Cloquet, Carlton move closer on agreement

The terms of a tuition agreement that could bring Carlton students to Cloquet High School as soon as the next school year are mostly finished.

Committee members representing both the Cloquet and Carlton school boards met for a third time Monday, this time for a tour of Cloquet High School and to put the finishing touches on the legal document that a shared attorney has drafted. Carlton has already scheduled a public meeting on the proposal for 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13. Cloquet committee members said they’re ready to discuss it with their board.

Everything seemed copacetic as the group walked through the school, visiting almost everything from the new $1.7 million arts, career and technical education center — still waiting for final parts — to classrooms, gymnasiums and the recently renovated theater. Things are good between the two boards, who have agreed on nearly everything and seem to be working well together.

However, not everyone is happy in Carlton. Superintendent John Engstrom said a group of juniors attend and speak at nearly every board meeting, desperate to keep the small high school open at least one more year. Other community members have also spoken against the idea of closing the high school, even with an agreement in place that would guarantee any Carlton student a spot at the larger school.

Earlier this year, Engstrom addressed the reasons the Carlton district is pursuing the tuition agreement after a number of residents and students asked the board to stick with the K-12 model. 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 a year, he said.

The audit approved by the Carlton board at its Monday meeting shows that Carlton can’t continue in its current spending patterns, Engstrom told the Pine Knot News, adding that Carlton’s reserves dropped below the level considered ideal by the board. “The message is we need to do something, and that’s what we’re doing here,” he said.

The tuition agreement outlines what state funding would be paid to Cloquet schools by the Carlton district. Rather than giving dollar figures, because those change every year, the contract listed aid categories, including basic, gifted and talented, equity, operating capital, local optional revenue and long-term facility maintenance. In addition to the state funds, the tuition agreement will include an additional $800-per-pupil unit, which is roughly the amount of additional money per student currently provided by the operating levy that was last approved by Carlton taxpayers in 2016. Transportation funds and duties would remain with Carlton.

Under the terms of the draft agreement, if Carlton voters don’t renew the operating levy in 2023 or 2024, Carlton would have the option of terminating the agreement the year the operating levy sunsets, if the district is unable to continue to make the additional $800 payments.

If that happens, the contract now states that Carlton will continue making those $800 payments for every student already attending Cloquet until they graduate, through June 2028.

Cloquet board member and retired superintendent Ken Scarbrough worried about the burden on Carlton if that happens.

Engstrom, agreed, noting that the $800 payment has been part of the framework of the agreement since discussions began. He’s optimistic that the operating levy will pass for the third time.

CHS principal Steve Battaglia answered a number of questions that Engstrom passed on from concerned Carlton citizens. One worried that the paperwork shows lots of opportunities, but kids might not be able to get into certain classes or activities.

“The kids get about 95 percent of what they register for,” Battaglia said. Overall class sizes will remain very similar to what they are now, he said, because CHS will hire more teachers.

A handout profiled the school, its students and the community makeup as well as course and extracurricular offerings, including 76 credits of College in the Schools courses.

Another concern has been what will happen to students who open-enroll into Carlton. Cloquet has agreed to take any students enrolled at Carlton High School when the agreement is approved, as well as future students who open-enroll into Carlton by the fifth grade.

If the two boards choose to proceed, they hope to have the agreement signed by mid-January at the latest, to help with planning and enrollment for the next school year. Registration for classes starts in late January and would likely continue into the second week of February for Carlton.

The two committees will meet again at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 29.