Minneapolis Board of Education - Committee of the Whole

Remote

• The committee, which may not vote on items, heard a lengthy explanation of how the district plans to overcome a $110 million anticipated deficit in this year’s budget.
  • The new information for the board was how the district would make up for items, such as fifth grade music and adding back three assistant principals, that the board wanted added back into this year’s plan. The answer was that makeup would mainly come from positions at the Davis Center, the district’s headquarters, and from tinkering with the district’s expected vacancy rate for hiring for the next school year.
  • IT services would give up $1.2 million in contracts, Finance would lose one full-time position, Human Resources would lose 2.5 positions and $80,000 in contracts, plant operations would lose 20 full time employees, and the CTE centers at North, Edison and Roosevelt would lose $750,000 in funding for this coming year.
  • The majority of the deficit would be made up of drawing down on fund balance reserves, a one-time measure.
• Board Member Ira Jourdain made an impassioned plea for the district to get busy on identifying schools that must be closed in order to balance next year’s budget. He said the board has been dragging its feet on the issue. He suggested the board meet in July, usually when the board takes a summer break, to get a jump on the school transformation planning.
• The board members reviewed an updated graduation rate from 2023, which was 73.6 percent (for the two years prior, it was 74 percent).
• Board members also heard from Citywide Student Leadership Board representatives about their concerns, which centered on student mental health and well-being, district communications, and racial disparities.