REGIONAL— As St. Louis County School District officials work to address the district’s estimated $1.5 million budget shortfall for next school year, they’ve made one thing clear— school closures won’t be part of the fix.
That’s at odds with the calls from some parents from the Cook and Orr area, who have argued that the closure of the Tower-Soudan Elementary could help reduce staffing cuts at North Woods School, located four miles north of Cook. Yet, school officials point out that school closures, particularly a school like Tower-Soudan, aren’t the financial solution that some parents might believe.
It’s a matter of how the school district generates its revenue, which comes entirely from its student attendance, known in school finance as average daily membership, or ADM.
The school district’s ongoing financial challenges stem from a loss in ADM, which has declined in four of the past five years, according to District Finance Director Kim Johnson.
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. The basic pupil aid amounts to $7,281 per student this year, although a variety of other aids puts the value of a typical student at a bit over $10,000 per school year. A loss of 193 students, in other words, translates to a roughly $2 million financial hit to the district. At the same time, notes Johnson, loss of students also reduces the amount of the district’s levy, further adding to the problem.
Closing schools would only exacerbate the decline in student enrollment, notes Johnson, who responded to several questions posed by the Timberjay this past week.
“Financially, closure of any one school would cause the complete loss of enrollment from that school and the revenue generated directly by those ADM,” wrote Johnson in her response to questions.
The revenues generated by each school helps pay for the cost of operating that school as well as district-wide costs such as administration, so the loss of even a majority of students as a result of school closure is likely to further stress the district’s finances.
But the closure of Tower-Soudan could have an even greater negative impact for several reasons unique to the school.
For one, a provision enacted into state law during the creation of the Lake Vermilion Soudan Underground Mine State Park, provides extra payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILT, dedicated to the nearest public school, which happens to be Tower-Soudan Elementary. Johnson states that last time she did a breakdown of the district’s PILT, those special for Tower, amounted to just over $60,000.
The district also receives $34,300 annually from Scenic Rivers Health Services, which rents space for the Tower clinic from the school district. The school district also receives about $210,000 in compensatory aid for the school, based on its free and reduced-price lunch count, and those are funds that the district would not receive were the school to be closed.
What’s more, notes Johnson, the teaching staff at Tower-Soudan is among the most senior in the district. Were the school closed, notes Johnson, those teachers would have rights to bump less senior (and lower-paid) teachers from other schools, raising expenses in those schools.
“We can’t afford to close the Tower School,” said Ron Marinaro, who represents the attendance area on the St. Louis County School Board. While some parents have argued that the school could be closed to limit teacher cuts at North Woods, Marinaro said that’s not going to happen. “It’s never been on the table,” he said. “It’s never even been hinted.”
What’s more, enrollment at Tower-Soudan has been remarkably stable in recent years, even as other schools have seen declines. North Woods has seen the biggest drop of all the schools in the period since the COVID-19 pandemic, declining from 549 students to 453, a nearly 20-percent decline and more than double that of any other school.
So why is the district losing so many students? Several reasons are contributing, according to Johnson.
•The loss of 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.