ST PAUL, Minn. — Charter School STEP Academy in St. Paul is at risk of shutting down after an Oct. 4 board meeting showed the academy had 117 fewer students enrolled than planned, leading to them being $775,000 over budget. In efforts to cut costs, teachers and other staff have been let go.
"I was asked to turn in my keys. I was asked to turn in my computer, and I was sent off," said now former STEP Academy Literacy Coordinator Maureen Nelson. Nelson provided reading intervention services at the elementary level, and was one of a handful of teachers and staff let go on Monday by the academy.
STEP Academy serves a significant part of the Somali community in the Capitol City and works to reach students who are underserved by traditional schools and underrepresented in STEM fields.
"As a parent myself, I would like to know what happened and why is my student who's struggling, why have you taken that support away from them?" Nelson said. "I had 33 students on my caseload, including fifth graders that were at first and kindergarten reading levels."
Nelson said the other reading intervention teacher and two other math intervention teachers were also cut, meaning there are none left at STEP Academy.
"They still made the decision to cut teaching positions over cutting any of the higher administrators or the people making so much more than all of us as teachers," Nelson said.
In a letter to the school board and administration, school authorizer Innovative Quality Schools (IQS) wrote that since the projected enrollment has not been actualized, the school was overpaid for quarter one of the 2025 fiscal year.
Charter Schools are public schools funded according to enrollment. In Minnesota, charter schools receive about $12,000 per student, depending on the student’s grade and additional services that the student receives.
IQS wrote "STEP Academy is in a financial crisis. If the Board does not take sufficient and responsible action, the school will be unable to continue operations."
Nelson, who is a wife and mother of two, now needs to figure out what to do next.
"We're now in October," she said. "To try to find a teaching job, it's not the easiest thing. We're worried about, can we make our mortgage? Can we feed our children? I mean, this is absurd. I never, ever imagined that this is what it would come to."
School officials told KARE 11 that no one from the school would be available to speak about the budget challenges Tuesday. The next board meeting is Oct. 21.