Clarity surfaces between school boards

The second joint board meeting this summer to broach the idea of consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts, in Wrenshall Monday, went much like the meeting in July at South Terrace in Carlton. Until it didn’t.

After a series of statements about goals and visions for the districts, and talk of how each district could use its facilities in a school pairing, Wrenshall’s Michele Blanchard had heard enough. It was her sentiment, soon agreed on by other Wrenshall board members, that the Carlton board seemed to keep throwing out options for its district aside from consolidation or wanted every answer to every scenario that would come up in a pairing with Wrenshall.

“How long do you stew about it?” Blanchard asked.

“We need to know our options,” Carlton superintendent Gwen Carman said, adding that ideas pop up and “some people” have told her that Carlton High School should “just dissolve.”

“You do know the options,” Wrenshall’s Janaki Fisher-Merritt said, noting studies done in 2016 showing how the districts could come together. “It’s not that complicated.”

He paused, knowing that the discussion was ramping up into the contentious territory that the board members had been avoiding until this moment. “It gets frustrating to think you need to gather all the facts,” he said. “The end result is always Carlton saying, oh, we’ll look at Cloquet. We don’t want Wrenshall.”

Cloquet tango

Earlier in the meeting, Carlton board members talked about an idea that had come up in a retreat they attended after the first joint meeting. It would be an agreement with Cloquet to take Carlton’s high school students under a tuition agreement. It’s a way for small districts to keep from dissolving entirely by using resources at a larger school. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, it’s a complicated process and districts need to convince residents that it’s a viable option. It lists a series of options that should come before deciding to pursue moving students to another district, including consolidation.

Carman said the idea of moving high schoolers to Cloquet is “very preliminary.” Cloquet school officials said this week they would need a lot more details about any such agreement proposal, noting that space is tight at the high school already.

The Carlton board has been enthusiastic about the idea of Carlton County buying its high school property for an expansion of its jail that sits next door.

Carlton board member Ann Gustafson was the first to announce that Cloquet agreement idea had even been discussed by the board. Board member Jennifer Chmielewski said Carman and board chairwoman LaRae Lehto had been much more deliberate about the Cloquet idea at the retreat than they were at the joint meeting Monday. She said they seemed to back off on the idea in front of Wrenshall board members.

Lehto said Carlton is trying to juggle multiple options as it also faces budget woes and enrollment dips that have put its annual budgets in jeopardy. She repeated that her long-term goal is to see multiple school districts in the region working together to serve students. She said she understands that Carlton needs to deal with the short-term right now, as the county expects to have a deal on the high school by next year.

Half of the students who live in the Carlton district go to other schools, with most open-enrolling at Cloquet.

Wrenshall board members wondered how any agreement with Cloquet would help Carlton, especially at the grade school level.

“How would that sustain a K-8?” Blanchard asked. Wrenshall chairman Matt Laveau said an agreement with Cloquet could have parents forgoing any schooling in Carlton.

Keeping kids

Gustafson said she sees a consolidated district with more than 800 students as the best option. “We need you. We need this,” she said. “We don’t have the funding alone.”

“We don’t have a great plan,” Gustafson said. “That’s why people leave.”

Blanchard said Carlton board members need to decide where they want to put their efforts, and a consolidation with Wrenshall makes the most sense. “It’s never been an all-in,” she said. ‘I think this is a great option.”

Chmielewski said it’s understandable that her board could be seen as “wishy-washy” and “dragging our feet.”

“It’s probably turning people off,” she said. “I want to go home feeling this was a productive meeting.”

Talk transitioned into what could come next. Carlton board members seemed to lean into a two-site consolidation with Wrenshall.

“You’re saying you’re ready,” Carlton’s Sam Ojibway asked.

“You’re welcome with open arms,” Wrenshall’s Deb Washenesky said. She’s been doing U.S. Census work in the county and said when discussions turn to consolidation, seven out of 10 people are all for it, with a school in each town.

“People want this,” she said.

Lehto said any consolidation would require some referendum on paying for additions to the schools. She said she wants assurance that such a referendum would pass after failed votes in each district.

Wrenshall’s Jack Eudy said voters weren’t going to pass any levy until the two districts decided on consolidation, a word he noted had been missing on the two agendas created for the joint meetings. “People are holding out,” he said.

Carlton’s Ojibway agreed. “No one wants to invest in something they’re not sure of.” He said he’s sure any money asked for in a vote would pass once the districts decided to consolidate.

“Why is this decision so hard?” Eudy asked. “Why not us? What’s your why?”

Toward a vote?

Lehto said she needs another discussion among her board members on facilities but was hearing that if it considers entering formal consolidation talks, it would be for a two-site option.

Meanwhile, the boards are welcoming district residents to speak about a possible consolidation at their regular meetings Monday. There will be another joint meeting in early September.

The Wrenshall board is facing a September deadline on approving a bond to make heating and ventilation improvements at the school that were part of the referendum packages that failed three times in the past two years. There are no clear numbers on what the district may bond for or a scope of the improvements. The health and safety improvements were the bulk of the $14.4 million Wrenshall asked for in the last failed referendum.

The Carlton board passed a $5.5 million bond in 2017 without a vote to make improvements at the elementary school at South Terrace.

On Wednesday, Wrenshall board members said they could approve a bond in September but would have until the end of the year to rescind it or reduce it. That could come if the two districts decide to consolidate and state funding becomes available to make improvements on facilities to allow the pairing of the schools.

Wrenshall board members, some who met Wednesday in a committee of the whole meeting, said Monday’s meeting had a different tone than those in the past.

“They actually talked about stuff,” Fisher-Merritt said of the Carlton board seemingly softening to the consolidation idea.

“It’s like they let out a breath of air,” Eudy said.

“The meeting was different,” Wrenshall superintendent Kim Belcastro said. “I think it helped a lot.” She said it felt like the Carlton board had turned a page. “It’s really not that difficult.”