Districts continue delicate dance

Call them hiccups or hurdles, the consolidation efforts between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts were bound to encounter them. But so soon in the process?

A third meeting of the shared consolidation committee yielded an impasse on Tuesday, when the Wrenshall contingent pressed contract issues, while the Carlton contingent balked.

"If that is where the line is drawn," Carlton board chair Julianne Emerson said, alluding to potential for a deal-breaker, "we can all have a really free summer."

Emerson was joined by Carlton superintendent Donita Stepan at the table along with Wrenshall board chair Mary Carlson and vice chair Eric Ankrum.

"We don't want to end up in contracts," Ankrum told the Pine Knot after the meeting.

Until now, the boards had been working toward consolidation by July 2025, in advance of the 2025-26 school year.

But details shared between the districts revealed that Stepan is signed on as superintendent at Carlton through the 2025-26 school year. At present there are no other long-term contracts between the districts, but that has potential to change as personnel voids are filled and contracts extended.

Stepan spoke with the paper after Tuesday's hourlong meeting, which was contentious at times.

"I want to make clear this is not about me," Stepan said. "This is absolutely not about me. My concern is we've only talked about those contracts - 80 percent of what we've talked about is the contracts. I don't feel we're at a spot right now where we should be worried about contracts."

Stepan's contract pays her $134,859 as superintendent this school year, $137,556 next year and $140,307 in 2025-26 - the supposed first year of a consolidated district.

She has argued in meetings to allow her to lead the first year of consolidation, then let the new school board, made up of Carlton and Wrenshall electees, to choose where to go from there.

"I just want them to think about how chaotic it would be if, on July 1, 2025 ... on the first day of consolidation of a brand-new district, it could have a new superintendent, a new business manager, a new buildings and grounds guy, a new food service director, a new principal. That sounds chaotic," Stepan said.

Conversely, Wrenshall has argued for a new board to face a clean sheet when it comes to hiring administrators and department leaders. A handout titled, "Wrenshall's additional terms for consolidation," reads that one condition of consolidation is that "the new joint board will be empowered to make hiring decisions. This means that no individual contracts can extend beyond the proposed consolidation date."

In response to that line, Emerson said, "When we draw lines right now, we derail this - we run the risk of derailing this."

During one exchange between board chairs, Carlson said, "Let's just be very careful," when it comes to contracts. After Emerson appeared to snicker, Carlson said, "Please don't laugh at that."

The meeting concluded with the sides deciding on a cooling off period. The committee won't meet again until 5 p.m. April 24 in Carlton. Joint sessions between the full boards have been put on hold until the committee can come closer together on details.

It's unclear how Wrenshall plans to reconcile Stepan's contract extending beyond the proposed consolidation date, other than Wrenshall board members having previously said a consolidation date could come further into the future, in 2026-27, for instance.

The meeting followed friction between chairs Emerson and Carlson via email. A public data request by the Pine Knot revealed the contents of the emails, showcasing tense exchanges over the sharing of information such as administrative contracts as well as details such as Carlton's student population.

"I really don't want to have to start making public data requests from our closest partner," Carlson wrote in a Feb. 26 email to Stepan, Emerson and Carlton vice chair Sam Ojibway, who was not present Tuesday.

Emerson responded saying, "sharing these things in this very premature stage of negotiation would be counterproductive to the process."

In another email, Emerson, an attorney, chided Carlson for conducting business via email.

Carlson, an event/wedding planner, countered by noting she made multiple requests to no avail to get what was actually public information from Carlton.

Eventually, the materials were shared following a committee meeting March 4, which seemed to clear the air.

In another email, Carlson expressed disappointment for Carlton pulling out of a joint board session.

"(T)he public deserves to hear from our boards in a joint session, so I'm disappointed ..." she wrote.

Emerson replied: "I would greatly appreciate if you would refrain from adversarial and misleading language."

During the March 4 committee meeting, members agreed to use an outside consultant to help diffuse tension and marshal the consolidation process. No movement was made on that front on Tuesday, as it did not come up.

The latest committee session ended with participants agreeing to keep business discussions out of email, and Emerson saying, "In person, we seem to do better."

Both boards will meet again separately prior to the next consolidation committee meeting. The Wrenshall contingent agreed to ask its board about the prospect of Stepan being a one-year superintendent of a consolidated district. Carlson wasn't optimistic about how it would be received.

"We've already asked them twice," she said.

In other news:

• The boards are in agreement on a new cooperative contract regarding extracurricular activities. The new contract would eliminate each school having its own athletic director and reduce that to one person overseeing the entire extracurricular cooperative.

• The boards are also in agreement on sharing certain classes, allowing Wrenshall students to take College in the Schools courses at Carlton, and Carlton students to take part in Wrenshall electives. Stepan noted after the meeting how simple that would be if she were to be a shared superintendent. As it is, Wrenshall is in the process of hiring a superintendent for the 2024-25 school year, since interim superintendent Jeff Pesta is done at the end of June. "If I was a shared superintendent I could make that happen and it could be done tomorrow," Stepan said. "But I'm not, and they don't want that. It's making this that much more difficult."