Conversation roils on Barnum school deficit

Students, parents and teachers talked to the Barnum school board at its monthly meeting Tuesday, Feb. 18 to express their concerns about proposed staff cuts following news that the district needs to make significant cuts or it will go into the red.

Kyle, a student, spoke first and listed two items that the students wanted the board to realize: that academic needs are met by the students’ relationships with the teachers, and that the students care deeply about each and every teacher.

A high school teacher asked if restructuring, such as a four-day week, had been considered as a way to manage the budget in spite of the $750,000 that needs to be cut from next year’s budget.

“Do you foresee budget cuts in the coming years?” she asked. “We want answers at the next school board meeting.”

Another teacher asked the board to work with the teachers in considering the staff cuts.

Paula Williams, a parent advocate, said although she had never had an interest in the board in the past, she attended the Feb. 4 school board work session, and hearing the students talk about their love for their teachers inspired her to create the Barnum School Group Facebook page as a way to keep the momentum going and channel it into productive conversations about what is best for the students.

“What I was disheartened by at the meeting on Tuesday is how it unfolded,” she said. “So many of the questions that were asked were simply not answered. Or the data was not available. We were left with a feeling of helplessness because all that was said wouldn’t change the end result.”

Williams said she spoke with the superintendent, principals, school board members and other community members to learn about school finance and the budget.

“No one person or group in our school district is to blame for where we are at,” Williams said. “External forces factors into our situation that many other rural schools also face. We have a lot of work to do. Learning all of this has been so important to so many of us as we try to understand how to move forward.”

She noted it’s important to move forward together, in a respectful manner, for the sake of the students. She suggested that everyone needs to listen to the ideas and take them seriously.

“Then we need to roll up our sleeves and, together, do the work that needs to be done if we are to come out of this situation stronger,” she added.

Williams proposed a meeting where representatives of all the stakeholders come together to bring ideas and discuss options.

The board agreed and set the meeting for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4. The agenda will be posted on the school website as soon as it is written, said chairperson Colleen Fetters.

Board member Jamie Fugelstad thanked Williams for spearheading the talks.

“I think that it will be very beneficial,” he said.

The board did approve cuts in non-personnel items, including a technology lease configuration, not renewing a subscription to Newsela, and media budget reductions.

Fifteen items on the agenda, all consisting of staff reductions and reductions of kitchen hours, were tabled.

Transportation items were tabled, pending a decision from talks with the Moose Lake school district about a joint powers agreement for a transportation collaborative.

Superintendent Mike McNulty reported that the agreement will be finalized in future meetings with Moose Lake and sent to the attorneys for approval.

A motion was passed to reduce salaries to administrative staff as presented by them. Fetters thanked the administrative staff for proposing the salary cuts.

Board member Paul Coughlin addressed the budget before the meeting ended.

He spoke of items that were purchased or remodeling expenses and the reasons why those expenses were needed. All of those one-time expenses — adding up to $195,000 — were in this year’s budget.

“I have all of the audits back to 2014 that show what our bottom line was,” he said. “It fluctuates right around $2 million to $1.7 million over most of those years,” he said. “That $200,000 is less than or right around 10 percent of the overall reduction that we had in our school spending. It is all in this year’s budget. It doesn’t answer why we went from a $2 million surplus to a deficit.”

Coughlin blamed much of the district’s budget woes on declining student numbers and cross subsidy, when districts use general fund money to pay for state and federally mandated programs such as special education that are not adequately funded by the mandating body.

He encouraged everyone there to strive for “sizeability,” to right-size the budget for the number of students in the district, which now has fewer students but the same budget.

He also said salaries and benefits are the district’s largest expense.“People have to understand that our largest expense is educational services so that has to be part of the response to the cuts,” he said.

There will be no working meeting of the board in March. The next meeting is March 17.