The Becker School Board voted unanimously this week to accept the petition from Clear Lake to join the Becker School District.

 

Their vote may not have any bearing on the outcome, however.

 

At Monday’s school board meeting, Becker Supt. Steve Malone said this sort of request of annexing to a new school district “is highly unusual”.

 

“This is a sort of thing that maybe comes around every 15 to 20 years or so,” said Malone. “It needs the full support of all parties involved and since St. Cloud already said, ‘no’, I really don’t see it happening.”

 

Clear Lake City Council Member Dale Powers  last month sent a letter to the Becker School Board, saying his council is currently investigating options of continuing or not in their current school district (ISD 742) out of St. Cloud. In the letter, Powers said since St. Cloud is planning to build a new, St. Cloud Tech High School in a new location, he has concerns about the distances families will have to drive to the new school site at Hwy. 15 and 33rd Street.

 

“This location will make our city’s students travel a distance of 18 miles (one way) to attend high school,” the letter stated. “Of all the cities in Sherburne, Stearns and Benton Counties, Clear Lake will be farther from its host high school than any other city.” 

 

The letter goes on to say that Becker, Big Lake, Sartell and Sauk Rapids are closer to Clear Lake than the proposed location of the new Tech High School.

 

“At a distance of seven miles, our cities are closer geographically,” Powers letter stated.

 

Another issue Clear Lake has been proposing is the idea of Clearview Elementary School in Clear Lake expanding  from grades 1-6 to grades 1-8, but the St. Cloud School District has nixed that idea.

 

Clearview, which includes Clear Lake and Clearwater residents, served 536 students last year.

 

The first step for Powers and the Clear Lake Council is to ask the affected school boards (Becker and St. Cloud) to show their support for the idea so it can go a legislative session where it would need to be signed-off by the governor.

 

Malone said the annexation is unlikely to occur because neither the St. Cloud District 742 School Board nor the legislators representing St. Cloud are likely support the loss of the tax base.

 

Powers hopes to have a meeting in September to take input from city residents about the idea. He said if the Clear Lake residents tell him overwhelmingly they want to remain with the St. Cloud school district, he’ll drop the idea.