Cloquet School Board has empty seat for now

Cloquet School Board members voted Monday against appointing a temporary replacement for Ken Scarbrough, who moved with his wife to North Dakota with less than three months left of his school board term.

Superintendent Michael Cary said there was a former board member willing to serve the remainder of the term. He also explained there is a 30-day wait period for public comment, so even if the board had appointed a temporary member on Monday, they couldn’t be seated until Nov. 13, after the board’s first meeting that month.

“So you would have somebody who could serve for the second November Board meeting and the first (only) December board meeting,” Cary said.

By voting not to appoint, the board will instead function as a five-member board through December. The biggest possible issue with that would be avoiding a majority — now three board members instead of four — gathering together. That will mostly mean avoiding any three-person committee meetings for now, Cary explained. If a subcommittee meeting were scheduled, a board member would “have to volunteer not to show up,” he said.

It’s complicated

There are three Cloquet School Board seats up for election in November, but only two people filed to run: incumbent board member Melissa Juntunen and LeAnn M. Butler. Butler is a nurse practitioner at the Min No Aya Win clinic. She is also in the Minnesota Air National Guard 148th Fighter Wing on a part-time basis, but she is retiring from military service in 2025. She has four children in the Cloquet School District, ages 9, 11, 14 and 16. She said Cloquet is a great school district.

“It’s really important to me to represent the students and parents and make sure their voices are heard,” she said. “I want a safe environment where our students can thrive.”

Nicole Diver is running a write-in campaign for the Cloquet School Board. That mean’s Juntunen and Butler’s names will be listed on the ballot, but voters will need to remember how to spell “Nicole Diver” and write it in the space provided on the ballot.

Born and raised here, Diver is an enrolled Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa member. She and her husband, Keith “Bud” Diver, Jr., have children in elementary school, middle school and high school in Cloquet, plus a 3-year-old and a daughter who is 22. A social worker by training, she currently works in public health on the reservation as a health educator.

“Native American children make up 18 percent of the Cloquet School District,” Diver told the Pine Knot previously. “My goal is to bring a unique insight to help broaden the scope and perspective of the district.”

The winners will take office in January, but there is a potential wrinkle even then: Because incumbent board member Sarah Plante-Buhs is running for Carlton County Commissioner in District 1, she must resign her school board seat if she wins the county race.

In that case, the board could choose to appoint someone to serve the remaining two years of her term or hold a special election for a two-year replacement.

Other matters

Cloquet School Board members also voted to close open enrollment for all grades on Monday. Families who live here or move into the school district can still enroll children, but families who live outside the district could apply by Jan. 15 for open enrollment in the 2025-26 school year and be automatically accepted.

“If students enroll with us in advance of the school year, we always take them,” Cary said, adding that they did turn away a fourth grade family because of section sizes.

Cary said the board also can choose to approve a non-resident tuition agreement for one year for a student who would then fill out an open enrollment application for the following year.

Cary said closing open enrollment helps stabilize classrooms.