Enrollment brings mixed news in Carlton and Wrenshall

The first returns on the popularity of the new four-day week at Carlton schools showed only a slight dip in enrollment.

It amounted to good news for a district entering a new era by not having classes on Fridays.

Early childhood to 12th grade saw the student count reach 304, according to superintendent Donita Stepan, compared to 317 on a report generated by the school in March.

“We lost some, we gained some,” Stepan said. “We budgeted for 295 and are at 304. We are optimistic that the numbers will keep rising as the year progresses.”

Nearby Wrenshall reported 343 students K-12 to start the new year — 8 percent above the figure the board budgeted for earlier this year of 315.

“Now it is our job and staff’s job to maintain that quality,” Wrenshall board chair Mary Carlson said during Monday’s board meeting. “The goal is to end in June with 343. We’re going to continue to track this … Overall, this is just fantastic news.”

The Carlton school board voted to have classes only four days a week in April — a move Stepan has described as aimed at easing the burden on students’ mental health as well as setting Carlton apart in an era of school choice.

A cratering of enrollment would have put a burden on the district’s finances, since state aid is distributed on a per-student basis. But the district has invested in marketing its four-day week, with a billboard on Interstate 35, and Stepan appearing last month on Minnesota Public Radio to tout the change.

“We really wanted to be the leader in educational transformation,” Stepan told MPR host Cathy Wurzer, adding that a flexible schedule allowed Carlton to do that. Stepan said she expects other districts to follow in using a four-day model.

“We believe instruction will be that much better Monday through Thursday,” Stepan told MPR, adding that she expected students to bring more focus to the classroom. Teachers will continue to work on Fridays, she said, many working on lesson plans for the days and weeks ahead. Teachers would also be available to meet with students as needed on Fridays.

At an early August retreat, board members expressed concern about the possibility of a lower enrollment and its impacts on the budget.

“I’ve had anywhere from 10 to 15 families tell me that they’re leaving, and they’re not particularly ones that I would have assumed [would] go,” board member Ryan Leonzal said at the time. “I get concerned if that transfer [out] number far exceeds the transfer in number … all of a sudden, we're in a tough spot, and we didn’t have a lot of wiggle room coming into that decision.”

In response, Stepan reassured the board.

“When we started this, we knew that there would be some kids and some families that we might lose in the hopes that we would gain some back,” she said during the retreat.

At its regular meeting in June, the Carlton school board approved a budget for the 2024-25 school year that showed a deficit of $102,380, with $6.2 million in estimated revenues and $6.3 million in estimated expenses. Any state aid for students over the budgeted for 295 will help close the gap on the projected deficit.

The Carlton and Wrenshall districts share extracurricular activities as the Raptors, and are early in a consolidation process that would merge the districts into one. Wrenshall officials have touted their district as a harbor for students and families who wanted to continue going to school five days a week.

The two districts did not meet throughout the summer on consolidation, in what has been described as a cooling off period. Sources have said the goal was to return to the meeting room this fall. The districts will converge for a Raptors cooperative meeting at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 18 in the Wrenshall library.

The Carlton school board canceled a planned work session this week, and meets at 7 p.m. Monday for its monthly business meeting in the high school library.