ROBBINSDALE, Minn. — A huge math error means the Robbinsdale School District will be tens of millions of dollars in the red next school year.
Robbinsdale Area Public Schools held a meeting Wednesday evening for families who wanted their questions answered.
“I’m a single homeowner and taxes are going up and I need to know where my tax dollars are being spent,” said Kim Larson, a concerned taxpayer who attended the meeting.
It’s a tough math class that the district’s superintendent says could lead to budget cuts, but she adds they will do their best to still support students.
Here’s a look at the budget: The district reports total revenues are roughly $200 million, consisting of $180 million in general revenue and $20 million in compensatory funding. District leaders say during the budget process that $20 million was somehow counted twice.
“It was an error in the implementation of the staffing and budget process and therefore we overstaffed what we should have done. That was the error,” said Kim Hoheisel, Ronbinsdale CFO.
Superintendent Teri Staloch said they now have to be creative to meet the district’s financial needs and the needs of students.
“We’re going to be making some very difficult budget decisions next year … determining which buildings we might want to reuse, which buildings we might want to renovate and which buildings we might have to close,” Staloch said. “While the short- and long-term challenges are real, we can and will create a better school district for our students, staff, families and communities. We need to make some cuts and we need to involve our community in building a better future for our children.”
In addition to potentially repurposing, renovating and closing some buildings, district leaders say another option to address the surprise budget shortfall could be a future referendum to support student and district needs.
The district will hold a meeting on the financial issues at Cooper High School on Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Pauleen Le
