| Address: | 405 School Avenue |
| City: | Carlton |
| State: | Minnesota |
| Zipcode: | 55718 |
| Country: | United States |
| Type: | Public |
| Grades: | PreK–12 |
| Students: | 398 |
| Teachers: | 34.21 |
| Staff: | 33.89 |
| Ratio: | 11.63 |
Carlton Independent School District 93, also known as Carlton School District or Carlton Public Schools, is a school district headquartered in Carlton, Minnesota. It operates two schools: South Terrace Elementary School (PK-5) and Carlton High School (6-12).
Entirely in Carlton County, it serves most of Carlton, much of Big Lake, and a small section of Cloquet.[1]
The District #15 district was created on a date prior to February 2, 1913, and merged with Wrenshall at around this time period. Circa 1951 it became District #2 as it merged with the Sawyer district. It received its current formal name circa 1957.[2]
In 2019 the Carlton district and the Wrenshall School District were in talks on the possibility of consolidating.[3] By September 2020 a study was released stating that if Carlton and Wrenshall consolidated, the taxpayer in the former Carlton zone would pay two and one half times the rate that a Wrenshall zone taxpayer would.[4] Some legislation that would have facilitated the merger was, in 2020, not passed by the Minnesota Legislature.[5] Additionally the compositions of the school boards changed.[6]
The two school boards chose not to hold further discussions on consolidation after February 2021.[7] That month Carlton began discussing with Cloquet Public Schools the possibility of an agreement to send high school students to Cloquet.[8] The Carlton district was also working on its own referendum for new facilities.[9]
On June 21, 2021, the Carlton School Board stated that it no longer wished to consolidate with Wrenshall and that it was considering using the South Terrace campus as a single K-12 site and/or consolidating with the Cloquet or Barnum school districts.[10] Carlton, in July 2021, was still negotiating with Cloquet.[11]
it had about 500 students, with about 33% being eligible for free or reduced price lunches and 16% of students having Native American ancestry.[2]
The Carlton and Wrensall school districts have a shared athletics team. By August 2021 the fact that Carlton was now in negotiations with Cloquet over a tuition agreement could impact the Carlton-Wrensall team.[12]