VIRGINIA- With notifications of contract nonrenewals for teaching staff in ISD 2142 going out last week, Tuesday night’s school board meeting focused on getting board members up to speed on the $1.5 million budget shortfall for next year and provide information that will help them when talking with district patrons.
“There’s going to be a lot of information,” Superintendent Reggie Engebritson told board members. “We’re certainly going to talk about this more than once. My goal is at the end of the night that you have a couple bullet points or takeaways so when people are asking you questions, you have some ability to respond.”
And people are asking questions. The response from many North Woods parents was immediate and angry. A campaign was launched on social media to recruit parents to voice their concerns over staffing cuts at the school at the Feb. 25 board meeting at Tower-Soudan School. Some said they were considering sending their children to other districts over concerns about what the cut might do to the quality of education at North Woods.
The challenge for the district, as always, is that the budget shortfall is the unassigned fund balance. Seventy-five percent of that money pays for teachers, paraprofessionals, aides, and other staff, and money from other district fund accounts can’t be used to make up the shortfall. Given that scenario, staffing cuts are the only way the district can make a significant dent in the projected deficit.
District Finance Director Kim Johnson reviewed the district’s enrollment, which has dropped in four of the last five years and is projected to continue dropping through 2026-27. State aid is based on a calculation called average daily membership (ADM), which factors the number of students enrolled with the amount of time they were enrolled. The district collects the full amount of state aid for a student who was enrolled the entire year, and reduced amounts for those who are only enrolled part of the school year.
Compared to the district’s peak ADM of 2,016 in the 2019-20 school year, the current year’s ADM of 1,823 represents a loss of 193 students and the state aid that goes with them. Among the district’s five schools, North Woods School has had the greatest drop, from 549 to 453, a loss just short of 20 percent and more than double that of any other school.
So why is the district losing so many students? Several reasons were given:
177 units of ADM have come from families moving out of the district.
Incoming kindergarten classes have been smaller than classes of graduating seniors, resulting in net losses of students. And schools get more state aid for high school students than for elementary.
An increase in parents choosing homeschooling – up by 47 students since the onset of the COVID pandemic.
The one bright spot in the analysis is that the district has gained students in the open enrollment process. More out-of-district parents have been sending their children to ISD 2142 than students who have left to attend other districts. The district has had a net gain of 18 ADM.
Making adjustments
The district is cutting the equivalent of ten teaching positions, which represents a greater mix of full-time staff and ones with differing levels of part-time assignments. Cuts to teaching positions have to be locked in now to comply with the union contract. From this point forward, the district may add teaching positions but cannot cut any more.
For elementary grades, the district will continue to monitor class sizes and enrollment and strategically combine elementary classroom positions with specialist roles to optimize teacher-to-student ratios during math and reading instructional time.
Engebritson provided the Timberjay with an additional statement about how cuts are being managed.
“As we finalize schedules for the upcoming year, it is essential that we carefully consider all numbers to ensure accuracy and compliance with licensing and contractual requirements. Only fully licensed teachers with tenured status are placed on the schedule at this time. Additionally, we have the flexibility to schedule elementary teachers for up to 0.3 FTE (full-time equivalent) in a specialist role.
The schedules that have been shared with the union reflect only those teachers who meet full licensure requirements. Given the language in our contracts, we are only able to add FTE as needed; we cannot reduce existing FTE. Therefore, all numbers on the schedule must reflect the minimum possible FTE to align with our transfer protocol.”
High school adjustments will include:
• Restructuring scheduling to maintain diverse selections and improve efficiencies.
• Continuing to use grade levels in courses where standards allow.
Merging certain electives
• Incorporating study halls to provide additional student support and interventions.
Cuts are also being made to administrative operations, such as:
•District office staff reductions.
•Paraprofessional assignment reallocations.
•Building and grounds efficiencies.
•Transferring 80 percent of assistant principal salaries to compensatory aid funding.
Engebritson and Johnson also talked about how to address suggestions that a better way to cut expense would be to close one of the district’s schools.
“If you would do that, there’s no guarantee those kids would stay in the district, so that could just be more money lost,” Engebritson said.
“The funding we lose by closing any additional schools would far outweigh savings,” Johnson added. “Tower and Babbitt also have a lot of taconite money associated with them. Compensatory revenue would be gone at those schools (if either were to be closed). And it would be guaranteed 100 percent of those students would no longer go to our 2142 schools. I guarantee it.”
Engebritson again emphasized that dealing with the cuts will be an ongoing process informed by data and constant monitoring of relevant indicators. If enrollment projections go up, it would be possible to look at adding back some positions.
“We’re always continually looking at the numbers,” she said. “This isn’t drop dead done tonight, but we have to make some decisions. We have to balance the budget.”