CHERRY — With the district continuing to wrestle with a significant budget shortfall, ISD 2142 board members received a detailed walkthrough Tuesday night on why keeping both Northeast Range and Tower-Soudan open remains essential to the district’s financial stability.
Superintendent Reggie Engebritson said the review was aimed especially at newer board members who will face questions from residents as levy discussions begin.
“We have no intention of closing Tower and Northeast Range. That is not the discussion on the table,” Engebritson said. “I want to make sure, especially the new board members, that you are clear. So, when people are asking, we’re giving consistent answers.”
Finance Director Kim Johnson reminded the board that the district already completed a major consolidation in 2009 when four schools closed and two new ones opened.
“At that point in time, we closed four schools, built two new ones in between,” she said. “We took our district and its 4,200 square miles and reduced the number of schools from 7 to 4 and a half. So, we’ve already done that hard work to consolidate within ourselves.”
She outlined several reasons why additional closures would worsen the district’s financial condition rather than improve it. The loss in state aid from students leaving would far exceed any operational savings, creating an even larger budget deficit.
“We get actually $12,348.55 per adjusted pupil unit,” Johnson said. “Keep that in the back of your head why it’s not a good idea to close Tower-Soudan or Northeast Range.”
Johnson said the loss of students from either site would be immediate and total.
“We would lose 100 percent of the state aid because not one of those students in either of those schools would go to another 2142 school,” she said.
Nearby districts like Ely, Mesabi East, Chisholm, and Rock Ridge would take them instead.
Closing either school would also trigger a districtwide “bump night,” Johnson said. Teachers with higher seniority at Tower-Soudan and Northeast Range would be allowed to bump less senior staff elsewhere.
“The teachers, specifically at Tower, too, are very, very high on the seniority list,” she said. “So we have a good number at Northeast Range that are too. So we would see that come through to the entire district.”
Paraprofessionals, custodians, and food service workers would also be able to bump based on seniority.
“We would see a huge ripple effect in staff that would ultimately result in 2142 keeping our higher cost employees,” Johnson explained. “The ones that would be gone are the lower cost employees because they have less seniority.”
The political fallout would be equally severe.
“We would never, and I mean absolutely never, ever, ever be able to pass an operating referendum because we would get 100 percent no in those two attendance areas,” she said.
Rather than closures, Johnson said the district needs to begin planning instructional models that adapt to declining enrollment.
“We just have to start thinking outside the box now into how we educate those kids when class sizes get smaller,” she said.

Staffing proposal questioned
Board members also spent significant time scrutinizing a proposal to restructure staffing in the district’s business office by creating a full-time payroll and leave position. Johnson said the current arrangement, with one full-time payroll employee and a separate part-time position focused on staff leave time, is no longer sustainable given the workload and the district’s contractual obligation to provide payroll services to the Mt. Iron-Buhl School District.
She said the part-time position focused on staff leave time cannot absorb payroll duties. The restructured full-time position would also provide a needed backup for running payroll, something Johnson said would have been helpful this week when the district nearly failed to process payroll because the primary clerk was out on bereavement leave.
According to Johnson, the added payroll support would cost far less than a typical 0.5 FTE because Mt. Iron-Buhl has agreed to increase its share of the district’s payroll service costs. Without any restructuring, she said ISD 2142 receives only about 20 percent reimbursement for its full-time payroll position.
“Now, Reggie has already talked to MIB and they’re willing to pay an increase of almost $20,000 over what they paid before, which would mean that the net impact to 2142 is $6,200, almost $6,300,” she said.
Several board members questioned whether it made sense to add central office costs after the district had cut teaching positions to address the budget deficit, and asked if there were alternatives that would avoid increasing expenses. Johnson said the reconfigured full-time role was the most workable solution, given the district’s obligations and the limits of the existing staffing structure. Engebritson added that the impact of the earlier teacher reductions had been softened because the district was able to call most of them back as enrollment and scheduling stabilized.
The board agreed to revisit the proposal at a future meeting.

Johnson Controls frustrations
An earlier facilities committee meeting also resurfaced long-running frustrations with Johnson Controls, the company involved in building the North Woods and South Ridge schools that have faced severe and premature maintenance problems. Facilities Director Mike Vieau reviewed several ongoing projects, one of which referenced Johnson Controls’ work, prompting a sharp response from Board Member Ron Marinaro.
“I think I heard a word I didn’t want to hear. Johnson Controls. We are still doing business with those people,” he said with a tone of disgust. “They are the ones who put us in a position of South Ridge and North Woods. That is why your budget is what it is.”
Board Member Chris Koivisto agreed.
“They leave a mess everywhere they go, and we are still feeding them money after this,” he said.
Vieau noted that the district remains tied to proprietary control systems installed by the company.
“They have integrated themselves highly into those buildings,” he said. “It would cost nearly seven figures to replace all the engine controllers.”
Vieau said he would take a closer look at what it would take to sever ties with Johnson Controls and report back at the next committee meeting.

Friday care discontinued
Board member Mallory Manick, reporting for the four-day school week committee, told the board that Friday child care at North Woods and South Ridge will end after Dec. 19 due to extremely low participation. She said North Woods has served no more than one or two children in recent weeks, with no students signed up for the next several Fridays, while South Ridge’s numbers have topped out at about five students and have been trending downward.
Manick said the district will continue to offer before- and after-school care on regular class days at both schools, but that Friday care is no longer sustainable given the dwindling numbers. The district had already discontinued Friday care earlier this fall at Cherry and Northeast Range for the same reason, despite parent surveys prior to the switch to a four-day week indicating that families considered Friday care an important need.

Tower to NER activity bus
Board Member Chris Koivisto raised concerns that Tower students are unable to participate in Friday activities at Northeast Range because the district’s four-day week leaves them without transportation on the fifth day. He urged administrators to examine the cost and feasibility of offering an activities bus to ensure Tower-area students can access programs offered at NER.
Koivisto also warned that without a transportation option, neighboring districts may gain an advantage in attracting families. He said improving access to Friday activities would support the district’s goal of strengthening connections between Tower-Soudan students and Northeast Range. Administrators agreed to develop cost estimates for future consideration.
In other business, the board expanded a cooperative agreement creating a combined Ely-NER boys hockey team to include students from Vermilion Country School. Ely serves as the host school.