Budget crunching begins in Carlton

The heavy lifting on cutting away the Carlton school district’s million-dollar budget hole will begin in meetings in February, but the school board on Tuesday showed signs that those cuts will sting — especially for those seeking activities outside the classroom. The board balked on accepting contracts for advisors to the school play and pep band. None of the four members present brought forth a motion on music teacher Sharrie Janovick and potential theater director Alyssa Olsen. It means there will be no school play and no pep band, which also performs small band concerts.

Carlton schools principal Ben Midge said conducting a school play was already a dicey proposition, considering the persistence of Covid-19 in the school population.

Superintendent John Engstrom told the board that it needs to set its priorities in the next work session meeting in February on how much it wants to cut and where. He and his staff have said they’ve already found some significant savings in the tech budget and supplies. The district needs to find at least $250,000 to $500,000 in savings for the next year to stem the deficit budget. It would need to seek a referendum or even more cuts next year to put the ledger in the black.

Engstrom said determining what are core classes versus perhaps expendable electives is also on the table, as well as class sizes increasing with fewer teachers, or a restructuring of administrative staffing.

The school board will meet for discussion in a committee of the whole format at 7 p.m. on Feb. 14 at the high school. A finance meeting will proceed that meeting at 6:30 p.m. COW meetings are for discussion only and, while the public is welcome to attend, there is no public comment portion. That comes with the regular monthly board meeting at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, where the board could take action on items discussed the week before.