Cloquet school board rejects HR specialist posting, will repost facilities director after divided vote

The Cloquet Public School District School Board debated whether to add a human resources specialist to central office staff or repost a vacant facilities director position and, after a roll‑call vote, declined to post the HR job.

Superintendent Dr. Michael Carey opened the discussion during the Aug. 11 meeting by summarizing district staffing needs and a proposal to use newly available Northern Lights Academy (NLA) funds and other savings to create an HR specialist position. Carey said the HR role would centralize recruiting, benefits administration, leave management and compliance work the central office currently distributes across several staff members.

The debate centered on workload, cost and operational risk. Business Manager Candice Nellis reviewed projected salary-and-benefit ranges she and Carey had researched; she told the board a fully loaded HR hire would cost roughly $97,000 to $110,000 depending on benefit elections and that NLA had agreed to provide about $43,000 toward HR functions. Carey and Nellis said some HR-related tasks now fall to multiple central-office staff and that new state requirements (including paid family leave and other changes) would increase workload this year.

Board members and staff discussed alternatives. Bill Broward, the district technology support specialist, and…