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Budget

Duluth Public Schools is committed to transparency and fiscal responsibility.

Budget Challenges

Several factors contribute to our current financial situation:

  • Inflation costs
  • Increase in cost of health insurance
  • Increase in cost of transportation
  • Unfunded legislative mandates
  • Increasing costs of special education services

Despite these challenges, we have had relatively stable enrollment and we remain dedicated to supporting every student, advancing equity, and improving our systems.

Our Approach

As we address budget constraints, we are guided by the following principles:

  • Prioritizing classroom needs
  • Maintaining social emotional and mental health supports
  • Continuing to advance equity efforts
  • Aligning funding with district priorities
  • Seeking efficiencies and new funding sources

Balanced Budget Imperative

It is crucial for Duluth Public Schools to achieve a balanced budget every school year to ensure the district's financial stability and avoid statutory operating debt. Statutory operating debt occurs when a school district's operating debt exceeds specific limits set by state law. Entering statutory operating debt would severely restrict our financial flexibility and potentially lead to increased state oversight of our district's finances.

To prevent this, we are committed to:

  • Utilizing a transparent and engaging process for budget reductions and reallocations
  • Examining all legacy practices with a lens of fiscal accountability
  • Developing and forecasting balanced budgets
  • Maintaining a minimum fund balance to ensure financial stability

We invite our community to stay informed and engaged. Your input and support are crucial as we strive to make the best decisions for our students and our district's future while maintaining fiscal responsibility.

Guiding Change

These are the parameters the district will use when making decisions about budget reductions. 

Reality
"The Why"

  • Increased costs in special education, transportation, and health insurance

  • Inflation costs
  • Continued unfunded legislative mandates requiring resources
  • Stable enrollment
  • Current projected deficit of $4 million for Fiscal Year 2027
  • Priority areas are supporting every student, advancing equity, and improving systems.

Parameters
"The How"

  • Continue alignment of funding and operations to district priorities: 
    • Continue to support student needs throughout the district
    • Continue to advance equity efforts throughout the district (e.g. Continue to allocate additional resources to students with the greatest need.)
    • Continue to improve systems throughout the district. 
  • Follow laws, policies, regulations & contracts
  • Avoid additional fund balance depletion
  • Support identified November 2023 Referendum commitments
    • Maintain essential social emotional and metal health supports
    • Continue to support high school schedule improvements
    • Maintain essential academic supports
  • Develop reduction and realignment options with representative stakeholder input
  • Make decisions with proper of sufficient data

Results
"The What"

  • Balanced budget for 2026-2027
  • Utilize a transparent and engaging process for budget reductions and reallocations for FY27
  • Prioritize and protect classroom needs as much as possible
  • Develop and forecast balanced budgets
  • Examine all legacy practices with a lens of fiscal accountability
  • Protects school district's fiscal health by continually seeking efficiencies and identifying new sources of funding, such as grants and investment opportunities.

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