Robbinsdale schools to make budget cuts to address $20M shortfall error
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Administrators at Robbinsdale Area Schools said they will be making budget cuts and reducing staff after an error left the district with a $20 million shortfall. The school district held a town hall meeting Wednesday night to discuss its budget.
Administrators at the Twin Cities-area district say staff counted a fund twice during the budget process, making it look like the district had more money than it does. School officials declined to comment specifically on how the budget error occurred and who caused it.
Robbinsdale needs to make up the gap in its 2025-26 fiscal year budget and the district is considering budget reductions, building modifications or closures, and a potential future funding referendum.
The district has a $200 million budget. That includes $180 million in general funding and $20 million in compensatory funding, which is state funding that helps meet the education needs of students who are learning or performing under grade level. Administrators say the compensatory funding is what was counted twice.
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At a town hall Wednesday night at Cooper High School in New Hope, administrators said they are considering several options on how to move forward.
"One of the biggest heartbreaks in all of this is that we know that 80 percent of school district budgets are staff,” said Robbinsdale School District Superintendent Teri Staloch. “It's going to be impossible to do this work without it impacting lives of people who are amazing."
Robbinsdale has seen a decline in enrollment over the past few years. Parents and staff expressed concerns that more students and staff would move out of the district and worried about which programs and teachers would be cut.
“These humans are raising my children,” said Kara Kurth, who has three students enrolled in the district. “Seeing this miscalculation, $20 million… it just blew my mind.”
Leo Anderson is the dean of students at Sandburg Middle School and says he will stay with the district because he cares about the kids.
"I grew up in North Minneapolis when Robbinsdale was 97 percent white. Now we're minorities and POC out here, and do we sacrifice students, seeing people who look and sound like them to save the budget?” Anderson said.
“This is a pivotal moment for our district,” said Chief Financial Officer Kristen Hoheisel in an update on the district’s website. “While these financial realities are difficult, they also represent an opportunity to reimagine our approach to serving students. I believe we can turn these challenges into a springboard for transformative growth for the district.”
Hoheisel started at the school district in August. She told town hall attendees she first noticed something was wrong in September, but didn't feel confident going public with the numbers until they had more information. The public was made aware of the error at a school board meeting Monday, a little less than two weeks after voters passed a referendum that increased funding to the school district.
"So it was almost immediate, after the start of school, where it… it doesn't seem right, it doesn't feel right. We knew there was an issue,” she said. “We knew it was probably pretty large. It's just really hard when you're still deep diving to go out and say we're deep diving."
Administrators say they are seeking community input on how to approach long term solutions, which they plan to submit to the state after they go into statutory operating debt. That’s expected to happen at the end of this fiscal year, Hoheisel said.
Superintendent Staloch said the district can use the budget error as an opportunity to reimagine how the district serves students.
"We can wallow in the mud, or we can look at this problem as an opportunity to grow and to dig into the potential of the school district, and that's how I'm going to lead,” Staloch said.
The school district has seen a lot of administrative turnover. Joan Evans, whose children attended Robbinsdale schools, said the district had a crisis of confidence.
"While I love the enthusiasm and the positivity and yes, let's try to fix this and use it as an opportunity, there's some part of me going, ‘oh, I've heard this before.’” Evans said.
Town hall attendees also expressed gratitude for having an open meeting, but said they wanted more transparency in the process.