Carlton school leaders banking on interest in four-day week

An upbeat Carlton schools superintendent Donita Stepan believes the school district's switch to a four-day school week in September will trigger an uptick in enrollments.

Nothing definite in terms of filed paperwork, "But we've done several tours," she said in an interview Tuesday. "We've probably got at least eight or nine new kids interested in coming so far."

Regarding families possibly leaving over the same issue, Stepan indicated she had not seen any paperwork for kids leaving the district, but she has heard rumors.

She also thought that because of the time delay in getting anything in writing, it might be too early to draw conclusions.

"What I'm hopeful for is that people just give it a chance," she said.

She has seen research showing people who were apprehensive at first later coming around to prefer the four-day week, she said.

A billboard on Interstate 35 advertising the new schedule was moved from its location south of the Carlton exit to 3 miles north of Moose Lake on the northbound side. Although she was OK with moving the advertising, Stepan called the new location unacceptable.

It was, she said, "in a spot where you can't see it. It's a lot of money to pay for a billboard you can't see."

The sign company has agreed to move the ad to someplace farther south and still visible from the northbound lane.

In other district news, consolidation with Wrenshall is still stalled. At Monday's school board meeting, chairwoman Julianne Emerson paused only briefly on that item and reported there was nothing new since June.

Stepan, absent from the meeting, commented the following day. "We're definitely at an impasse right now," she said, predicting another conversation in September. "But we're no further today than we were two months ago."

Both Emerson and Stepan denied that the issue was dead.

"Everybody still wants the same thing," Stepan said. "We just have to figure out how to come together and make it happen."

"I don't think it's ever dead," Emerson said after the meeting. She indicated that they might have to wait for circumstances to change.

Stepan announced in her written report at Monday's meeting the renovation estimate at the high school exceeded the $80,000 approved by the board last month. The changes would have been paid for with rent from Northern Lights Academy to use the space. Now that deal is on hold. The elevated rent associated with the plan is presumably held up as well. Northern Lights is an area special education cooperative that rents classroom space from Carlton.

Alternatives are being sought.

"I will be working with ICS [a Minneapolis based building consultant] to get a second opinion," Stepan wrote. On Tuesday, she indicated that items required with new construction, such as sprinkler systems, drove costs too high.

"NLA doesn't own that building. ... So, they're rethinking putting that kind of money into a building they don't own," Stepan said.

She also said that a different area in the secondary school might work and is being considered.

For several years now, the academy has been searching for a facility large enough to house all of its students in one place, with room to grow, with no luck.