Education Corner

Talk about it

We in the Cloquet School District want to use the Minnesota’s School Board Recognition Week to recognize and thank our school board members for their outstanding service to our schools and Cloquet community.

Gary Huard (chair), Duane Buytaert (clerk), Dan Danielson (treasurer), Jim Crowley, Sandy Crowley and Dave Battaglia have been elected by our community to provide leadership and direction for our school district as we deal with the tremendous challenges such as a slowly recovering economy and the rapidly increasing demands for educational reform to keep pace with technology and the rapid changes happening in society. Our school board members oversee a multimillion-dollar budget that funds education programs for 2,400 K-12 students as well as many programs serving pre-school through adult populations. Regular education, special education, pre-school education, community education, food service, transportation service, health care, social services, psychological services, extracurricular and co-curricular activities, day care services, and partnering with the city of Cloquet for recreation services are examples of the many things our school board members work to provide for our community.

These community leaders are responsible for formulating school district policy, approving curricula, maintaining school facilities, and adhering to state and federal education law. Legal concerns and the complexities of school finance, including budgeting and taxation, require them to spend many hours in board training programs and personal study to enhance their understanding of these issues.

We also realize that our school board members are aided by some employers in our district who support board members giving time to our school district and by our citizens who carry out dialogues with our board members and school officials to help us realize how we can best serve Cloquet. So this recognition week also is a very good time to thanking all of our Cloquet community members for their participation in helping our school district be the best it can be.

Thank you, citizens of Cloquet, and especially thank you to our school board members for all you do to support the broad educational mission of our school district.

Tags: opinion, education, cloquet