It wasn’t until the very end of the board’s July 21 meeting, but the Lutsen Town Board cut a check for $8,000 to the Birch Grove Community School. The financial gift had been promised to the school at the township’s 2014 annual meeting but when questions arose about the legality of a township giving funds to a school, the money was withheld while the township sought answers.
Like a lot of rural schools Birch Grove Community School has been plagued with falling student numbers. Last year 18 children from Lake and Cook County attended the K-5 tuition-free charter school in Tofte. In order to keep the doors open the last two years the Birch Grove School board has been asking the three West End townships of Lutsen, Tofte and Schroeder to contribute money to help sustain the school.
In 2014, all three townships pledged to help the school.
At the 2015 township annual meetings in March, the Birch Grove school board asked each township to commit $20,000 annually for the next five years. That’s when questions arose about the legality of giving a gift that large. Some citizens also questioned why the school needed that much money for that long period of time.
Current Birch Grove Director Diane Blanchette said it was her idea to ask for the $20,000 annually from the townships. “I knew it was a long shot. The whole hope here is that we won’t have to ask for that much for the next five years,” she told the Lutsen Town Board and community members.
The contribution to the school will be on the agenda at the continuation of the Lutsen Township annual meeting on Tuesday, August 18.
Blanchette was joined by Birch Grove School board members Skip Lamb, Kathy Lawrence, Sarah Somnis, and Judy Motschenbacher.
When asked what they needed to do to answer the board’s questions about the school’s finances, and how they could present that information to the citizens at the August meeting, Lutsen Board Chair Tim Goettl said, “We need to see a budget that is broken down and understandable. We need to know if you really need $60,000. Or do you really need $30,000? As a board we have to see something that we are comfortable with, and not something that will get us into trouble.”
Lutsen Fire Chief Paul Goettl also responded to Blanchette’s question. “I have a four-year degree in accounting and I can’t understand your budget. You need to present a budget that can be understood and doesn’t raise more questions than it answers.”
Tim Goettl said it was his understanding that the township couldn’t give more than $10,000 to a nonprofit organization but Motschenbacher said, “Birch Grove is a charter school and therefore considered a government entity. It isn’t a nonprofit.”
The Birch Grove building is owned by Tofte Township. Besides housing a school it houses a community center providing exercise classes, community lunches, outdoor recreation including skating and tennis. It also provides space for the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic so it can provide health care services more easily to the West End.
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