Our View: Carlton, Wrenshall can't rest on survey

By this time next week, residents in the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts should have a pretty good idea on where their neighbors stand on the issue of consolidating the districts. The schools boards for each will meet jointly in a special 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at South Terrace to discuss the most recent survey of stakeholders.

Early indications are that there was a high return on the surveys. The group that is working with the districts says any return rate above 18 percent is good. Let’s hope we have a far higher response.

This is too important an issue to leave anyone in doubt about moving forward.

Should the survey results show it, we fully support the districts moving to get state funding to help taxpayers with what could be a $40 million bill after fixing up campuses to support the influx of students.

That is a steep price to pay. But if you consider the alternatives, well, there really aren’t any. Wrenshall schools would likely survive into the near future, but struggle each year to hang onto students from outside the district to make budgets work. Carlton is really in a bind. Its audit last fall suggested the school needed to address its budget shortfalls immediately, meaning it needs to consolidate, make big cuts or release students to other districts.

The enrollment roller coasters, and funding nadirs, are not healthful. The decades-long dance with consolidation hasn’t been good for community spirit either.

As the students on teams that have paired up in fall sports have told the adults in the districts time and again, it’s time to bury old animosities and feelings that one community will win and one will lose in a consolidation.

Everybody will win when students flood into a district that has the means to teach students at the highest level, competing with Esko and Cloquet.

Of course, if the survey results bear out a strong distaste for consolidation, the school boards have no choice but to drop the issue altogether. What that would mean as far as the next steps — it’s kind of scary to think about. It seems that Carlton will need a new high school. And Wrenshall will still need to make fixes to its aging school buildings and amenities.

Yay or nay, any survey results will require expert guardianship from the school boards and input from taxpayers. There is no time for celebrating anything here. It’s time to make sure Carlton and Wrenshall can provide their students the best-possible education.

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Mail: Pine Knot News Editor, 122 Avenue C,

Cloquet MN 55720