of fact finding first, adding that they looked into sharing a superintendent when the district was in statutory operating debt years back.

“We talked to schools that had shared a superintendent in the past, and it wasn’t a perfect picture,” he said. “It also took a certain individual to do it.”

School superintendents are typically the highest-paid school district staff. Carman’s 2016 contract provided a salary of $101,000 plus benefits for three years, and is set to expire June 30, 2019.

In a somewhat controversial move last fall, members of the school board approved a new contract for Carman effective July 2019 through July 1, 2022, eight months before her contract was up for renewal. According to the Oct. 15, 2018 meeting minutes, Hagenah motioned to approve that contract, supported by LaRae Lehto. Board members Sue Karp and Julianne Emerson also voted “yes,” while Chmielewski voted “no.” That contract pays Carman a salary of $107,171 for the 2019-20 school year, $108,243 for 2020-21 and $109,325 for 2021-22.

The 2016-19 contract provides for a lump sum payment in the gross amount of $50,000 in case the district consolidates with another school district and Carman does not continue on as an employee of the consolidated district. The 2019-2022 contract offers the same lump sum payment for severance in case of consolidation or dissolution of the school district.

In response to a question from board member Ann Gustafson about administrative staff ratio, Lehto said she’d done some research on the Minnesota Department of Education’s website, which showed Wrenshall on the low end for Carlton County districts, with 2 percent of staff classed as administrative, and Esko with a high of more than 4 percent. Carlton was above 3 percent but below 4 percent, she said.

Lehto said she doesn’t support changes to administration right now, although she might in the long run.

“As we’re talking about the future of the district and potentially making a big change or recommendation for the future … we may have to lean heavily on our administration in the short term,” she said, adding that she didn’t think it was prudent to make administrative changes while the district is in a time of potential transition.

Chmielewski was adamant that cutting administrative costs also be on the table.

“For cost savings, certainly we could have not hired another principal and continued with the sharing of principal duties in the meantime,” she said, referring to the hiring of secondary principal Barry Fischer. “I completely understand the idea of pairing and sharing a superintendent would have to be looked into, as much as every other option on [the sheet of recommended cuts].”

Carman said money gained by the sale of school district buses to 4.0 Student Services last summer, which generated nearly $250,000, would also be part of future budget discussions.