BLUE EARTH– Financial woes were the issue of the day at the Blue Earth Area School Board meeting Monday night, with superintendent Mandy Fletcher raising concerns about federal funding cuts set to impact the district in the 2025-26 school year, as well as some concerning trends in data from the MSBA survey.

Chief among her concerns were the proposed cuts to compository funding, which are funds specifically intended to aid underprepared students in the district. Under the current system, there are two approaches for determining a school district’s need for this funding: direct certification, a new system which was recently rolled out to select districts across the state (including BEA), and paper certification, which was the primary way of determining student need pre-COVID.

Currently, there is a hold harmless clause in place which has prevented school districts from losing their compensatory funding during the shift from paper to direct certification. This clause is set to expire in FY25, which will drastically impact the amount schools across the state will receive in compensatory funding, both positively and negatively.

Current financial projections estimate that BEA schools are set to receive $466,000 in compensatory funding in FY25. However, the governor has proposed a set of fixes to offset some of the impact of the clause’s expiration, which would cap the funds BEA is set to receive at only $30,000 – far less than the district requires, Fletcher said.

Superintendant Fletcher also indicated that, as of the current legislative session, Quality Compensation funding had been cut entirely for the district, and a 5 percent reduction in special education transportation reimbursement was set to impact the district’s budget as well.

Aside from budget cuts, school districts across the state showed more signs of struggle in the form of Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA) survey results, which at the time of this meeting had surveyed 168 schools across the state, including BEA.

Fletcher said one of the biggest issues made evident in these results was the amount of deferred maintenance in schools across the state. According to estimates, schools across the state currently exceed $4.5 billion dollars in facility needs.

Also of concern, Fletcher explained, were the statistics relevant to staffing reductions and retention. According to the survey, 8 percent of all teachers in south central Minnesota resigned at the end of the 2023-24 school year, and 18 percent of first-time teachers resigned at the end of 2023-24.

Furthermore, 45 percent of schools across the state were projected to have staff reductions by 2026, with an additional 25 percent unsure of whether their current staff would face reductions. The most commonly cited reasons for staff reductions included labor costs, declining student enrollment, and operating expenses.

Other topic discussed at the School Board meeting were:

— BEA High School is switching from block scheduling to a new seven-period day schedule, with the intent to make this scheduling shift in Fall 2025.

— BEA is hosting a survey on their website, www.beaschools.org, to hear community feedback and determine a course of action for proposed infrastructure repairs within its aging PreK-7th grade building.