High school athletic complex plans near finish line

Editor's note: Cloquet School District officials canceled the special meeting mentioned in this story and will finalize athletic facilities plans and funding at the board meeting on Monday, March 20 instead.

Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary told school board members he’s been working “fast and furiously” with contractor Kraus-Anderson and Members Cooperative Credit Union officials on plans for the $4.5 million outdoor athletic facilities project, but not fast enough to bring it to the board at its regular meeting Monday.

Because time is of the essence to get the project contracted and underway, board members scheduled a special meeting at 11 a.m. Friday, March 10 to vote on scope, construction costs and revenue, including the MCCU marquee sponsorship agreement of $1.25 million plus up to $300,000 for a new scoreboard.

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.

Board members are very supportive of the project, but there were a couple questions.

In particular, board member Ken Scarbrough strongly reiterated his objection to a sponsorship clause that would make MCCU the sole provider of financial education and financial literacy for teachers and students.

Cary pointed out that MCCU is already providing financial education services for students at the high school.

But they don’t have exclusive rights, Scarbrough pointed out.

“I don’t want to sell exclusive access to our curriculum for any business or organization,” he said.

In other matters Monday, early budget predictions for the next school year show a deficit of between $300,000 and $500,000. That likely means budget cuts for the next school year, especially because this year’s midyear budget update showed the district could be $800,000 over its budget for the current school year. The annual budget is close to $42 million.

“You can tolerate that [kind of deficit] for a year when you have a fund balance like ours, but you don’t want to start stringing those together back to back,” Cary told the board. “That’s how you get into financial trouble.”

Finally, board members supported the idea of allowing the CAT-7 cable access channel to broadcast the school board meetings, in addition to the district’s own YouTube recording.

“I don’t have any concerns. It’s a public meeting,” said board chair Nate Sandman.

Cable subscribers can watch the Feb. 27 Cloquet School Board meeting on CAT-7 at 4 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays, 6 p.m. Mondays and 9 a.m. on Fridays. The recordings will be updated after each new meeting.