Budget Reduction and Realignment Update

March 13, 2025

As you know, we are navigating challenging times as we have had to reduce our budget by $7.6 million dollars over a two-year period. We acknowledge the difficulty of this situation as we do our best to identify reductions that have the least impact on our ability to meet student needs. This collaborative effort is anchored in our Budget Reduction and Realignment Guiding Change document. 

In line with our commitment to transparency and open communication, we hope to address the questions and concerns we have received in regards to the budget reductions and reallocations for this year (FY2025) and next school year (FY2026). 

We hope this information is helpful and we are happy to answer additional questions. Thank you for your dedication and hard work.

Media Centers and Activities Directors

We have made two changes to our budget reduction plan based on feedback from students, staff, and families. First, to align with our commitment to literacy and access to media centers, we will hire paraprofessionals to support both middle and high school libraries. This staffing solution will ensure all four media centers can remain open daily.

Regarding media specialists, we have received inquiries about funding provided by Minnesota State Statute 124D.992 School Library Aid. The funding Duluth Public Schools receives from this source covers the salary and benefits of one media specialist, and has been allocated accordingly.

Secondly, Duluth Public Schools will be working with the Duluth Federation of Teachers (DFT) through our collaborative labor management process to address concerns raised by both parties in regards to the duties of activities directors. To facilitate this process, activities directors will remain in their current roles as Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSAs) for the 2025-2026 school year.

Our goal is to reach a mutually agreeable resolution that best serves our students, staff, and families. We will be working with the Duluth Federation of Teachers (DFT) to negotiate the transition of activities director duties for implementation in the 2026-2027 school year.

We look forward to a collaborative process over the next year. 

Staffing Numbers Over the Years

Staffing levels have been a topic of discussion for many years. As part of those conversations, some misunderstandings have circulated regarding the number of administrative staff. To provide clarity, we have compiled data from our systems to present a clear picture of staffing numbers over time.

Our "Budget Reduction and Realignment Information" spreadsheet includes a sheet called "Staffing numbers 2016-2025," which details the numbers for each bargaining unit and individual contract employees over the years.

We'd like to highlight a few specific items within the spreadsheet:

• Teacher numbers increased from 729 pre-COVID to 823 this year.
• The Executive Employees Association Clerical unit merged with the Executive Employees Association (EEA) unit last year, increasing EEA employee numbers.
• The Director of Curriculum position was split into two positions, but with the elimination of the Director of Assessment, director numbers are back to pre-COVID levels.
• The increase to five individual contracted employees in 2021 resulted from a new position, and the temporary increase to six in 2022 was due to a retirement/new hire overlap.

Other Reductions to Be Determined

In our Budget Reduction and Realignment Information spreadsheet, under the sheet labeled “FY25 and FY26 Planned Reduction” under column K in row 13 and row 25 you will see a total of $234,000 which still needs to be identified for reductions to reach our goal of $5 million for next school year. Around $134,000 in reductions will happen after student registration has finished up. There will be reductions in low-enrollment courses. With the continuation of the activities director positions for one more year, the district will need to find another $100,000 in reductions, which has yet to be determined. 

How ESSER Funding Was Spent

Over the course of four years, Duluth Public Schools received over $35.8 million in COVID relief funding, otherwise known as ESSER. Executive Director of Business Services Simone Zunich has put together a detailed list in our Budget Reduction and Realignment Information spreadsheet, under the sheet labeled “ESSER Expenditures” how much funding we received each year and where the funding was spent based on the financial code. 

While looking at this sheet, if you have any questions about what is under these financial codes, please feel free to submit your questions in our Budget Question Google Form and someone will get back to you with an answer as soon as they can. 

District Level Administration Expenditures Pre-COVID vs Now

There has been many questions and misinformation in our community in regards to expenditures at the district level pre-COVID compared to now. Through the budgeting process, people have shared that they believe that there has been an excessive increase in district level administration since Superintendent Magas was hired. By sharing the actual numbers, we believe that we can clearly demonstrate that this is not the case.

This information is coming from Minnesota Department of Education Data Center tables, specifically the “School Finance Reports, Expenditures by District/Site Level” report. In our Budget Reduction and Reallocation Information spreadsheet, under the sheet labeled “General Fund Expenditures Pre-COVID and 2024” you will see two screenshots of the Expenditures by District/Site Level report from MDE, one from FY2020 and the other from FY2024. 

The District Level Administration line item percentage increased from 5.18% in FY2020 to 8.03% in FY2024. The FY2024 amount includes $2.045 million in ESSER funding. Without ESSER funds, the FY2024 percentage would be 6.6%, a 1.42% increase since COVID, or 0.355% increase per year. Stillwater Area Public Schools, a similar district, had a 5.64% District Level Administration line item percentage in FY2024, without ESSER funds.

Recognition of Challenging Times

If you have made it this far in this communication, we want to thank you for your time to learn more about our budget reductions. This was a long letter, but we hope you learned something or received clarity on questions you had. 

If you have any questions not addressed here, please feel free to submit them in our Budget Question Google Form and someone will get back to you with an answer as soon as they can. 

We also want to acknowledge that these are challenging times for our district. Budget reductions are never easy, and we understand the concerns and emotions of those who have been affected by this process.

We want to assure you that we made these decisions with the best interests of our students and staff in mind. We are committed to providing a high-quality education for all students, and we will continue to work hard to ensure that our district is a great place to learn and work.

We know that change can be difficult, but I am confident that we will come through this stronger together. We are a resilient community, and we have always found a way to overcome challenges.

Thank you for your understanding and support.