Middle school to continue life skills classes

Cloquet school board members voted unanimously for life skills over computer programming during their regular meeting Monday.

At issue was a proposal by Cloquet Middle School principal Tom Brenner to replace the eighth-grade Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) coursework with computer programming. Brenner explained that with longtime FCS teacher Mary Jane Lundberg retiring, he wanted to make some changes before they hired a new teacher or teachers.

He proposed keeping the seventh-grade cooking portion of the FCS curriculum, but getting rid of the eighth-grade sewing/clothing care/consumerism class in favor of computer programming as a way of better preparing kids for the future.

Board members balked at the idea of dropping any part of an already smaller FCS program.

Board members Jim Crowley and Duane Buytaert spoke about the need for the school district to teach many skills that used to be taught in the home, such as cooking or sewing, doing laundry, or balancing a checkbook.

Brenner argued that most parents can teach those skills — even if they don’t — but most parents can’t teach computer programming.

Buytaert, who works in information technology for Carlton County, responded.

“I’m the computer guy, but a lot more of your 200 kids will use laundry, sewing and consumerism than computer programming skills they learned in the eighth grade,” Buytaert said, referring to the fact that every student in the eighth grade is required to rotate through the current FCS classes.

The board voted unanimously to deny the proposed class change and to give Brenner permission to post the full-time FCS position (Lundberg works .8 at CMS and .2 of her contract at the high school).

In other matters Monday:

•School board members voted to eliminate Esko from the CEC golf co-op during the 2019-20 school year, because of the lack of numbers from Esko and because combining pushes the CEC golf team into a higher competitive bracket. Esko agreed it will provide golf for its student/s so they can still compete at an individual level, but not as a team.

•School board members voted to hire Dave Bergan as the new boys varsity soccer coach upon the recommendation of activities director Paul Riess.

Union grievance

On Thursday, April 18 the Cloquet school board held a special meeting to conduct a grievance hearing with the AFSCME secretarial unit regarding the posting of the Cloquet High School head secretary position. The union alleged that the district did not properly follow the secretarial employment agreement, and argued that current Northern Lights Academy head secretary Tisha Warbalow should not have been bypassed for the position. The district argued that the hire was based on qualifications and not seniority, and that the candidates were not equally qualified. The board voted 4-1 to deny the grievance.