Minneapolis, St. Paul schools work to close deficits. St. Paul to ask voters for more money

With deadlines drawing near, school district leaders in Minneapolis and St. Paul this week pushed ahead on plans to close budget gaps for the next school year. St. Paul officials said they’d ask city voters this fall to approve additional funding in a referendum.

Both face enrollment challenges and are proposing cuts to manage dropping funds. 

Board members in St. Paul, Minnesota’s second largest district, finished their budget Tuesday, agreeing to draw down reserves to close more than two-thirds of a $51 million deficit projected for the upcoming academic year. The rest will come from cuts and planned new sources of revenue to plug holes. 

“We are making an intentional decision this year of deficit spending, drawing down our fund balance mostly to maintain programs and services as much as possible,” Tom Sager, the St. Paul district’s head of financial services, told board members Tuesday. 

He warned further cuts could be necessary next year. 

Earlier this year, the district proposed making cuts to the district’s Early Childhood Family Education programming, which provides families with parenting and education resources. But the latest version of the budget reinstates more than $500,000 in ECFE programming and positions.  

“While no budget created is ever perfect, I feel like we are making progress,” said St. Paul school board member Yusef Carrillo. “Seeing services cut, even though we try to steer them away as much as possible from schools, it is painful and they do have impact.”

The Minneapolis school district, the state’s fourth largest, is also facing a shortfall, despite making recent cuts and getting voter approval for a technology levy late last year. 

“We had to make some difficult choices considering our financial situation and understandably the focus was on reductions and changes,” said Lisa Sayles-Adams, the district superintendent. “Our proposed budget invests in direct student services and supports closest to the classroom.” 

State demographer Hazel Reinhardt called Minneapolis’ enrollment struggles a “perfect enrollment storm” due to lower birth rates, families leaving the cities and losing students to charter, private and other open enrollment options.

“If we don’t figure out how to provide better services to our students in a more fiscally sustainable way, I do not believe we have a fiscally sustainable future for our district that we can rely on,” board member Joyner Emerick said.