Early ed survives district debate

Presented with a plan to cut a program that's been serving kindergarten-age children locally for decades, the Cloquet school board balked Monday.

The board denied a recommendation to close the Early 5's wrap-around care program, but not before hearing from a host of mothers and past users of the program.

"It's frustrating and upsetting to worry about other kids falling through the cracks," said Emily Dunaisky, whose son was in Early 5's.

Carly Baker said her husband is 37 years old and "he did Early 5's" in the district.

"We have three daughters ... we did Early 5's with our middle daughter and I wish we had done it with our oldest," Baker said. "It has been so beneficial to our 9-year-old."

Early 5's allows children with summer birthdays preceding the Sept. 1 cutoff to start kindergarten to enter into an alternative learning arena. It gives them a year to catch up socially and emotionally, parents said, before joining kindergarten proper as one of the older students in class.

"I happen to work in Early 5's and half-a-day of kindergarten," said Lori Strand, who also had two of her own children utilize the program. "I get the perspective of seeing Early 5's kids from last year now in kindergarten and seeing their growth. ... As elected officials I would hope you pay attention to what Cloquet wants."

The board decided unanimously to preserve Early 5's on a half-time basis to serve the needs of those enrolled for the start of the 2023-24 school year.

The board had been "caught off guard" by the issue, said board chair Nate Sandman.

"We fielded a lot of questions, a lot of phone calls from the community," he said.

Early 5's became an issue earlier this month when a letter recommending the cut from Churchill Elementary School principal David Wangen to superintendent Michael Cary began to circulate. Parents had already enrolled their children in the program during Kindergarten Roundup.

"There's options for it to come out in the public, other than for it to be eliminated," board member David Battaglia said, arguing to preserve the program because it's a longtime, attractive option for families that surrounding districts don't offer.

Churchill hosts the Early 5's program in the district, but only nine children had been registered for 2023-24 - not enough to sustain the costs, which include the use of a kindergarten-level teacher.

Wangen explained the reasoning behind the letter.

"Two years ago it was 17 students ... this current year we have 23; normally the number is in the mid- to high 20s, close to 30," he said.

The numbers of children from infancy to age 4 are declining locally too, officials said, from peaks of 1,000 down into the 700s - meaning users of early childhood educational opportunities are declining too.

"If the board wants to subsidize that program, because essentially that's what you're doing at these enrollment numbers, you can choose to subsidize the program and keep it around," Cary said.

Special education teacher salvaged

Also Monday, the school board heard recommended teacher reductions totaling $415,000 for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. After considerable discussion as part of a three-hour combined work session and board meeting, the board approved $300,000 worth of cuts.

It voted to preserve a high school special education position, leaving the program with two teachers to go with a host of paraprofessionals, making for nine adults working with the 11 students.

Principal Steve Battaglia described the students as all severely to profoundly disabled, requiring things like toileting and feeding tubes in addition to instruction.

"We're picking from a menu of things that are all terrible," Battaglia said about budget cuts.

The district bolstered some teaching positions in anticipation of an enrollment surge that didn't materialize, Cary said, so some of those positions, including a half-time high school science teacher, were among those the district eliminated.

In refusing to adopt all recommended cuts, David Battaglia argued for taking from the district's $5.3 million unassigned fund balance, saying the rainy day funds are rarely utilized.

"Every time there's budget cuts it always comes from the kids and the teachers," board member Gary "Hawk" Huard said. "It just gets tiresome."

Teachers and staff salaries make up the largest expenses in any district, and Cary described how Cloquet Public Schools runs an administration that's leaner than most.