Special ed faces cuts as Minneapolis schools struggle to close $75M budget gap

Minneapolis school board members Tuesday night began detailing difficult cuts they expect to make to close a $75 million budget gap for next school year, including cutting more than 100 positions tied to special education.

District leaders had previously signaled school nutrition and special education would be affected by cuts. Some layoff notices had already been sent. As they met Tuesday night, the board’s finance committee said the total number of position cuts coming hadn’t been finalized.

Protesters at the meeting pushed back on talk of reductions, at one point standing and chanting “Who’s schools? Our schools!” They called on board members to sign a pledge not to touch student-facing special education positions.

Daniel Degnan, a parent with a son in a special education program, told board members his son had attended a Minneapolis school with an underfunded special education program in the past and the difference was drastic.

“I'm not worried about if my son will regress, but by how much,” said Degnan, adding that his son is flourishing now with the help of a speech device and proper support. “These cuts would not be simple restructuring of staff and resources at Dowling Elementary. It would be a complete and utter denial of education for our most vulnerable.”

Board members said they were focused on cutting positions that aren’t student-facing and were trying to minimize direct effects on classrooms. They said cuts to math and literacy staff were minimized. They said no programs aimed at helping students of color were eliminated.

Among the money-saving proposals, board member said plans include:

• Reductions in staff across and significant restructuring across almost all major departments.

• Tightening non-salary expenses and extended time.

• Reducing contracts with outside services like caterers, bus drivers and lawyers and instead using staff within the organization.

Collin Beachy, chair of the school board, praised the staff for its work providing the board detailed budget data and options.

“I've been saying to you guys for months now about how much hard work I know that you're all doing and how painful and stressful it can be,” Beachy said. “You know, we've asked for transparency and I think that we've gotten it on steroids here.”

Now the state’s fourth-largest district, Minneapolis has struggled for years with budget deficits driven largely by shrinking enrollment. Last year as the district faced an even larger budget gap of $110 million, it drew from its reserves, cut jobs and left nearly 5 percent of its open staff positions unfilled to make ends meet. Some of the cuts included positions in finance, human resources and cleaning staff.

Officials in recent months have also been examining the district’s building use for possible savings. They’ve estimated Minneapolis Public Schools is operating now at 65 percent of the enrollment the buildings could ideally support, though district leaders haven’t said whether they plan to close buildings and they did not speak to the issue Tuesday night.

The full board is expected to approve a final budget in June.

A recent survey by the Association of Metropolitan School Districts shows all but a few Twin Cities area districts are dealing with deficits, many in the millions of dollars. 

Added together, districts expect to see a shortfall of $280 million. That would slip to $264 million if Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal is approved. Those numbers are slightly better than the more than $300 million in expected shortfalls districts reported last year.

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