Districts might slow their roll on consolidation

The full school boards for Carlton and Wrenshall schools will meet jointly Monday for the first time since committees from each district reviewed costs for facilities in a consolidated school district.

The cost of remodeling and building new parts of the schools in Wrenshall and South Terrace remains about $47 million. The committees met Monday to fine-tune construction details and also consider an idea presented by superintendents from both districts. Wrenshall superintendent Kim Belcastro said she and Gwen Carman wanted to provide the boards with an alternate timeline in the consolidation process to perhaps make it easier for district residents to swallow the price tag through a bonding referendum.

“It’d be really great to get the funding secured,” Belcastro said. The districts are planning on receiving state aid to help with the consolidation, as much as 50 percent of the projected $47.3 million. But the districts would not know the fate of any state bonding until the Legislative session that starts in February. An original timeline for consolidation had the district putting out a referendum that month without knowing how much the state would kick in.

The new timeline presented by the superintendents this week calls for an August referendum. Residents would then know how much they would be responsible for in shoring up the two schools and adding major spaces such as gymnasiums or an auditorium. The districts wouldn’t have to have a consolidation agreement in place, the superintendents found out from financial consultants for the district. The boards could formally approve consolidation after a successful referendum.

Voters would still know all consolidation plans before voting on facilities, the superintendents reported.

In the end, pushing the vote ahead five months would mean getting a consolidation deal done by the end of 2020. Official consolidation couldn’t start until July 2021, with construction starting just before that and likely running through the first year of combined schools.

There has been a mad scramble this late summer and fall as the boards tried to reach state deadlines on officially declaring a consolidation. Under the new timeline, the pace would ease a bit. It isn’t clear how the slate of meetings, including three public input meetings scheduled for later this month, would be altered. Wrenshall will have its regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 14. Carlton’s regular meeting is at 7 p.m. Oct. 21. Both allow for public comment. The first public discussion focused on consolidation is scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 21 in Wrenshall.

The meeting of the full boards Monday, at 6 p.m. at South Terrace in Carlton, will likely clear things up when it comes to how both districts will proceed. The Carlton board had a workshop meeting Thursday to discuss what stance it will take.

Belcastro said she hopes the boards will stay the course on a two-site consolidation effort despite the possibly eased timeline.

“We all need to be together on this,” she said. “We can’t be bouncing around.”