Carlton digging deeper into school options

Carlton school board members took another step toward consolidating with Wrenshall last week by forming a committee to work on a two-site solution, but the district is also working to come up with costs for other possible future configurations that don’t include consolidation with Wrenshall.

On Wednesday, Carlton superintendent Gwen Carman confirmed that three representatives each from the Carlton and Wrenshall school boards will meet Sept. 9 for a working session, to explore exactly what a two-site consolidated school district will look like.

The two committees will be joined by the school superintendents and a representative from Architectural Resources Inc. (ARI), an architectural and engineering firm that has worked with both school districts in the past.

Several of the Carlton school board members volunteered to serve on the committee, but the board ultimately narrowed the number to three: Sam Ojibway, Ann Gustafson and Tim Hagenah, who said he had to serve, as he has the most background knowledge.

“I can keep an open mind,” he insisted, when fellow board member Jenn Chmielewski also wanted to serve on the committee; she ultimately agreed to not argue the appointments.

Any school board committee meeting is open to the public, but the meetings are not required to be open to any kind of public discussion.

Exploring options

In her report to the board Aug. 19, Carman suggested the board get construction cost estimates for a two-site configuration with Wrenshall (to be determined by the committees), with grades 6-12 in Wrenshall and preK-5 at South Terrace Elementary. This would allow for the sale of the combined Carlton high school/middle school building to Carlton County.

Three other options (which don’t require consolidation) on the list for updated cost estimates included the following:

• Adding on to South Terrace Elementary School, to also serve grades 6-8, a solution that would not include consolidation with Wrenshall but would allow for the sale of the high school building. Under this configuration, the district would not serve high school students, just preK-8.

• Building/renovating at South Terrace to serve preK-12 students and selling the high school building to the county.

• Renovating the existing high school building to address current air quality and fire suppression needs, roof repairs, upgrades to certain classrooms, replacement of doors, windows, student lockers, and a second gym with fully refurbished locker rooms and bathrooms.

To get the updated cost estimates, the district will work with a representative from ARI, which should have much of the information required to make cost estimates already.

The options as presented by Carman caused some confusion among board members. Gustafson pointed out that the board previously agreed that it would not want to pursue renovating the current high school/middle school and the public rejected a K-12 school at South Terrace in the last referendum. She also said it was risky to count on any solution with Cloquet, because the larger school hasn’t promised anything, that officials just said they were willing to talk about ways it could help.

Carman said she thinks the public needs to see the costs associated with each option, so they can understand what each would mean in terms of finances as well as academic impacts.

“There isn’t any option that would be widely supported by the community; if there were, we would have already done it,” Carman said.

Once the numbers and facility details are figured out — something Carman estimated would probably take until October — the Carlton district would hold three public meetings in Carlton, Sawyer and an optional all-staff meeting in late October or early November.

The agenda for each meeting would include information on the current status of the district in terms of enrollment, budget, fund balance, discussion with other school districts and vision statements. There would also be an opportunity for discussion by tables, an open mic time to share each table’s discussion highlights, and an exit survey on which options people support and any other comments.

In November, the board would discuss public input and their own thoughts, so they could determine next steps, including the sale of the high school building (which the county requested to know by Dec. 19) and the results of work with Wrenshall on consolidation and Cloquet on other options, including sending Carlton high school students to Cloquet through a tuition agreement.

“Anyone who wants to go to Cloquet has already left,” board member Jenn Chmielewski said, referring to the fact that half of the students who live in the Carlton district go to other schools, with most open-enrolling at Cloquet. “The people who are still here like the option of a smaller school.”

If the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts decide to pursue consolidation with a two-site solution as required by Wrenshall, Carman said the districts would have to pass a resolution to call for an election 74 days before the vote, which is roughly Nov. 29 for a Feb. 11 vote and Jan. 30 for an April 14 vote.

If a two-site consolidation goes to a public vote, Carman said the vote would also include bonding money for improvements to the school.

Wrenshall looks at bond

In the meantime, the Wrenshall board is facing a September deadline for 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.

Earlier this month, 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.

In other matters at the Aug. 19 meeting, Carlton school board members took the following actions:

• Acknowledged school district business manager Renee Eiffler, who is retiring effective Sept. 5 and approved hiring Norman Nelis as the new business manager.

• Approved the transfer of $100,000 from the committed fund balance (for transportation) to the unassigned fund balance for the previous school year (2018-19) to keep the district fund balance within recommended guidelines, Eiffler said.

Pine Knot News reporter Mike Creger contributed to this story.