LAPORTE-After a meeting earlier this month where many parents and other community members said they opposed a potential athletic co-op with a neighboring district, Laporte Public School leaders on Monday outlined about $252,000 worth of spending cuts, many of which School Board members had already enacted, and new revenue streams, some tentative, that could bring in more than $100,000.
The cuts mean the district won't replace four retiring paraprofessionals and a special education teacher whom they had previously let go. It also means eliminating the school's cross country team, cutting back on custodial work and the school newsletter, and opting not to pay for a part-time mentor for a science teacher and a new round of smartboards.
District leaders also hiked an operating levy as high as it can go without voter approval and asked parents and other assembled community members to form an athletics booster club to pay for some sports costs, such as uniforms.
Those two measures could bring in another $62,500, but $25,000 of that is a budgeted figure for booster club revenue that Superintendent Kim Goodwin said is a "starting point" because staff were unsure how much money the potential club would raise.
Laporte also uses grant money to pay for part of three employees' salaries, and Goodwin said she's asked for more money this year to bump that number to five, a move that could free up another $74,000.
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In all, the measures presented Monday-$252,000 worth of cuts and a budgeted $136,000 worth of new revenue-would save $388,000, which is somewhat higher than the $352,000 budget shortfall the district faces.
Laporte staff reportedly approached staff at Walker-Hackensack-Akeley to explore forming a co-op of some variety between the two school districts, a move that could have closed part of Laporte's budget gap. Goodwin said she wasn't sure how much a co-op would have saved the district, but eliminating athletics programming entirely-a much more drastic step than a co-op-would have saved about $200,000.
Word of the co-op spread, and a vocal crowd showed up at a Laporte School Board meeting earlier this month to discuss and, by and large, object to the plan.
"I think it was pretty clear that the community didn't want to go down that route," Goodwin told the Pioneer. "So then I had to work at not looking at that area. Where can we cut? What can we do?"
Districts across Minnesota are trimming their budgets this year, and many education leaders place the blame on state and federal funding that hasn't kept up with rising costs. Minnesota's per-pupil funding formula, for instance, lagged behind inflation for several years, and a federal commitment to special education funding has only been met partway.
"This really sucks, if I may use plain language, that we find ourselves in this position," said Laporte School Board member Sue Olson. "But this is bigger than the Laporte School Board. This is the whole Minnesota Department of Education, which gets its funding by those people that we've elected into office. So if you're holding us accountable as elected officials, I implore you to hold your local state representatives and state senators accountable, too. Email them, call them, and say, 'Hey, we need money for our school.'"
Here's a quick breakdown of Laporte's budget cuts and additions:
Cuts:
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Four paraprofessionals: $125,251
One special education teacher: $53,372
Cross country team: $4,222
Eliminating a custodian for games: $8,000
Fewer school newsletters: $3,335
Part-time science mentor: $32,854
Smartboard purchase: $25,000
Total: $252,034
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Additions:
Operating levy increase from $300 to $424 per student: $37,500
Two more salaries partly covered by grant funding: $74,000
Sports booster club: $25,000 (estimated)
Total: $136,500
