Carlton High School students protest

Students at Carlton high school protested for several hours on Friday to voice their concerns and frustration about the potential closing of Carlton high school. The Carlton School District is in discussions with the Cloquet School District to come to terms on a “tuition agreement” in refers to Carlton high school. If the proposal is granted, the only grade levels that Carlton District would house is Pre-K through 8th.

According to the Carlton School Facebook page, the district is “currently in deficit spending in the area of 1 million dollars per year.” The school has a $400,000 operating levy and they can ask for an additional levy of $400,000 but it would only apply to the 2023-2024 school year. If the voters approve of the additional second operating levy, they would still need to cut another $500,00 of more to operate at a normal and neutral level.

One student really expressed himself when it comes to the potential of not having his senior year at Carlton. "This is terrible! I’ve grown up in this district since I was in kindergarten and to see the opportunity of me not even being able to graduate from this school district is sad. I don’t want to have that hanging over my head”, said Dylan Schwartz.

Sophomore Megan Matarelli said the protest for her and her classmates, "was just for us to take our school back. Were tired of not be listened too and just wanted to make sure the community and our school board knew how we felt about it and how we wanted to participate in keeping it open."

The idea is to send the kids to Cloquet. A public hearing on the tuition agreement will be held on December 13th at 7pm at Carlton high school.