Carlton responds to Wrenshall

At their working session Monday night, the Carlton school board acknowledged and formed a response to a letter from Wrenshall asking for continued discussion of a possible merger.

The letter from Wrenshall, dated Nov. 12, had only one sentence which contained 15 words: “We are ready to meet to discuss consolidation between Wrenshall and Carlton when you are.” It was signed by all six members of the Wrenshall school board.

Board member Sue Karp, who has two years left to go on her term, thought the superintendents needed to be involved in any discussions, remembering that Wrenshall’s superintendent, Jeff Pesta, has indicated in the past that consolidation was not his area of responsibility, leaving it up to school board members to navigate.

Carlton board chairwoman Julianne Emerson thought the Carlton board should respond in some way. “This letter is dated in November, so I wouldn’t want it to be perceived that we are just simply ignoring their request,” she said.

Through consensus, and not by an actual vote, superintendent Donita Stepan was asked to communicate with Wrenshall, acknowledging the letter and expressing Carlton’s desire to have the matter taken up by the newly elected boards of Carlton and Wrenshall in January.

In other matters, Stepan drew the board’s attention to her consolidation analysis, a document she originally drafted in November which compared costs and benefits between a merger with either Wrenshall or Barnum. It has since had more than one update. The latest warned about the ongoing need to fund the solar project on South Terrace Elementary.

“If South Terrace were to dissolve or the building were no longer used, the district would still be responsible for the remaining payments … but would not benefit from the energy savings unless the item was relocated and operational elsewhere,” the analysis said. This would represent a problem with any consolidation if South Terrace had to close.

Most discussions with Wrenshall had South Terrace remaining open and serving the combined school district. In a later interview, Stepan expressed the expectation that South Terrace would also remain open with a Barnum merger. She added the caveat about the solar system in case a Wrenshall-Carlton district was unable to thrive and needed to find another district with which to combine.

Evaluation

For the last portion of the meeting, the board discussed the upcoming evaluation of superintendent Stepan. Some school boards regularly hold a formal evaluation of their superintendents, and some never do. Cloquet, for instance, has held two evaluations per year for its superintendent ever since current superintendent Michael Cary took the helm.

Carlton has had a mixed record. According to Emerson, the last evaluation of a superintendent was during Gwen Carman’s tenure; her contract ended in 2020. Superintendent John Engstrom did not have one, although he served three years. “You generally don’t really do evaluations on interim superintendents … we … didn’t know if he was going to be here from year to year,” Emerson said.

Stepan provided a paper with proposed goals on which she could be evaluated, including governance, school district finances, and communication. Emerson asked board members to look these over and provide any changes they would like to see.

By consensus, the board indicated an evaluation should take place at the next regular board meeting on Monday, Dec. 16. The date was chosen because Stepan has been in the superintendent role for more than a year and a new board would not be qualified to evaluate for several months.

By state law, employee evaluations in school districts are in closed session unless the employee being evaluated asks to have it open.

The board will meet in regular session and have a Truth in Taxation hearing on Dec. 18.