TOWER — A Mt. Iron charter school facing closure at the end of the school year is proposing to merge with Tower-based Vermilion Country School in a bid to keep its doors open.
East Range Academy of Technology and Science, which has served ninth-12th grade students from the Virginia area since 2007, received notice in late January from its authorizer, Osprey Wilds, that it would not renew the school’s charter contract when it expires June 30. The school appealed that decision on March 11, presenting a proposal to merge with Vermilion Country School.
“There is a clear alignment of the mission and vision of ERATS with VCS,” ERATS Executive Director Noel Cordero wrote in a March 17 letter to families. “We foresee the opportunity for our current students to be well supported in a future program.”
Osprey Wilds cited three areas of concern in its non-renewal notice: the school’s mounting financial losses driven by facility costs, academic outcomes that have fallen below contractual targets, and governance deficiencies. ERATS has been operating at a deficit in three of the last four fiscal years, with a fixed annual building cost of $360,000 that has become increasingly difficult to sustain as enrollment has declined. The school is projecting a shortfall exceeding $155,000 for the coming fiscal year.
VCS has enjoyed a much stronger financial position, with a healthy fund balance and growing enrollment in recent years. The school has also received high marks from Osprey Wilds for its governance and compliance with the requirements of its contract with its authorizer.
The proposed merger would resolve the facility crisis through an unusual arrangement with Highland Bank, which holds the mortgage on the school’s 8541 Park Ridge Drive building. The bank has agreed to take ownership of the property through voluntary foreclosure and then lease it to the merged entity at $120,000 per year.
Sam O’Brien, director of Vermilion Country School, said ERATS approached his school just days after receiving the non-renewal notice, and that VCS attended an ERATS board meeting in late January to signal its openness to either running programs for ERATS students or considering a merger.
“It’s kind of the right thing to do for students,” O’Brien said. “For 20 years, East Range Academy has been serving a population of students looking for an alternative school.”
O’Brien emphasized that the proposal is not a traditional school consolidation of the kind that has become familiar, and at times painful, across the Iron Range in recent decades. Rather than combining two student populations under one roof, he said, the plan calls for VCS to operate its instructional model at the ERATS site as a second location, with both sites functioning largely independently.
“The two sites would operate more as cousins than siblings,” O’Brien said.
Under the proposal, the VCS board would assume governance of both sites, with VCS’s director overseeing academic programming at each location. The current VCS board would remain intact through the spring of 2027, at which point district-wide board elections would be held, potentially adding new members from Virginia.
A survey of ERATS students and staff conducted ahead of the March 11 hearing showed strong support for the merger, with staff and students in favor of the plan to preserve an alternative school option.
The merger still faces several approval hurdles. Osprey Wilds must first sign off on allowing ERATS to proceed with the merger. If approved, the VCS board, which has not yet voted on the proposal, would then take up the question at a special meeting O’Brien hopes to schedule for mid-April. If the VCS board approves, merger documents would need to be filed with the state by early May.
O’Brien said VCS is preparing to serve East Range students regardless of how the merger question resolves. VCS already operates a hybrid learning program with individualized instruction in Virginia, Mt. Iron, Eveleth, Buhl and Hibbing, and would expand that program if a formal merger does not materialize. However, O’Brien noted that opening a physical second site without a merger would require a separate multi-year state application process.
“Whether or not ERATS formally merges, Vermilion Country School is prepared to serve students in the East Range,” Cordero wrote.
O’Brien said families at both schools should expect more clarity by mid-April.
“This is a developing situation,” he said. “We find out between now and April 15 the details of whether or not a merger can work.”