The city of Tower has joined a growing list of local governments voicing opposition to a proposed restructuring of School District 2142.

On Monday, Tower councilors approved a lengthy resolution outlining their reasons for opposing the plan. Among their complaints is that the plan “lacks basic equity,” by treating communities differently, without adequate justification.

In the resolution, councilors note that Tower-Soudan taken together is a community of over 1,300 residents, (and more than 2,000 residents within five miles of the school), making it the largest single population center in the district. That, they contend, makes the district’s plan to bus their students 25-27 miles untenable. “We believe no other urban center of this size has ever been forced to bus students this far anywhere else in the state of Minnesota,” states the resolution.

The resolution also takes issue with the district’s decision to renovate and maintain K-12 schools in Cherry and Babbitt, even though the district’s enrollment projections indicate Tower-Soudan is likely to exceed the enrollment at both those schools within several years. In addition, the resolution notes that students in Cherry would have a choice of several alternative schools within 5-10 miles were that school tapped for closure instead. The council charged that the board’s decision was not “educationally-based.”

The city’s resolution also contends that the district’s plan fails to solve the viability of both schools in the district’s northeast, which includes Tower-Soudan and Babbitt-Embarrass. They note that district projections put Babbitt’s enrollment at just 248 within four years, or roughly equal to Tower-Soudan’s current enrollment, which the district cites as lacking viability. “The district’s consultants have now acknowledged that few students from Tower-Soudan will likely attend in Babbitt, but they never re-examined their basic assumption that students from Tower-Soudan provide viability for the Babbitt School. As it is, the district’s plan abandons Tower-Soudan’s secondary students and does nothing to maintain viability in Babbitt,” states the resolution.

The resolution also questions whether the district can feasibly maintain a K-6 facility in Tower-Soudan since the district will continue to incur the expenses of operating the facility, running buses, and providing food service, with half the revenue the district currently receives from the building.

The Tower Council plans to forward its resolution to the school district as well as to state officials currently reviewing the district’s proposal.

Other local governments have also come out in opposition to the plan, including the city of Cook and townships of Crane Lake and Breitung. Orr councilors were expected to act on a resolution as well on Monday, but held off taking action. Orr Mayor Dale Long later explained that the city was waiting to hear from the Bois Forte Tribal Council before proceeding.

Superintendent Charles Rick said he understands communities’ concerns. Schools have been in some of the cities for more than 100 years, he said, so there’s a deep emotional attachment as well as concerns about how the loss of a school will affect the economy.

“But I’d like to meet with councils or boards before they send a letter or pass a resolution,” he said. “Either way, things are changing but there may be some positives for communities, too.”

For instance, Rick said, the district will still need to buy gas from local vendors and purchase some supplies locally. And he left open the possibility that some sporting events, such as baseball or softball, might still be held in communities. “We’d have to look at the expense,” he said.

Creating better schools could also help by attracting more residents and businesses to area communities, he said. And offering a good education to students locally may make it possible for more of them to remain on the Iron Range and settle down in their hometowns.

Opposition to plan

At stake is a plan to reorganize the district by consolidating students in fewer schools. District officials say doing so will save more than $5 million annually by reducing staff and operational costs, result in more efficient use of resources and provide more educational programming for students.

Under the proposal, schools in Cook, Orr, AlBrook and Cotton would be closed and replaced with two new schools — one in the north and the other in the south. The plan also reduces Tower-Soudan to an elementary school with secondary students there bused to either Babbitt-Embarrass or the new school in the north. Remodeled Babbitt-Embarrass and Cherry schools would remain open.

The district plans to pay for construction and remodeling with a $78.8 million bond issue, which voters must approve in December.

Opposition to the plan is driven by a number of factors, including the economic impact that losing schools will have in communities and questions about the fairness of the district’s approach.

Location key

Another hot spot has been the proposed location for the new school in the north, which would be just under five miles north of Cook along Olson Road.

Crane Lake Supervisor Jerry Pohlman said residents had been led to believe that the new school would be located as close as possible to midway between Cook and Orr. But a site at Gheen was downgraded to second choice due to wetland concerns while the site closer to Cook emerged as the top choice in the north. That led the township to voice its opposition to the plan, according to Pohlman.

Cook councilors also question the proposed location of a new school, saying it would make better sense to remodel existing facilities.

“While we would agree that maintaining and improving K-12 education is paramount, we do not necessarily equate the increased spending envisioned with that goal,” wrote Mayor Dick Edblom and former Cook Mayor Harold Johnston in a joint letter to the school board. “Naturally, we are particularly bothered with the plans for the Cook School. To essentially trash a laboriously and expensively accumulated complex for an undeveloped site six miles away seems like such an extravagant waste for a small town.”

The letter also expresses concerns that costs associated with the new school may be understated and suggests a school in Cook would be better suited to serve populations from Orr and Tower if consolidation occurs.

“We do not wish to see our neighboring communities lose their schools and would like to see more effort go into trying to save them,” the letter states. “It may be that consolidation will happen and, if that be the case, doesn’t it make sense to have one strong school being fed from both Orr and Tower? Building a school six miles west of Cook eliminates the addition of Tower students if enrollment continues to decline....It seems as if you are setting up the new school to fail if enrollment continues to decline.”

Orr Mayor Dale Long said he’s concerned about the economic impact that losing a school will have in his community. He noted that the school accounts for a significant share of the water and sewer customer base in Orr. If the building is closed, those costs will have to be shifted to other water and sewer users. “We already have people who are barely sliding by,” said Long, who worried about the effect that higher rates will have on citizens.

Principal Kevin Abrahamson said he understood Long’s concerns, but said the district had to consider what is best for the education of students. He noted that attendance is dwindling at St. Louis County schools, with Orr projecting only two to five students for its kindergarten class next year.

“We can do more if we can get together,” he said, adding that the Olson Road site wasn’t a certainty for the new school. It’s suitability as a site is still being investigated.

Nancy Parvi, part of a small contingent of Orr teachers at the meeting, urged the Orr City Council not to pass a resolution opposing the bond issue. “That is a pretty strong statement for the city and I hope you would not do that,” she told councilors.

Although Parvi shared others’ frustrations with the proposed site for the school, she said combining Cook and Orr into a single school would be better for students. “We’re just too small,” she said, and can’t offer the range of programming that a combined school can.

Long said if nothing else, the prospect of a resolution by the Orr City Council had jump-started more dialogue about the bond issue and its impact on Orr.

“I’ve gotten more phone calls on this than I did on anything else in a long time,” the mayor concluded.