Forest Lake School Board stalemate leaves a vacant seat in voters’ hands

A school board down one member for going on a year now and evenly split into two factions, has decided to leave the decision of who should fill the empty seat up to voters. In the meantime, the Forest Lake Area Schools are feeling the loss.

School boards set the direction for district leaders, like the superintendent.

“Onboarding our superintendent, you know, it’s a muddy situation for him to work through. He’s a first-year superintendent,” said board chair Curt Rebelein. “He’s got great relationships with all six of us, so I think that helps. But we haven’t provided him with a clear direction on where we want to see the district move.”

That’s just one of the ways Rebelein believes the school board’s inability to fill an empty seat has affected its ability to do its job.

“There are some tasks that happen with board business that are getting don...