Cloquet school district seeks input to plan for the future

Cloquet school district officials want you. Or rather, they want your opinion and input on a new strategic plan for the school district, in exchange for a light dinner and the promise of continuing to educate our young people.

Superintendent Michael Cary said the district will be working with community members in a strategic planning session Monday, Nov. 4, with a light dinner scheduled for 5 p.m. and the planning session for 6 p.m. in the Cloquet High School cafeteria. Free childcare is available. All dinner attendees must RSVP by Oct. 28 to [email protected] or by calling 218-879-6721, ext. 6204.

Those who can’t make it are invited to fill out the community survey at http://www.isd94.org; just click on the “read more” link that is part of the Cloquet Public Schools Strategic Planning header on the home page.

Board members also approved hiring Architectural Resources Inc. (ARI) to do a facilities condition assessment for approximately $30,000.

“They are offering to do a deep look at our upcoming long-term maintenance to make sure we are protecting the public’s investments,” Cary said, estimating that the district has as much as $100 million in buildings.

Cary also told the board that the district has negotiated replacement snow days with district staff.

Earlier this fall, Cary noted that the school district discovered after last year’s many cancellations that every school district in Minnesota is required to have at least 165 days of instruction for students. Cloquet Public Schools provides 167 days of instruction per year for students.

While Cloquet meets the state requirement, days school is closed for weather do not count as instructional days. Therefore, if more than two days of school per year are missed due to weather, those days need to be made up.

For the 2019-2020 school year, the first two days of school closed for emergency (including winter weather) will not be made up. Should the district need to make up days, the following days will be used as school days with students present: March 6, and June 1-4 as needed.

In future years, the district will designate potential make-up days on the annual school calendar, Cary said.

In other matters Monday, board members:

-Accepted the resignation of head high school baseball coach Rick Norrgard, who resigned after eight enjoyable seasons, he said.

-Approved winter coaching contracts, with no head-coaching changes from last year. For girls hockey, Courtney Josephson and Dave Esse will split the varsity assistant and JV coach position. Courtney Olin is the head coach again.