Cloquet schools: online meeting access continued

Cloquet school board members voted unanimously Monday to continue livestreaming meetings on the district YouTube page for citizens to watch during or between meetings.

Superintendent Michael Cary said he has objected “a little bit” to livestreaming in the past, because he liked the board meetings to be more participatory. Not any more.

“I've gotten to a point where I feel if people have something they really want to say directly to the board they do show up,” he said. “And so I have heard enough positive things from community members about being able to tune in and listen and watch when they aren't able to be here.”

Bill Bauer, who records and posts the meetings for the district’s information technology department, shared viewer numbers with the board. The highest views this school year came on Dec. 13, when there were 286 total views. Recent meetings have seen 119, 89 and 55 total views.

With the exception of disputes over hockey coaching positions, Cloquet board meetings rarely see more than a dozen people in the audience, and often only one or two.

Board member Ken Scarbrough said he thinks it’s important. “We don’t know when issues are going to arise. It could be Covid, it could be something else. If something else arises, I think it’s nice to let the public have access to the meeting.”

In other matters Monday:

-Interim boys soccer coach John Sundquist was hired as head coach. Sundquist led the boys to a Section 7AA championship last year and their first state tournament appearance in 10 years.

-Hired Rhonda Card to teach high school choir and two full-time social workers at the high school: Katie Danielson and Nicole DeCoteau Romero.