Tie vote for board chair leads to discussion

Unlike the U.S. House of Representatives, it took only three votes and less than an hour Monday for the Cloquet school board to elect its new leader.

Nate Sandman and Gary Huard were both nominated for the spot previously occupied by Ted Lammi, who was not reelected to the school board in November. The first two votes were a tie, with Melissa Juntunen, Huard and Sarah Plante Buhs voting for Huard, while Dave Battaglia, Sandman and Ken Scarbrough voted for Sandman. With Sandman already filling the role of acting board chair, the board then moved the third vote and election for other school board positions toward the end of the meeting.

Explaining guidelines from the Minnesota School Boards Association, superintendent Michael Cary said If the board didn’t reach consensus in two votes, they could choose to delay the third vote until the end. If the tie wasn’t broken, then the board would vote at the next meeting “or as many meetings until a majority is reached,” he said, with the acting chair in charge until deadlock is broken.

Before the third vote, both Huard and Sandman addressed their fellow board members as suggested by Scarbrough. Huard said he felt the board needs greater transparency, and Sandman agreed.

“Each and every board member should be involved in everything the board represents,” said Huard, the longest-serving board member currently, although not consecutively. “I find out things on the street that I think I should have been told by the school board chair or someone else. Every member should have a chance to talk, be respected and be included in everything we should be.”

He said he’d like to see the group of elected officials work more as a board. “Some people here have not been really involved,” he added.

Sandman’s comments were similar, but a little less critical.

“There’s been a lot of concerns when it comes to points of discussions and our sometimes limited knowledge of stuff,” Sandman said. “It’s concerning but … as board members we’ve been able to work through some of those misunderstandings and miscommunications.”

Cary stressed that he aims for transparency and is available for board members to ask questions, and encouraged board members to table anything they want more information about. Buhs asked how long Lammi was chair and who was chair before him. Six years and Duane Buytaert before him, Sandman answered.

When it came time for the third vote, Buhs changed her vote to Sandman, giving him the gavel. Huard was the first to congratulate him.

After the chair question was settled, board members unanimously elected Juntunen to serve as clerk, taking over the position from Sandman, and Battaglia to return as treasurer.

Also Monday, board members got an update on fundraising and other actions regarding the multimillion-dollar athletic facilities after hiring Kraus-Anderson Construction to act as construction manager for the district in December.

As it stands, the plans include replacing the current grass football and soccer field with turf and widening the field for soccer, redoing and widening the aging track, relocating and doubling the tennis courts from four to eight, moving the discus and shot put field to the current tennis courts as well as reconfiguring seating in the bleachers and adding a new scoreboard.

A rough outline of proposed funding included:

• $2 million in bonds to be paid back with capital facility funds from the state rather than local tax levies.

• $1 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency federal pandemic relief funds. The district has gotten tentative approval on that, Cary said Monday.

• $1.25 million to be raised by a community group that is working to find funding for the turf field. Cary said the group has spoken with several potential sponsors interested in different levels of funding.

The superintendent didn’t share any details, but said he hoped to bring a full report to the board by early February at the latest, so they can make the final decision on the project and how it would be funded.

“If you feel like that financial picture is something you could support, we would move to vote,” Cary said. “That would be the final straw [meaning] that we are definitely moving this project forward.”

In other matters Monday, the board:

• Set a board retreat for 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 30. The public may attend, but not comment.

• Voted unanimously to keep board pay at $300 a month and $75 per subcommittee meeting. Those amounts went up last year, from $250 per month and $50 per meeting after being unchanged for many years.

• The board ended its meeting in closed session to consider allegations against a school district employee.

The Cloquet school board will continue to meet the second and fourth Mondays of each month, with only one meeting in March, July and December.