Carlton School Board lukewarm to Wrenshall appeal

The Carlton school board discussed a new letter from the Wrenshall school board regarding a merger between the districts during Monday’s committee of the whole meeting. Consolidation ideas have been on again, off again for decades, with this being the latest, this time initiated by Wrenshall. The letter was signed by all six members of the Wrenshall school board, and contains no preconditions or specifics, only a request for discussion with both school boards in attendance.

Reaction to the idea by the Carlton board was desultory. Board clerk Sue Karp was the first to express reservations.

“We’ve already put a lot of effort into our strategic plan and that should go forward,“ she said. In fact, the newly adopted strategic plan, which is based on Carlton remaining independent, was mentioned by all board members.

Board chair Julianne Emerson expressed respectful opposition.

“I am not in favor of going to consolidation talks. Like Sue [Karp] I was very much in favor of the tuition agreement with Cloquet,” she said, referring to a plan to send high school students in the Carlton District to Cloquet, which failed to pass the board in December 2021.

Emerson and others were bothered by the perceived change of direction. A solid strategic plan was already implemented and progressing but, “when the word consolidation comes up, what we find is that we start losing more students again,” she warned.

Although lauding the strategic plan, Laura Nilsen was at least ready to listen. “They’re asking for discussion,” she said. “I voted yes on our strategic plan … but there also has been a large change on the [Wrenshall] school board. There are fresh views, fresh minds, fresh people, and I think that’s worth the conversation.”

Eryn Szymczak was not opposed to discussion, but added that she needed to hear specifics.

“I don’t want it to take away from our current working plans,” she said.

Vice chair Sam Ojibway claimed he had been a big proponent of consolidation, “but I like the direction we’re going now.”

The district passed a strategic plan that takes the district through 2027, he added, “and I think that we should focus on that,” Ojibway said.

In case discussions did get started, Ojibway was adamant they should come with the condition that talks be based on a one-site plan, meaning only one campus for the new school district with K-12 all in the same place, a demand Wrenshall previously opposed.

Past superintendent John Engstrom warned at a meeting in February that having more than one site for such a small school district was inefficient, in discussions about the Carlton district.

“I could be off by a couple of percentage points, but if you’re a school in the state of Minnesota with under 600 kids, there’s about a 90- to 93-percent chance that you’re in one site. We [Carlton] are in two, and there are inefficiencies in being in two.”

Carlton projects having 295 students this year and Wrenshall 325. Currently, the two districts have three campuses between them. Most recently, the boards had discussed putting a high school in Wrenshall and an elementary school at Carlton’s South Terrace site.

No decision was made Monday about having the discussion with Wrenshall.

There are a number of other important items up for action at next week’s regular school board meeting on Monday.

The Carlton board will vote on renewal of its operating levy following a hearing at 7 p.m. Monday in the high school library. This year the legislature allowed school districts to approve existing levies on their own authority without having to go to the voters, as long as they don’t increase the levy. The regular board meeting follows. The meetings are open to the public; comments are allowed in the time allotted.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the board hopes to appoint a new member to fill the seat vacated by Tim Hagenah. According to Emerson, one former board member has been contacted and is willing, and two others have expressed interest. The appointed board member would serve until someone is elected in a special election in November.