SAINT PAUL, Minn. — There are no easy decisions for Saint Paul Public Schools right now, as the system grapples with a deficit over $100 million, and the cuts associated with it.
"We knew we had our work cut out for us," Tom Sager, the district's executive chief for financial services, said. "We identified $150 million in a budget shortfall."
"As we look forward to next year, we do plan to use part of our fund balance to keep as many programs and services in place as possible for our students and staff," Sager continued.
As part of the $1 billion budget proposal, there would be some cuts, with much of it coming from three of the district's five main funds. The districts food service fund would see it's budget reduced by $2.5 million, down from nearly $32 million total in 2024.
The community service fund would decrease by $4.7 million, down from $34.5 million in 2024.
"We ended up reducing about $114 million out of our general fund budget," Sager said. "So we went from a little over $800 million last year to $700 million this year."
Increasing, is money to the district's construction fund – Sager says that's what pushed them over the billion dollar mark. With a deficit as large as the district is facing, some may ask why the district still needs a budget higher than a billion dollars.
Sager says it's still down from last years budget, which was also more than $1 billion.
This situation isn't an uncommon one, either. Scott Croonquist with the Association of Metropolitan School Districts says his organization has seen similar situations.
"It's really, almost across the board," Croonquist said.
A major reason for that – the end of federal pandemic dollars received years ago.
"Districts, if they were going to help their students and families, they had to hire those additional people, even though they knew that, you know, in a couple of years that federal funding would end," Croonquist said.
The school board will discuss this during their meeting on June 18th. The district must pass a budget by the end of the month.
While there are hard conversations ahead as the district discusses cuts, Croonquist says it needed to happen now, or risk a larger deficit in the future.
"If you don't make the hard decisions this year, then it's only going to compound the next year," he said. "You're gonna keep digging a hole."
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