Surprise Carlton-Barnum consolidation talks draw fire

Three of Carlton County's rural school districts were rocked by unexpected developments Monday. Members of the Barnum and Carlton school boards learned their administrators were proposing consolidation talks, while Wrenshall officials were surprised to find their partner in ongoing consolidation talks - Carlton - seemed to be abandoning them for another district. The news sparked anger, dismay and curiosity, along with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Carlton school board member Ryan Leonzal was astonished to find out there have been consolidation talks with Barnum.

"We all got a Monday morning surprise," he said, referring to a Facebook post that broke the news of merger conversations between the Carlton and Barnum administrations. Like many officials, Leonzal thought consolidation with Wrenshall was still on the table.

Barnum board member Louie Bonneville - author of the Facebook post - was furious by what he described as the "sneaky" way the boards were kept in the dark until Monday.

Carlton board member Laura Nilsen was equally upset, after attending most of the Barnum meeting and then driving straight to Carlton for its later meeting.

"I'm not impressed. This is not transparent," Nilsen said of actions taken by Carlton superintendent Donita Stepan and school board chairwoman Julianne Emerson, who initiated the latest consolidation effort with Barnum.

Bonneville was even more direct during the 5:30 p.m. Barnum work session, calling it criminal to treat board members and "the fellow district that you're already in a co-op with" like this. He was referring to Carlton's apparent pivot to Barnum after forming a cooperative in 2022 for all sports and extracurricular activities with Wrenshall as the Raptors. The first Raptors teams combined in 2019.

"One person decided they had all the power and they were gonna be the dictator of their school district and approached us - obviously you know that's gonna fail right off the bat," Bonneville said, suggesting Barnum wait until after the Nov. 5 election for further discussion in case things change in the makeup of the school boards.

At the Carlton meeting, Nilsen said that while she sat as a surprised spectator, Barnum's board chairwoman and part-time superintendent talked about basic details of a proposed merger with Carlton, including Carlton sending about 130 secondary students (grades 7-12) to Barnum and a name for the sports teams: BC Bombers, according to superintendent Bill Peel.

"Not true," interjected Carlton's Emerson.

But Nilsen was sure she had heard correctly.

"OK, then [why was] I sitting there at a public meeting listening to it?" she said.

The temperature of the discussion rose, and when Emerson interrupted her to again disagree, Nilsen said: "Julianne, stop. It is my turn now. You let me have my three minutes."

At this, Emerson called for a 10-minute recess, "because we're not going to yell at each other," she said. Nilsen had not been yelling, although it was evident she was angry.

When Emerson called the recess, several people in the crowd of about 25 spoke up and asked the board to let Nilsen continue, some saying, "We deserve to know." Audience members then used most of the recess to hold their own discussions while board members sat in silence.

"I want to know what's best for Carlton and Wrenshall and Barnum," said Misty Hall, dressed in a Raptors sweatshirt. "If it has to be three, it has to be three. But we need to do what is good for our kids in our community, the surrounding communities, and we need people who are going to stand up and make it happen."

Another woman wanted to know what happened with Wrenshall, but the board wasn't talking. Bonneville - who also had driven to Carlton from the Barnum meeting - confirmed what the Pine Knot heard in the meeting, that the Barnum superintendent, Peel, said Carlton had agreed with the BC Bombers as a nickname.

"We worked hard for the Raptors, no offense to Barnum," Hall said, while other murmured conversations continued.

'Too good to be true'

In Barnum, board chairwoman Jessica Unkelhaeuser and superintendent Peel said they had previously met with Carlton superintendent Donita Stepan as well as Emerson and Carlton vice chairman Sam Ojibway

The Pine Knot News attended the Barnum work session, which lasted roughly 80 minutes.

"Right now, we're in the position where it's too good to be true for Barnum," Peel told his board. "We get all the [secondary] students. We get less taxes, we get more opportunity for our students. We keep our identity. We don't have to change [classifications] for sports. We get additional funding for two years to work out how we're going to use our staff and how we can maybe incentivize some people to retire early.

"We have all the power right now - why would we not say yes [to discussion]?" he said.

About a dozen people attended the Barnum meeting, including residents and Nilsen, but also Wrenshall school board chairwoman Mary Carlson and Sue Zmyslony, chairwoman of the Carlton County Board of Commissioners.

When Barnum board members asked what happened to the consolidation talks with Wrenshall, Carlson spoke up, sharing that the Wrenshall board thought it was in open, active consolidation talks with Carlton.

"I am heartbroken hearing that they have requested a name. We're the Raptors," Carlson said. "[We] just paid $36,000 last year for a scoreboard in our gym, because we are the Raptors. Wrenshall sent them a letter in June saying, 'Hey, we want to meet.' That letter was not responded to."

Carlson said she wasn't angry with Barnum in any way, and would be happy to answer any questions or share records and videos of board meetings. She was also headed to the Carlton meeting, she said, even though she has been asked to not attend meetings there.

Barnum board member Stephanie Ferrin said she wants a big-picture, long-range discussion, noting that "the devil is in the details" of the financial plan. She also said the proposal appears to be a "sign of desperation" for Carlton.

Ultimately, the Barnum school board members compiled a list of questions. Some shared reservations about dealing with Carlton, but all agreed the discussion was worth continuing in the future.

'Blindsided'

When she arrived in Carlton, Nilsen had a copy of an Oct. 3 report written by Ehlers, a public finance adviser based out of Roseville, Minnesota, from the Barnum meeting. The report outlined the funding and tax implications of consolidation between Carlton and Barnum. The report was not included in the Carlton board packet, nor was it given to board members in Carlton.

"I'm not sure who paid for it, but I'm hearing about it for the first time," Nilsen said of the report.

Carlton paid for the study, and superintendent Donita Stepan said she ordered it on her own authority. Most school districts allow superintendents to spend certain limited funds at their own discretion to prevent having to call a board meeting for small items. In a later email, Stepan said she was unsure exactly when she had ordered the study, but believed it was about a week before the published date of Oct. 3.

Emerson said Carlton has always paid for a financial report from Ehlers before any of its talks: including with Cloquet over a previously failed tuition agreement and Wrenshall for proposed consolidation.

Leonzal wanted to know why the board had not been informed of the Barnum talks at Carlton's working session Oct. 15, when Emerson suggested to board members they come Monday with new ideas to restart consolidation talks.

"Didn't even occur to me," Emerson said.

A ripple of laughter swept across the library where board meetings are held.

Nilsen was not impressed, and said the Carlton board was "blindsided" by the Barnum discussion session.

Stepan defended her actions, saying it was her job to provide the school board with information, and its job to decide what to do with that.

"I wanted to be a Raptor," she said, referring to the Carlton/Wrenshall team name. "I wanted to make this work and we have run into problem after problem after problem ever since I started. ...We are no further today in the Wrenshall discussion than we were when I first started. So my job is really just to say, are there other options out there?"

Nilsen pointed out that Carlton had sent a letter to Wrenshall in the spring suggesting the two boards meet and giving them one date, which happened to be the posted date of the annual Wrenshall school board meeting in Holyoke. Wrenshall responded that they'd like to meet but that date wouldn't work, and that was the last time either board officially communicated.

"Anybody who has a meeting knows it's not easy to arrange 12 or 14 people's schedules and we pick one date and provide that letter, then say we're at a stall and reach out to Barnum," Nilsen said. "I'm frustrated and livid with the steps and actions that are being taken. I don't disagree with the plan, but disagree with how the plan is being put in place."

Stepan said she is concerned about Carlton's finances in the next four years and feels that consolidation with Wrenshall won't be enough, noting that a Carlton/Barnum district could have closer to 1,000 students.

"Now, we have 300 students. They [Wrenshall] have 330 students ...That's a 600 student school district....[It's] not big enough. We'll be consolidating again in three years," Stepan said.

Leonzal questioned just how many students would stay in a Carlton/Barnum district.

"We aren't sending everybody at this school that way 20 minutes," he said. "There's going to be a lot of people that land at Wrenshall, there's going to be a lot of people that land at Cloquet."

Wrenshall

Several board members - Ojibway, Sue Karp and Erin Szymczak - said the fact that Wrenshall's superintendent isn't involved in consolidation discussions was an issue, because Stepan has no fellow superintendent to reach out to. The Wrenshall board has said repeatedly that it wants to take the lead in those discussions and have its part-time superintendent focus on running the district.

Emerson said the Wrenshall board had drawn a line when it said a combined board should hire administrators rather than carry any contracts over from either district.

"I said several times in many meetings that if this is where you're drawing the line in the sand then we're done now, because that's not the way consolidation is supposed to work," Emerson said.

"Almost what you're suggesting, is ... we were ... done like months ago," board member Leonzal said.

"Honestly I had hoped not," Emerson said.

Leonzal said recent Carlton board actions were throwing "curveballs" and made it look like Carlton was not sincere about consolidation, referring to the fact that Carlton ignored requests by Wrenshall to leave the administrative hires to a joint board. He cited other items, including the three-year contract for business manager Angela Lind when a two-year contract was customary, and possibly the four-day week because it would complicate a merger.

Leonzal tried to expand on his point about the business manager contract, but after more interruptions from Emerson, he stopped talking.

"I'm trying to communicate. It's getting cut off ... I think it's almost detrimental for us to continue at this point," he said.

A low point in the meeting came with an accusatory exchange between a board member and a person in the audience, which provoked Emerson to call a second recess. No one disagreed with the decision this time, but it did lead to even more animated audience discussions.

The meeting had begun on a more positive note with members of the public wanting to know more about the Wrenshall talks.

Ian Erickson is in favor of the proposed merger of Wrenshall and Carlton. "I've become, at the moment, a single-issue voter, and I have a single interest in combining these two schools," he said.

Erickson said recent board decisions were not helpful to consolidation.

"I implore you to discuss these topics and please, please explain some of the decisions that have been made and how that's working towards consolidation," he said.

Carlton student and Raptors football player Zander Hall said that the cooperative success of the sports teams carries over to the issue of bringing the Wrenshall and Carlton districts together. He said he has made friendships on the football team that are among the best he will ever have.

"Carlton and Wrenshall students get along really well ... that's a good building block toward that consolidation goal that we should be actively working toward," Hall said.

As the meeting became more tense, unruly comments were heard expressing frustration at the perceived lack of progress on Wrenshall consolidation.

After the second recess, the board took a few parting shots at the issue and then moved on to other school business as most of the audience drifted away.

In the end, the board approved two resolutions on consolidation: More information on a Barnum consolidation was requested and further consolidation discussions were tabled until the next meeting.

The next Carlton work session is set for 7 p.m. Nov. 12 in the district board room. The next regular school board meeting starts at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 in the high school library.

Barnum met Tuesday for its regular monthly meeting, but consolidation with Carlton was not on the agenda. The next monthly meeting in Barnum is 6:30 p.m. Nov. 26. All meetings are open to the public.