Carlton residents push for K-12 school

Students and community members turned out for Monday’s Carlton School Board meeting, and most of them had the future of the high school on their mind.

Out of nearly 20 people there, seven spoke, all of them against the idea of a tuition agreement with the Cloquet school district. Such an agreement would guarantee that Carlton students in grades 9-12 could enroll in the larger district — at a cost to the Carlton district — if and when Carlton closes its high school.

The current long-range plan for Carlton comes after years of debate considering consolidation with Wrenshall along with other possibilities in an effort to winnow options as the district continues to struggle with student numbers. In particular, the district can’t make the budget numbers work with its small high school class sizes. After voting “no” 5-1 to consolidation with Wrenshall earlier this year, the board favored two options: either shoring up the South Terrace elementary to include three more grades, or creating an all-grades school at the site, something that hasn’t been seriously considered recently based on cost and the community’s overwhelming rejection of the last K-12 referendum.

Teacher Ryan Schmidt urged the board to reject the K-8 plan and continue educating kids through high school. “Our students here go out into the world and they do great things,” he said.

Schmidt, a former Carlton school board member, asked the board to fix up the high school.

“We don’t need new and fancy and perfect to do what we need to do here, we just need functional and safe,” he said. “And then these families at the elementary school can see … a long-term plan.”

Several students also spoke, giving first names only.

If Carlton closes its high school, Kayla said she would not go to Cloquet because it’s too big. “I love it here. I have a really good education and I love having a small school.”

Webster said he has 24 kids in his class. “I know there’s some people that won’t graduate if they don’t graduate from here,” he said.

He went on to point out the flaws in the promises of “more opportunities” in Cloquet, where class sizes range between 175 to more than 200.

“There might be more classes, better sports teams, but there are tryouts there. The people here won’t make it into sports or student council even. The 20-some kids in our grade won’t be competing with all the kids in their grade.”

Carlton mayor Mike Soderstrom waded into the discussion, asserting that Carlton kids who want to attend high school in Cloquet are already there. He likened paying increased taxes to making a car payment: “Where do you want the car parked? In our garage or in Cloquet’s garage?” he said. “I think we need to talk about adding onto South Terrace.”

Both Schmidt and Sally DeVriendt told board members they had supported the idea of consolidation with Wrenshall, but didn’t like the tuition agreement.

Later in the meeting, superintendent John Engstrom addressed the reasons behind the Carlton board’s pursuit of the tuition agreement idea: It’s not because they want to shut down the high school, he said, and it’s not because they don’t think Carlton kids need a better education.

It’s the budget. Carlton has been operating at an annual deficit of nearly $1 million dollars a year, he said.

“It takes us about 20 or 21 kids per section to operate that section, essentially even,” Engstrom said. If they have 34 or 38 kids in a grade, they won’t squeeze them all into one class, they will put them in two sections and operate at a loss.

That would be OK for one grade, he said. “Our situation is such that we’re doing that at almost every grade level. And so $100,000 at one grade level becomes $150,000 at another grade level, it adds up.”

For now the district is not in the red, thanks to a fund balance that was built up after the Carlton School district climbed out of statutory operating deficit more than 10 years ago.

Regarding the idea of a referendum, Engstrom said the Minnesota Department of Education had made it “very clear” to him that a district Carlton’s size trying to go out for a $40 million referendum (a K-12 estimate) would not even make it out of committee at MDE to even be given to the voters.

That’s one of the reasons Carlton board members are not currently pushing for a referendum anytime soon.

“It has nothing to do with not wanting to continue with a K-12 personally, but that’s why it’s our duty to look around and say: is there another way? That’s where the K-8 and tuition agreement come in. We wouldn’t be talking about it if we weren’t facing an annual million-dollar deficit.”

No board members commented on the community questions and superintendent’s explanation. Chair Julianne Emerson encouraged community members to continue to reach out with comments and ideas.

In other matters Monday,

the board approved the maximum levy on a preliminary basis and set the Truth and Taxation hearing for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13.

The board also ccepted the resignation of Dean of Students / Athletic Director Andrew Schmitz effective Aug. 25. Engstrom later said Schmitz took a position at Denfeld High School in Duluth. He said Schmitz did a great job in Carlton. They currently have a potential internal candidate, he said.