School board hears possible deficit solutions at special meeting

Meetings with public input to be scheduled

The Minot School Board held a special meeting at the Minot Area Workforce Academy on Thursday, at which it voted on a priority list for possible mitigation measures for addressing a $6.63 million deficit projected for the next school year.

Superintendent Mark Vollmer reviewed information discussed at the last meeting regarding the district’s budget and potential realignment to address it.

Vollmer referenced the $109 million dollar referendum to construct Minot North High School and convert Central Campus to a middle school. He clarified that funds from the referendum were used solely for construction and could not be applied to maintenance of the new buildings or for their staff. Vollmer said that going into the referendum there was discussion that "efficiencies" in the operating budget would need to be identified at some point to offset costs.

Vollmer said the need to cut costs was a practical reality the district had to confront, due to a 100-student enrollment decrease and the cost of inflation causing the district’s deficit to balloon from 1.88% of the total budget to 5.32%. Vollmer described any deficit over 3% as, "problematic and unmanageable."

Vollmer asked the board to weigh some specific solutions identified by his office and Business Manager Laura Dokken and provide prioritized recommendations for them to pursue and gather additional information on.

The proposed efficiencies include: the closure of elementary schools with enrollment of less than 100 students and the reassignment of their staff; the closure of middle schools with enrollment under 300 students and reassign staff; a realignment of intervention programs; a reduction of secondary elective course offerings; a possible building fund levy; district office realignment; reduction of district subscriptions and licenses; realignment of enrichment programs; the elimination of low impact extra-curricular positions; the elimination of eCare services; and other recommendations to be made by staff at school meetings to be held in the future.

"We're going to gather more information. If that's something we're going to explore, we need to have meetings in these communities within those attendance areas. We need to have meetings with staff members. We need to gather a lot of information because these are highly impactful decisions and that we need a lot of input on," Vollmer said. "After all that is said and done, you, the board, will have to weigh those options and make a final decision. We have a lot of work to do and we need your guidance to get what you need."

Board member Jim Rostad spoke before they voted, saying he had received a number of emails and phone calls from individuals with questions on the situation. He said he would like a public meeting to provide an avenue for questions to be addressed.

"Some of the emails I received were pretty well thought out and people were asking really good questions. Before I vote, I want a lot of those questions answered," Rostad said.

The board took 15 minutes to review the list and number their personal priority list from highest to lowest. Vollmer clarified that if the board had no interest in any of the proposed options, they should make that clear when they vote so no resources are wasted considering them.

After the results were tabulated, the highest priority items were considering the closure of middle schools, followed by closure of elementaries, intervention program realignment, a reduction in elective courses and district office realignment.

The financial impact of closing the elementary schools below the enrollment threshold was estimated to be $500,000-$1 million, while the closure of the middle schools would save between $1 million and $2 million. A possible building fund levy that would provide an estimated $1 million financial impact was sixth on the list.

Board member Sabrina Herrman took some time to ask clarifying questions of Vollmer regarding some specific impacts that the proposed school closures would have on schools and regarding possible sales of real estate assets owned by the district. Vollmer stated in some instances the addition of students to other classrooms could improve efficiencies on a students per teacher basis, and any possible sale of assets would offer only temporary relief to an ongoing problem.

Vollmer estimated the board's selections would require a lot of time to dig into to provide all the necessary information for the highest priorities, but the lower priority entries could easily and quickly be implemented should they choose to pursue them. Vollmer asked for a week to prepare a presentation, planned for a meeting on Jan. 29.

Additional meetings to invite public comment were discussed but were not scheduled before the meeting adjourned.