Cloquet students hike Georgia with principal in leadership challenge

A small group of Cloquet High School students spent the start of summer hiking in Georgia with Principal Marcia Nelson, turning a 10-day trek into part of their leadership class at the Cloquet Area Alternative Education Program.

The trip was not framed as a reward. Nelson said the course was designed to push students outside their comfort zones and toward what she called “positive risks,” a goal that fit the broader mission of CAAEP, which serves as an alternative to traditional secondary school programs and emphasizes smaller classes and more individualized programming.

That approach lines up with how Minnesota defines alternative education. The Minnesota Department of Education says alternative programs are built for students at risk of educational failure and often rely on hands-on, experiential learning. The state’s first legislated State-Approved Alternative Programs began in 1988 with four sites serving 4,000 students. Today, nearly 160,000 students, about 18% of Minnesota public school students, use alternative education part time or full time.

In Cloquet, the Georgia hike functioned as a capstone to that model. Students left town, spent extended time outdoors and had to keep up with one another, solve problems on the move and communicate under pressure. Those are the same skills Nelson has built into the leadership program she developed more than 20 years ago for youth at risk of not graduating from high school.

Nelson’s role in the program has given the class unusual continuity. A 2024 report said the Cloquet school board approved her as CAAEP principal, replacing Connie Hyde, at a salary of $111,576. It also said Nelson brought 30 years of experience as a teacher and administrator with a focus on at-risk students.

That background matters in a district where alternative education is meant to keep students connected to school in ways a standard classroom often cannot. The Georgia trek put that theory into practice for Cloquet students, using distance, challenge and shared responsibility to build confidence while strengthening their ties to the adults leading their school. For St. Louis County schools, it offers a working example of how leadership training can be translated into daily habits students carry back home.