New Minneapolis schools superintendent plans widespread ‘reductions’ to shore up budget

The new Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent has been on the job for the last month. And Lisa Sayles-Adams is facing a tough first budget season.

The district has to close a $110 million deficit and that could mean the loss of at least 200 jobs. It's also facing a severe decline in enrollment.

She shared more on the district’s plans with MPR News host Tom Crann.

The following is a transcription of the audio heard using the player above, lightly edited for clarity.

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You’re looking at some pretty difficult stuff, some tough cuts. What do you make of that?

Sayles-Adams: What I make of that is our district is facing the largest budget gap we’ve seen in years with more than $110 million. And a lot of that is largely due to the loss of the federal COVID-19 dollars in addition to the increased costs of operating our district — that could include transportation, utilities and, like you said, declining enrollment.

How will you make cuts in the short term to make up for the federal COVID money?

If you recall, this year, we used an investment of about $29 million through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to have teachers and associate educators in our schools supporting students that needed them the most. So, we will have a reduction there.

We will have a 50 percent reduction in funding for Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), which is a program that helps students who are interested in going to college. So, we’ll still offer that but we won’t offer it at the highest level.

There will be a reduction of all district funding for our kindergarten through fifth grade literacy and math teachers that are on special assignment. Those are coaches that are in the classroom that support teacher professional development.

Then, we’ll have a reduction of funding for some of our world languages in our elementary and middle school programs.

When we looked at our opportunity to make reductions, we didn’t eliminate important programming for students to focus on math, literacy, or any of those core academic areas. So yes, I do believe it’ll look a little tighter. We won’t have as many supports in the classrooms that we normally have but we will have the supports that students need.

Are there plans to right size the district for the future and might that mean closing schools?

We are operating our facilities as if we still had 40,000 students enrolled and that is not the case. We have 20,000 or a little more than that at the moment. So, we will be moving towards a plan of transformation. I’ll be working closely with the board next year on what that looks like. But that is something that is on the horizon.

What do you attribute to the historic loss of enrollment?

I’ll tell you seven weeks in what I think is behind that. I will not say that I’m the expert at this moment. But I do feel that open enrollment is a cause. I do believe that the declining birth rate is a cause. And we did lose quite a few students during the COVID era.

So what’s your argument to the parents who have made that decision and send their kids, whether it’s to magnet schools or other schools?

Here’s my case, I will be going out on a listening campaign in the community in all sections of the city wanting to have a better understanding of what parents want to see in their schools. I have three questions that I will be asking and I invite parents who may not have their students in Minneapolis public schools to come.

I will talk about what excites you about Minneapolis Public Schools so hopefully they can hear from other people. What’s one thing working well in Minneapolis Public Schools and here’s a question I think everyone wants to get at. If you were the superintendent, what would you change first?

I want to hear from people. I want to receive feedback so we know exactly what parents want for their children. I am a parent. I am a grandmother. I know that I have a high value of education and public education. I believe in public education and I would love for families to choose us and to come back to Minneapolis Public Schools.