Barnum school district faces painful budget decisions

The double whammy of fewer students and state and federal mandates that aren’t fully funded has the Barnum School Board looking at major cuts to keep the budget in the black.

The issues aren’t new, nor are they unique to the Barnum school district. However, after five years of deficit spending, the school board now needs to make $750,000 in cuts or risk going into statutory operating debt.

A large crowd of concerned residents attended the working meeting of the Barnum school board Feb. 4. It wasn’t so much a presentation from staff to audience, according to community member Paula Williams, as it was an impassioned discussion. And it’s created a lot of energy, she said.

“For four hours, almost 20 Barnum high school students along with community members shared how much they loved their school,” Williams said.

That meeting started with a presentation on the issues and proposed cuts, followed by a steady stream of comments for hours. The board didn’t take any vote at the Feb. 4 meeting, as it was a working session and intended for information gathering.

Decision time for the school board may come at its regular meeting next week, which starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18 in the school auditorium.

But Williams and many of the more than 230 people belonging to the Barnum School Group Facebook group are hoping the board and district administrators will agree to put the brakes on the proposed cuts, and sit down with residents and students again to collaborate on ideas to bring the budget into line.

She wants them to delay decisions on staffing cuts, and work to create more than one path to the needed cuts, together.

“There are smart people in Barnum. Teachers are coming up with ideas, parents, students,” Williams said. “You get people to be part of the process and bring them in, then whatever happens the pain is shared and you can harness the energy that this debate is creating to move ahead together. If you cut people out, you just make them mad.”

As the Pine Knot News went to press, the agenda for Tuesday’s upcoming meeting was not yet posted, but certainly the district’s financial woes will be center stage.

On Wednesday morning, first-year Barnum superintendent Mike McNulty said he couldn’t speak for individual board members, so he wasn’t sure if they would choose to delay any recommended budget cuts.

“There’s always that possibility,” he said.

McNulty said those who can’t make Tuesday’s meeting can watch it online. It will also be recorded and posted to the website. The information presented at the Feb. 4 meeting is also available on the school’s website, he added.

“We don’t want to hide things,” McNulty said. “More people are taking notice. That’s a good thing. School finance is not an easy thing to do.”

At issue

On top of several years of deficit spending — which delayed the budget reckoning — declining enrollment is hurting the rural school district.

According to school district figures and projections, since 2014 enrollment in the Barnum district has dropped from 802 students to 714. By fiscal year 2023, total enrollment is expected to drop to 643 students.

Every student lost to graduation or open enrollment translates to approximately $10,000 less per pupil from the state and federal government.

Simply put, more Barnum school district students are graduating than are entering kindergarten.

In fiscal year 2021, 55 students will graduate while 37 are expected to enroll in the Early Childhood Education program. Similar numbers hold true for the following year. For fiscal year 2023, 62 students are projected to graduate, while only 27 students are expected to enter Early Childhood Education.

“The drop in the birth rate is happening all over Minnesota,” McNulty said. “Some districts have an increasing enrollment, but that is from people moving into the school district.”

Projections show the decline in student numbers will likely continue for the next few years, which means further losses in revenue per student.

Paying money that should cover operations to cover unfunded or partially funded mandates is the other ongoing major issue for school districts across the state, including Barnum.

The cross-subsidy was defined in the Barnum report as “the amount of money that the district pays out of the general education fund for mandates (required programs such as special education, etc.) that are not funded by the state or federal government for special education costs.”

The numbers presented show that the cross-subsidy cost to the Barnum school district in fiscal year 2015 was $336,361.43 and increased to $486,191.56 in fiscal year 2018.

McNulty explained that the funding is always two years behind.

“Fiscal year 2019 will be coming out this fall, which is fiscal year 2021 for school districts,” the district report noted.

The state legislature did approve $91 million in new special education aid to temporarily cover growth in cross-subsidy expenses, according to a June 2019 MinnPost.com story, but McNulty said that money was more of “a temporary bandage” than a fix for the issue.

Proposed cuts

According to the district presentation (isd91.org/district/district-budget-reduction-recommendations), cuts would be spread across the district.

Reductions in teaching staff are causing the most concern in the citizen group.

The district administration recommended reducing the current 18 elementary sections to 17 or 16 sections.

That would mean two sections of kindergarten, three sections of first grade, two sections of second grade, three sections of third grade, and two sections each of fourth, fifth and sixth grades. The reductions in sections would result in savings of $99,000.

“We are trying to keep the class sizes small in the lower grades and larger numbers in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades,” said McNulty.

At the high school, proposed cuts included a full-time math position, special education teacher, and media specialist position, plus half-time science and Spanish positions. Those cuts would result in savings of $192,200, the report estimated.

Districtwide, physical education staffing would be reduced from three to two full-time positions and music would go from a 2.56 to 2.0 full-time equivalency for a savings of $111,000.

Other proposed cuts included reductions of one clerical staff position, one-half custodial position, and 262 food service hours. That would result in a savings of $73,000.

Eliminating three elementary recess supervisors would save $15,000. There were also cuts in lunch supervisor positions and a detention supervisor position, resulting in a savings of $6,000.

Recommended cuts to non-personnel items included a technology lease reduction that would result in savings of $65,000, supply reduction for $28,000 in savings, and increasing the meal prices by 10 cents, which would bring in $6,000.

Eliminating one bus route will probably be put on hold, said McNulty, because of ongoing talks with the Moose Lake school district about sharing busing.

The savings from the recommended personnel and non-personnel cuts in total add up to $741,000.

Some have suggested that the Barnum and Moose Lake school districts share the superintendent’s position after the Moose Lake superintendent, Robert Indihar, retires on June 30.

“That was discussed at the Minnesota School Boards Conference,” said McNulty. “For me, personally, that is something to talk about in the future. In school districts where it has been tried, it hasn’t worked out real well. That’s an ongoing talk.”

Hiring personnel when positions are cut and others have to be combined can make it difficult to find people willing to the area to fill positions, or to retain those moving on after a couple of years, said McNulty, adding: “It’s a supply and demand thing.”

McNulty said that asking school district voters to approve an operating referendum — which would provide additional funds for operating expenses — is a possibility, but has been only a discussion point so far, not a formal board topic.

Pine Knot News editor Jana Peterson contributed to this story.