The Sartell-St. Stephen School District 748 has three school board seats up for grabs this election cycle. This comes as the board finds itself with a 3-3 ideology split and has created a contentious dynamic in local education-based politics.
District 748 student Bennett Prose told the St. Cloud Times this impacts the student body. He said the board should collectively serve as an example students can look up to. Prose said students aren’t blind to what’s happening at the board and that its behavior is being discussed among students, with some attending school board meetings themselves.
“It's definitely filtered down,” Prose said. “(Students) see this example from people who are supposed to be in charge at the highest level on the board, and if they can't function and find consensus on issues and be adults with what they're doing, how can we be asked to do the same thing?”
The board’s inability to engage in meaningful conversations to find solutions is what’s creating these issues, Prose said, with the June debate on approving staff contracts being an example of that.
In June, the school board nearly missed the July 1 deadline to approve 21 staff contracts. The delay came as the two groups couldn’t agree on how to go about approving the contracts. One group — consisting of board members Emily Larson, Jen Smith and Scott Wenshau — wanted to approve each contract individually while the other wanted to vote on the contracts as a collective.
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The three board members who wanted the individual vote are not up for reelection and ran as a slate in 2022 . They operated under the ideology that the contracts should be considered individually by the board, rather than approved as a collective as recommended by the superintendent because the board has the power to make the final call.
Larson, Smith and Wenshau didn’t show up to the June 25 meeting to approve the contracts, which put the staff members in question at risk of losing their benefits and positions. The school board then had to call another special meeting to approve the contracts on June 28.
At the June 28 meeting, the trio refused to approve contracts as a collective, and the other voting block — consisting of members Trisha Meling, Matt Moehrle and Jason Nies — gave in to their colleagues' wishes.
The Meling, Moehrle and Nies trio didn’t want to set a new precedent for the board to evaluate staff members, and as long as the superintendent’s recommendations appeared informed and responsible, they said there should be no reason to approve them individually instead of as a collective. At the June 28 meeting, Moehrle expressed concerns about potential legal issues that could arise due to lacking cause if a contract wasn’t renewed for select employees and wanted to protect the district if that would happen.
These concerns; however, did not come to fruition. The Larson, Smith and Wenshau trio went through each contract, and brought forth questions regarding full-time equivalency for some positions, including the director of human resources, which was allocated for 0.8 FTE.
More: Sartell school board approves 21 staff contracts after debate
Former Interim Superintendent Tom Lee previously said the position has always been available at 0.8 FTE to help the staff member better balance their professional and personal life, saying it has never caused an issue. Lee said the employee has been responsive whenever called upon and has completed expected duties despite being at 0.8 FTE.
Meling, Moehrle and Nies — who wanted to approve the contracts collectively — have expiring terms this year. Meling, who is the chair, and Moehrle are seeking reelection while Nies is putting his time on the board behind him.
This election cycle could end the split, but only if someone with a similar ideology to Larson, Smith and Wenshau comes out ahead on Nov. 5. However, if that trio gains a new ally come November, it would give them the power to pass policies.
Prose told the St. Cloud Times that while the split can be frustrating at times, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially when there are concerns about lacking collaboration.
“The original purpose of it when we first started our school board was for there to be opposing ideas, and for people to be able to collaborate,” Prose said. “I don't think that's happened in the last two years. I don't think there's been that level of collaboration, so I think that's caused some dysfunction.”
Those running for school board include Meling, Moehrle, Aaron Alexander, Michael Gruber, Michael Ringstad and Chelsea Thielen, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State. They are vying for three seats.
Corey Schmidt covers politics and courts for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Politics makes its way to the Sartell-St. Stephen School Board. What to know
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