The focus on this petition is improving White Bear Lake's athletics as a whole and specifically football since it's shown the longest poor records in relation to the program's past success.
 
White Bear Lake is one of the larger school districts in the state, but underperforms in most athletics, specifically football. Coach Ryan Bartlett has been the head coach of White Bear football for 12 years with very little success over his tenure. He has managed 3 winning seasons of 12 seasons, 2 of the winning seasons are a direct result of elite talent and not coaching ability.

The team is not built from all grades, specifically 9th grade, where players are separated from the 10 - 12th grade athletes and don't have much if any association with the higher grade levels or any JV or Varsity level coaching. 
 
Enrollment data from each schools website in the SEC (Suburban East Conference): 
 
Stillwater: 2,647
Woodbury: 1,972
Forest Lake: 1,876
Mounds View: 1,901
East Ridge: 2,021
White Bear Lake: 2,700
 
Per the White Bear Lake High School website, White Bear has an enrollment of 2,700 students. This is far more than every school in their conference with the exception of Stillwater. Given the size of White Bear Lake High School in comparison to other conference schools, there is no reason White Bear shouldn’t be competitive at the highest level in high school athletics.
 
Although winning isn't the only focus of high school sports, success should be a top priority, especially with the amount of available talent and resources available.
 
White Bear Lake has recently renovated North Campus, added a brand-new football stadium, several turf practice football fields, a 6,200 sq. ft. weight room, and many other resources that were all part of a $326 million school bond referendum (the largest in Minnesota history). The residents, students and athletes of White Bear Lake deserve to have the same top-of-the-line coaching staff in place to match the top-of-the-line equipment and resources. 
 
Specifically, the student athletes of White Bear Lake deserve the best available to them on and off the field to set them up for success in their lives and careers after high school whether in sports or not. Our community has lacked the coaching and athletic caliber we all deserve, we deserve an athletics department and coaching staff to match our facilities, across the board.
 
The coaching staff has remained largely intact with very little change regardless of the lack of success. The lack of adjustments in personnel, coaching style, in-game adjustments and general adaptability to the game as well as to our conference rivals. There are coaches being paid that don't have the ambition to coach sports, that do not show up for practices, that show up at game time and provide minimal to no value to the players, the bottom line is our students deserve better!
 
During Coach Ryan Bartlett's time as the head football coach he has performed poorly.
 
Coach Bartlett’s record for each of his seasons as head coach:
 
2012: 6-2
2013: 4-4
2014: 3-5
2015: 2-6
2016: 0-8
2017: 0-8
2018: 4-4
2019: 3-5
2020: 2-4
2021: 6-3
2022: 7-3
2023: 3-6
 
Overall record: 40-58 - Winning pct: 41%
 
As a comparison, the overall records of the teams in our conference during the same time period:
 
Stillwater: 57-41 - Winning pct: 58%
Woodbury: 65-54 - Winning pct: 55%
Forest Lake: 25-78 - Winning pct: 24%
Mounds View: 64-51 - Winning pct: 56%
East Ridge: 78-45-1 - Winning pct: 63%
 
Per White Bear football's website, the previous coaching staff under Bob Jackson had a record of 123-77 - Winning pct: 62%. In fact, there has only been one coach, other than Ryan Bartlett, in the history of White Bear Lake football (Buzz Johnson record 4-14) that has posted a losing record.
 
With White Bear Lake's history of success in the game of football, the lack of success from Ryan Bartlett and his coaching staff has been accepted by White Bear Lake for far too long. 
 
The accountability and success of athletic programs and coaching competency falls directly on the White Bear Lake Activities Director, Brian Peloquin. 
 
Brian has accepted mediocrity across the board and has not pushed for change or improvement. He does not keep coaches accountable or strive for improvement, which is proven by the lack of success across all White Bear Lake sports. 
 
There is no transparency in sports programs, nor is Brian willing to share information about how coaching performance in evaluated or efforts being made to improve sports programs. This information is not shared with the public or with the parents of athletes who are paying the salaries of Brian Peloquin and all of the coaches in White Bear Lake high school sports.
 
A few additional notes regarding the Activities Director:
Brian Peloquin does not perform formal evaluations of coaches, regardless of performance.
Brian Peloquin does not survey parents or students for their viewpoint of the season in question and coaches in place.
Brian Peloquin is not willing to provide information regarding coaching accountability.

Sports records for the past 5 years under Brian Peloquin:
Baseball: 31-46
Boys hockey: 88-38
Girls hockey: 114-138-17
Boys basketball: 161-182 (two recent successful seasons with a borrowed coach who departed after a state run – which seemed to be planned the entire time have this record remotely close to .500. 116-148 without this coach)
Girls basketball: 207-111
Softball: 81-113
Boys soccer: 50-108-29
Girls soccer: 130-72-10
Lacrosse: 102-30 (losses are to local and state powers recently - Stillwater and Mahtomedi for example which have prevented WBL going to state. Potential conflict of interest with the Head Coach running the Minnesota Loons club program. Players are leaving the sport because of conflicts due to not playing in Loons Club)
 
Brian Peloquin is failing our kids and our community in athletics and doesn't show any interest in improving.
 
For all of the reasons above, I ask that you join other concerned members of the community by signing this petition. Our students and student athletes deserve better.