Sartell-St. Stephen School Board to Address Controversial Contracts Amid Deadlock During Special Meeting

(KNSI) – The Sartell-St. Stephen School Board will hold a special meeting Tuesday night to approve 21 contracts that have caused controversy among the board and community members.

The six-member board has been deadlocked three to three since February over the nonunion and mostly administrative contracts such as directors and specialists. The issue is whether to vote on them together or individually, with the contracts expiring on June 30th. As of June 17th, the request to separate has failed four times. Some worry the board’s failure to approve them could result in job losses and operational disruptions.

A statement released by board members Emily Larson, Jen Smith and Scott Wenshau states the request to discuss each position’s pay separately is “reasonable, transparent, and practiced in other districts throughout Minnesota.” The three also claim they were not given proper notice about Tuesday’s special meeting and have conflicts that could prevent at least one of them from attending. If one of the three dissenting board members misses the meeting, the contracts could be approved on a 3-2 vote.

The trio’s statement issued Sunday night says, “We call on School Board Chair [Tricia] Meling to cancel the June 25th meeting as it has been known to her and the Interim Superintendent since Tuesday, June 18th, that not all board members would be available. We are requesting that Chair Meling promptly prioritize aligning schedules so an official call for a special meeting or an emergency meeting by the chair can be made for a date next week when all board members are available to attend.”

KNSI News reached out to the school district and received an email response from board chair Meling stating, “It is unfortunate that some of my fellow board members have gone to the press. All members of the board were given a full week’s notice of a special meeting being held on June 25th at 6:00 p.m. All members were given the opportunity to attend in person or virtually, had they provided the adequate notice. Due to the urgency of this issue I expect all members to be at the meeting as this is our civic duty as school board elected officials.”

Some school staff fear seperating the contracts opens employees to getting picked off due to potential personal vendettas.

The district faces a $1.7 million deficit for the upcoming school year.

You can watch the meeting live by clicking here.

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