Financial Health - Hopkins Public Schools

Hopkins Public Schools is navigating a complex financial landscape brought on by a combination of external factors.

Hopkins Public Schools, like many districts across Minnesota, is navigating significant budget challenges as we prepare for the 2025-26 school year. These shortfalls stem from rising costs in all areas, including inflation, increasing operational and labor expenses, and new state-mandated programs and requirements that are not fully funded. Additionally, flat enrollment continues to impact revenue, creating further financial strain.

The Association of Metropolitan School Districts (AMSD), which represents 47 K-12 school districts and 6 intermediate/cooperative districts, estimates a combined shortfall of more than $280 million among its members. Hopkins, like other districts, must make strategic budget adjustments to ensure long-term financial sustainability while continuing to support student success.

We remain committed to thoughtful, student-centered decision-making throughout this process and will provide regular updates as we move forward.

Our Budget Context

For Hopkins, we anticipate a budget deficit of about $7 million. Our district maintains a healthy fund balance, which can help offset part of our deficit. However, this one-time resource is not a sustainable long-term solution.

Our financial challenge requires both careful decision-making and long-term financial sustainability. We recognize that budget reductions of this magnitude impact students, staff, and families, and we do not take these decisions lightly. Over the past several months, we have conducted a thorough analysis of our financial landscape, prioritizing efficiencies that minimize the impact on classroom instruction and student opportunities.

Budgetary pressures

Statewide and in Hopkins the shortfalls are a result of unexpected and significant swings in inflation, cost of living increases, enrollment loss, the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds, and state funding that continues to fall short of school districts’ actual and projected expenses.

Pandemic Relief Fund Expiring

Federal relief provided to all school districts to help students recover from the pandemic expired in September 2024.

Inflation

Big swings in inflation have increased costs in utilities, transportation, food, supplies, insurance, and of course – cost of living. Expenses for services, transportation, utilities, and supplies are projected to increase by 5% annually.

Staff Shortages

School districts had to respond to historical staff shortages by increasing salaries in a number of job categories to remain competitive and fill vacancies.

Cost of Living

Hopkins nine bargaining units that have settled or are expected to
settle at increases that exceed what the state gave us. We value our employees and need to pay them a livable wage that matches what our neighbors are offering.

Enrollment

Overall, our enrollment has grown by just over 2 percent. While being able to maintain or slightly grow our enrollment is critical in this climate, we are preparing for flat growth moving forward.

Impact of salaries on budget

Understanding how schools are underfunded

State funding increases are below inflation

The basic per-student funding formula is only increasing by 2% for FY26 and FY27. However, inflation and district costs are rising at a higher rate (3%+ for non-salary costs and 4% for salaries).

This gap means that state funding is not keeping pace with the actual cost of running schools, forcing the district to either make cuts or use fund balances, which is not sustainable long-term.

A chart showing the increase in state funding vs. cost increases in salaries

Special education and ELL services are unfunded mandates

19% of Hopkins students require special education services, but neither the state nor federal government fully funds these services.

The district must cover the gap between the cost of providing special education and what the state/federal government reimburses, pulling funds away from general education.

Similarly, ELL services and Universal School Meals are mandated but not fully funded, adding to budget pressures.

Graph showing delta between special ed cost and state and federal funding

Upcoming Budget Discussions

Transportation Audit
School Board Workshop
5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25

Budget Presentation
School Board Meeting
7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25

Preliminary Budget Presented
School Board Meeting
7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22

More Information

Solutions and Steps Forward

Navigating our budget will require us to be strategic and thoughtful. We are working on a variety of solutions to keep cuts away from our classrooms and away from people. In addition to scrubbing all budgets and identifying where we might find efficiencies, here are some areas we can lean into as we navigate next year and beyond:

Fund Balance

Fund Balance

Hopkins currently maintains a healthy fund balance of about 12 percent, which can help offset part of our deficit. However, this one-time resource is not a sustainable long-term solution. Ongoing factors beyond our control have required consecutive annual reductions, pushing us to consider all options. It is crucial that we adopt a thoughtful, strategic approach to address these challenges while minimizing the impact on classrooms, class size, and staff.

Operate More Efficiently

Operate More Efficiently

Since early fall, building principals and district leaders have been collaborating to think through budget solutions. We began by considering all options and then prioritized reductions that minimize classroom impact while maximizing efficiency. We continue to explore targeted reductions in key areas such as:

Printing, supplies, professional development, and travel costs
Program and/or staffing redundancy
Co-location of speciality programming, including language immersion, offered at more than one site
Transportation efficiency
Master schedule efficiencies
Instructional and peer coaching model
District office department efficiencies

Some adjustments may be implemented quickly, while others may require exploration into the next school year

Enrollment

Enrollment

The Hopkins portfolio needs to be competitive and impactful to maintain and grow our enrollment into the future. We are seeing increased interest in language immersion - especially Spanish immersion - and our VirtualEDU online/blended school. In addition, all of our elementary schools have unique identities that appeal to different aspects of our vision. We are entering an environment where families want choice and a variety of options. We are proud that Hopkins is creative and complex enough to be able to serve a range of needs.

Advocacy

Join the Hopkins Legislative Action Committee

This is a legislative funding year, and we have an opportunity to advocate for increased state support alongside other districts. Hopkins is fortunate to have an active Legislative Action Coalition (LAC) that works with the School Board to champion education-focused legislation. If you want to get involved, now is a great time to advocate for more funding. While advocacy is an important part of our strategy, we predict state funding increases will be limited, requiring us to make tough decisions locally.

Business Services

FY 25 Budget

Previous Budget Engagement Sessions

2021 Short Burst Spring Reimagine Teams

Short-Burst Spring Reimagine Teams

Short-Burst Spring Reimagine Teams - 6 weeks in length

This spring, several staff members, parents and community members participated in 6-week virtual Reimagine teams to reimagine our schools and how we might do differently with less.

These advisory teams will use research, stakeholder engagement and innovative thinking to build their recommendations. The seven short-burst opportunities include:

Canvas Content & Collaboration
Summer Learning, Online Learning
Scholar Pathways
Scholar Success Metrics
Enrollment
Space and Place

Recommendations from the task forces can be found at the video on the right.

More information about Spring Reimagine Teams

More information about Spring Reimagine Teams

Canvas Content & Collaboration:  Whether teaching distance learning or in person, teachers need access to high-quality content that can be easily located and found in Canvas. In partnership with HEA, we aspire to build a process for content creation as well as a culture of content sharing. The burden of content creation should not rest on each individual teacher. How might we create a collaborative content creation and sharing process?

Summer Learning:  How might we reimagine summer programming focused on developing leadership and scholar strengths? Which scholar pathways, spaces and places, and curriculum designs are most likely to grow our traits, competencies, knowledge, and values? What disruptions in our current practice will be required?

Online & Blended Learning:  How might Online & Blended learning pathways disrupt our current educational models? Which scholar pathways position us to meet multiple futures? What disruptions in our current practice will be required? By when will we deliver essential or enriched virtual learning to K-12+ scholars who need or desire an online learning pathway?

Scholar Pathways:  How might additional scholar pathways (e.g., Project Based Learning or Paideia) disrupt our current educational models? Which scholar pathways position us to meet multiple futures? What disruptions in our current practice will be required?

Enrollment: How might we leverage Vision 2031 to position Hopkins Public Schools into a district with competitive advantage? How might we create appeal to families who live both within our borders and beyond using our unique identity? What should we do to recruit students and families who are seeking experiences that Hopkins offers?

Space & Place: Which spaces and places will best facilitate activation of our scholar traits, competencies, knowledge, and values? What disruptions in our current practice will be required? How will we continue partnering with design and architectural firm Fielding International to redesign or build out spaces that are aligned to Vision 2031?

Student Success Metrics: Which student success metrics will best measure our impact on developing our traits, competencies, knowledge, and values? What disruptions in our current practice will be required? How will we evolve the 2018 recommendations and turn ideas into action?

2020-21 Budget Process

Budget Engagement Sessions

The Hopkins School Board hosted four virtual sessions around the budget to explore the topic of how we might do differently with less and reimagine schools from the ground up. Each session was virtual and recorded. You can view them by clicking on the links in the blue box on the right. Community members could submit questions for the Board and Hopkins leaders to consider prior to each session. The questions we were not able to get to are listed below in a FAQ format.

Learn more about our budget

Previous Sessions:
The State of the Budget
Doing Differently With Less: Innovations in Place, Space, and Learning
Open Q&A Budget Session Pt. 1
Open Q&A Budget Session Pt. 2

Questions from the Public

Doing More with Less Budget Session

Q. I saw in the last presentation that Hopkins has one of the highest spending per student in the metro. Can you share what specifically accounts for that spending and why it is so much higher than our surrounding neighbors?

A. The cost per student at Hopkins comprises transportation costs, food services costs, operations and maintenance costs in our buildings, instructional costs, administration costs, capital expenses and debt service costs and student support costs. At Hopkins the student to teacher and student to support staff ratios are lower compared to other metro school districts which makes spending per student higher.

Q. How do we join the ESAC committee?

A. Please contact Fhonda Contreras, Our Director of Special Education & Specialized Services at Fhonda.Contreras@Hopkinsschools.org.

Q. First. Thank you to the school board, district staff, teachers for your dedication, hard work and innovative thinking during an unprecedented and challenging year! I appreciate the question about talent developments and challenging all learners, when will we see these strategies and initiatives implemented more broadly? Exposure to arts and music, sports, extra curricular activities provide additional experiences and learning for our students and these programs are often the first impacted by budget reductions. How will these be prioritized and supported?

A. Recently during a work session, principals reiterated their support for all elementary students having access to music, PE, art, and Spanish (with the exception of our language immersion students, who will have some unique offerings). We know that sports, arts, music, etc. capitalize on the strengths of our scholars and recognize that they are critical components of a well-rounded education. While we may experience some differences in how these programs are offered, we are not eliminating them.

Comment: I expected to leave the meeting about the budget disappointed, yet I'm leaving excited about the opportunities ahead in learning. As a family we wanted to be a part of Hopkins schools because we have thought of education as well rounded and think about a whole person, not just a specific academic skill set. I loved hearing about Cultivating Genius, and as discussed a little, it reminded me on why we choose Hopkins preschools because of the Reggio Emilia approach. The self-directed learning skills seems so important and useful throughout ones life. I think change can be hard, but also exciting. Thank you for all the hard work going into transforming learning for our students!

Response: This is wonderful news. Thank you.

Q. Is there any consideration to keeping Fridays asynchronous for secondary students next year? We love the 4 day week. Thank you.

A. Thank you for this suggestion! We are in the process of gathering feedback from our families on precisely this topic to ensure that we can offer flexibility in our schedules.

Q. How does the board vote on an estimated budget/strategy in middle of March, without knowing what MN legislatures are going to provide? How do you change it if you have determined how many teachers you need.

A. The board will be voting on the preliminary budget to give district administrators the opportunity to start working on planning and staffing for the next fiscal year (FY22). The board will vote for the final budget in June 2021 which give administrators to make any necessary adjustments as we get more information from the legislature.

Q. Is HHS planning to eliminate AP courses?

A. Absolutely not. Advanced Placement courses provide our students with access to rigorous, high-quality content as well as college credit for great exam scores.

March 9 Budget Q&A Session

Q. How is this new staffing model expected to affect class sizes? There is a lot of talk of cutting staff, but little discussion of how that will affect the number of students in each classroom. This is an important piece of the puzzle, as we all know that class sizes have a direct and substantial effect on both learning and feelings of community within the classroom.

A. Thank you for the question. Our building leaders are reviewing their discretionary funding and are prioritizing their allocations to maximize the adult to student ratios. Through a combination of grade-level reconfigurations, blended learning approaches, revisioning the roles of paraprofessional staff services, and the shared use of available spaces, programming is being developed that will focus on targeted instruction that allows instructors to conduct small group instructional activities, and create opportunities for students to experience personalized learning activities and in-class support. This revisions how we are looking at the use of all adults in the building to deliver instructional services. As classroom spaces are redesigned, we are looking at how we can create the feelings of community with a differentiated staffing model that works to preserve supportive adult connections at a time when we are experiencing a reduction in available fiscal and human resources.

Q. In my experience, budget reductions are almost certain to translate into reduced staffing and support services for my elementary-aged students. In order for us to realize our goals for Vision 2031, it is critical that our youngest learners have all the resources needed to be academically, socially and emotionally ready for their bright future. My questions are: If we are in a critical budget year, why do I continue to see jobs added at the administrative and TOSA levels in Hopkins? How does the % of the budget in Hopkins that is spent on TOSAs and admin compare to neighboring districts?

A. Thank you for the question. We have not increased administrative positions in any of our school sites. There are a few key roles at the schools and also at the district office that we are trying to transform as well as increase or improve internal realignment. Some ToSA roles (in IDL, coaches, etc), we will evaluate based on individual and system student learning or program needs. As we look toward the redesign of some of our resources, we'll try to use existing resource in diffferent ways to preserve classrooms positions (for example, using Title II and/or Title IV) to create opportunities for existing staff who we may otherwise not have the resources to retain. The goal is not to hire more administrators or ToSAs. The goal is to protect classroom teachers and preserve or maximize opportunities for our talented licensed staff to be retained and continue working in Hopkins.

Q. When we went through budget cuts last year, keep elementary class sizes low were a top priority. Through this new budgeting process, it appears the class sizes could be quite large, especially at schools like Glen Lake and Meadowbrook where there is not as much Compensatory funding allocated. How will we keep our same quality of student relationships and stay competitive with other school districts with such an increase in class size? Is there a possibility that this increase in class size will be reconsidered? Is there a cap of students in elementary classrooms?

A. Thank you for the question. Our predictable staffing model establishes a minimum level of funding that establishes a base ratio. Discretionary funding is provided to each building based on a buildings student enrollment. Discretionary dollars can be used to purchase additional teacher and paraprofessional positions. All available discretionary dollars have been distributed to sites for use in creating classroom learning that is student-centered and can be expended in ways that the sites feel deliver the most effective programming with the available resources.

Q. Three Questions: 1. As elementary Talent Development teachers move from meeting the needs of highly gifted students to providing enrichment lessons for all students, how will we ensure the needs of our students performing significantly above their grade level peers are still being met? 2. How will changes in Talent Development programming be communicated to families? 3. How are we staying competitive with surrounding districts who offer multiple layers of Gifted and Talented programming when we are currently moving away from accelerated mathematics, enriched/TD reading groups, and pull-out programs targeted at our students with conceptual skills beyond their grade level peers?

A. Thank you for these questions. 1. We want to ensure that all of our students grow in their learning, whether they are at, below, or above grade-level. Currently, we are exploring different ways of personalizing student learning so that we can meet students abilities where they are at and grow them. This could involve multi-age learning experiences and blended learning models which capitalize on digital tools, collaborative real-world problem solving, and teacher-led inquiry. 2. The Interim Director of IDL is currently working with our Communications team to develop descriptive information for our caregivers and community. Anticipate information in the next week or two. 3. We will offer programming that accelerates and personalizes learning for scholars across the entire school day, rather than just math and reading.

Q. How will push in models for student reading and math support be measured and supported? This will be an example of do more with less, and specifics about this model will be needed early on for it to be most effective.

A. This is a great question. As we continue to strive to be a data-driven decision making organization, any new model we try will need to be measured for efficacy. This is part of the Lab Operating System - IDL will support site teams to determine appropriate measures for success as well as assist in collecting that data and analyzing it. This will ensure that we are actually solving the problems we set out to solve.

Q. As we reimagine several aspects of a typical school day experience, from success metrics to space and place, how are we working towards more continuity and consistency in those reimagined elements from elementary to junior high to high school?

A. Thank you for the question. It's a great one. Our Innovation, Design, and Learning department is building a Learning Framework (LF). A LF is an alignment tool that provides explicit direction for school reimagining and system redesign. The LF will help us work toward consistency across schools, and will help us engage in horizontal and vertical alignment. This is because the LF will tell us what elements of teaching and learning we all need to cohere around, and what kinds of practices no longer belong in our spaces.

Q. As a parent of a likely future Hopkins student, and as the spouse of a Hopkins employee, I would like to thank Dr Mhiripiri-Reed, her Cabinet, building leaders, teachers and staff for their hard work to help realize Vision 2031!

A. Thank you!

Information about CARES and ESSER Funds

2021 Doing Differently with Less

Doing Differently with Less

2021 Process

As we think about how to do differently with less, we will reduce our General Fund budget by at least $2.5M for next year. We will use an inclusive process to reimagine our schools and thus, we need your reimagining ideas. Hopkins staff can look for Reimagining School task forces later this winter. The Hopkins School Board will also host a series of virtual sessions about the budget starting Feb. 9. Our bold vision will serve as a guide to help us navigate challenging times and move into the future of education. As we reimagine, we all need to explore what education could be rather than holding onto what it currently is.

Reimagining School from the Ground Up

State of the Budget 2021

2020 Budget Information

State of Our Budget

Budget adjustments for 2020-21

Hopkins cabinet leaders and principals have deeply analyzed the entire General Fund budget, along with feedback and suggestions from staff and parents. With this in mind, on March 20, the Hopkins School Board considered a set of budget recommendations to begin to right-size the budget for the 2020-21 as proposed by District leaders. Our proposal minimizes classroom and people impact, protects mental health and social-emotional health resources and learning supports, and protects special education services

Budget FAQ

I don't understand why we are over budget by $2.5 million. Can you help me better understand our current situation and how we got here?

The two biggest contributors to our perpetual funding challenge is state funding that does not keep pace with inflation and program expenditures that outpace revenue. While the state provides school districts with annual 2 percent increases, the annual cost of inflation and cost of living adjustments is 3 percent or greater. Hopkins is in the same predicament that most Minnesota school districts are facing. While the care for Hopkins runs deep for us, it is important to note that other districts are in a similar situation. This is not isolated to Hopkins.

Examples include: Bloomington, $4.2M; Brooklyn Ctr, $2.4M; Burnsville, $7.5M; ECCS, $7.2M; Edina, $1M; Eden Prairie, $1M; Mpls, $27M; North St. Paul, $1.9M; Osseo, $5M; Prior Lake, $3M; Robbinsdale, $3.8M; SPPS, $9.9M; Shakopee, $2.5M; and St. Louis Park, $2.4 and many others.

Can we tap into fund balance?

The short answer is no. We do have a healthy fund balance that is presently within our fund balance policy guidelines. However, it will be a challenge to remain within our fund balance parameters if we do not move toward right sizing our budget by 2.5 percent for the 2020-21 school year.

Why are we just hearing about these cuts now?

In spring of 2020, the School Board approved a final budget that included a need for reductions. The district's budget was then audited with a successful outcome from July to December. Finally, the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee reviewed the budget from November to January and offered recommendations that were approved by the School Board to inform this reduction and restructuring process. Bottom line, although this need for budget reductions is not a surprise to us, we want to be transparent with you. Reducing the budget by 2.5 percent is not insignificant and it is important that our staff and parents are aware, at least at a high level, of our need to reduce and do things differently. When it comes to budget decisions, our communication protocol begins with notifying and working with the School Board, then sharing that same information with staff, followed by sharing information with parents and our community.

How do we pay for building renovations and furniture? Could we spend that money to support the General Fund?

Funding for building renovations, furniture, and equipment such as technology comes out of the Building Construction Fund and the Capital Projects Levy, which are different from the General Fund. Building Construction programs are funded by the sale of bonds or capital loans and those funds are restricted to only be used for building construction. In 2017, the community approved a $10 million Capital Projects Levy. We are grateful for the community's support but there are restrictions on how these dollars can be used. The money can only be used for technology, furniture, equipment, building improvements, and very select staff. It cannot be used to fund teachers or programs.

How are we able to fund technology programs?

Hopkins Public Schools is fortunate to be a technology rich district. The technology that supports our classrooms, including our 1:1 (one device for each student) technology programs comes from the Capital Projects Levy, which was approved in 2017. The Capital Projects Levy is restricted to supporting District technology, building renovations, furniture and select equipment.

What process are you using to make budget reductions for 2020-21? Why do we need to cut an additional $2.5 million for 2021-22, and will that process be different?

Our immediate need is to reduce the General Fund budget by $2.5 million for 2020-21, which is approximately 2.5 percent of our total General Fund budget. on March 20, the Hopkins School Board considered a set of budget recommendations to begin to right-size the budget for the 2020-21 as proposed by District leaders. Our proposal minimizes classroom and people impact, protects mental health and social-emotional health resources and learning supports, and protects special education services.

We expect to make reductions of about $2.5 million for 2021-22, as well. Again, to keep a healthy fund balance that meets policy guidelines, we will need to keep right sizing our budget by another 2.5 percent for the 2021-22 school year. By looking holistically at our budget to better understand how programs and departments could or should intersect more efficiently with one another, we have an opportunity to transform our system, which we aspire to do to reach Vision 2031. Our system was originally built in silos to support an industrial economy. It will take time and tenacity to break down these silos and rebuild an interdisciplinary system that fully aligns to the values of Vision 2031. We will use the 2020-21 school year to collaboratively design a more cohesive coaching model as well as a new model for personalizing rigorous instruction, enrichment, and acceleration opportunities accessible to all students. We will be in touch with you about that soon. Please keep checking this page for updates on our process and opportunities to get involved.

When will we know what reductions are being proposed?

The Hopkins School Board heard a preliminary budget on March 20. Budget reduction recommendations were finalized just prior to that date.

What is the timeline for decisions now and into the school year 2021-22?

We are currently in stage one of our budget reduction and restructuring process. On February 27 we presented a list of recommendations to the school board. The recommendations included a list of potential reductions that have low impact on the classroom, as well as two ideas for how we might restructure licensed personnel and classified staff. Cabinet and principals also received a lot of feedback from staff and parents, which is shaped the proposal presented to the School Board during a workshop on March 20.

After the preliminary budget is approved by the School Board on March 20, District and school leaders will have time to work with school staff to shape restructured programs or individual roles. We will also use the summer to ensure staff have the professional development opportunities needed to engage in any program or role shifts for next school year. Finally, we will work to identify a staff and parent feedback timeline for stakeholder input regarding reductions and restructuring needs for the 2021-22 school year.

One of the restructuring recommendations is to consolidate to reduce and restructure paraprofessional and clerical support roles. What does this mean?

We believe that while we have helpful and devoted non-licensed staff within schools, we can leverage our non-licensed expertise in a more streamlined, efficient, and coherent manner. The goal is to provide teachers with classroom support in a cohesive manner. We believe we can slightly restructure the roles of paraprofessionals and clerical staff to better align with teachers’ needs.

The second recommendation is to restructure how instructional coaches, literacy coaches, peer coaches, talent development coordinators, PK-12 school administrators, innovation design & learning specialists, and cabinet leaders are leveraged to support teachers. What does this mean?

We believe that while we have lots of expertise within schools and also within the District office, we can use licensed expertise in a more streamlined, efficient, and coherent manner. The goal is to provide teachers with personalized instructional support, and build the capacity of our amazing teachers to meet students’ unique learning needs. Once we identify a dollar amount of reduction within this broad space, we will work this spring to restructure people’s roles to shape a less fragmented, more coherent model of teacher support.

Will Talent Development (formerly known as Gifted and Talented) be delivered differently?

We are fully committed to developing students’ unique talents and strengths. We are also committed to continuing accelerated learning opportunities for students. Furthermore, we are compelled to find ways to be more inclusive and progressive in our instructional practices, using research from the science of learning. The current way we are delivering Talent Development benefits some students and reflects a stratified delivery model where students who qualify for the services are pulled out to receive enriched curriculum. We seek to address parents’ and our own concerns about the vast number of students “in the middle.” Our aspiration is to expand talent development to provide every student with rigorous, high-quality instruction, as well as facilitate accelerated learning opportunities across classrooms for students learning at a faster pace, much like the model we are building with reading and literacy.

At the same time, while we still intend to transform as we make reductions, many of you asked us to slow down the restructuring process to take more time to study, listen, and work with professionals currently serving in those roles, as well as principals, classroom teachers and parents to collectively determine what transformed programming might look like. We have heeded that advice. You will see very limited restructuring implications in the reduction list. We will use the 2020-21 school year to collaboratively design a more cohesive coaching model as well as a new model for personalizing rigorous instruction, enrichment, and acceleration opportunities accessible to all students. It is our fiscal responsibility to look ahead more than one year and work collaboratively with all of you to determine our budget path for the 2021-22 school year as we prepare to transform our system toward increased alignment with Vision 2031.

What will happen to accelerated math at the elementary level?

We are not eliminating acceleration in math nor will 4th-6th graders who are currently accelerating their math repeat content next year. Rather, we aspire to make acceleration opportunities more inclusive, both in the identification of which students might benefit as well as how accelerated learning is facilitated. The delivery model for accelerated learning will be shaped in a way that purposefully leverages available instructional resources.

When will the restructured plan be shaped?

We will work this spring to ensure that programs and people are in place for next year. We want to ensure students are positioned for a high-quality experience - of course for the rest of this school year, and especially for next year as we aim for increased rigor, inquiry-based learning, and students’ strengths and talents being fully developed. The work of shaping the student experience will benefit from staff collaboration and parent input.

2020 Budget Workshops

2023-24 Budget Process

Budget Priorities and Objectives

E-5 Instructional

Strong Tier 1 instruction for all PreK-fifth graders, including strong LETRS-informed literacy instruction, math instruction, and quality exposure to specialist and school-wide talent development experiences.
Continued mental health and SEL (social emotional learning) support as provided by school counselors, social workers, and school-based therapists.
Continued restorative culture practices.
Preparation for increased SPED needs and services (center-based programs).
Continue recruiting new students for VirtualEDU students.

6-12 Instructional

Strong Tier 1 instruction across all IB courses in middle school and high school courses.
Smaller class sizes where applicable and necessary (average = 32 if possible to fund) with exceptions in music, PE, and other content areas that have historically had a higher number of students.
Opportunities for activities and athletics.
Continued mental health and SEL (social emotional learning) support as provided by school counselors, social workers, and school-based therapists.
Continued restorative culture practices.
Continue recruiting new students for VirtualEDU.

Operational

Continued implementation of the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System.
Community engagement to lay groundwork for a Capital Projects Bonds referendum.
Operationalizing an adult culture of wellness and engagement.
Installation of school safety upgrades.
Operationalizing improved onboarding and Professional Development (PD) for staff across roles.
Transforming transportation to increase efficiency, accuracy, and technology-informed bus supports.

Citizens Financial Advisory Committee Report Board Recommendations

State per student funding in the projection years of FY25 (2.0%) and FY26 (2.0%) is based on available information.
Projected enrollment is anticipated to be flat in FY25 and for the foreseeable future.
5.0% annual increases in FY25 for total salaries and wages (67% of total expenditures).
Fringe benefits 42% of total compensation for FY25. (Salaries and Benefits are about 80% of total expenditures for the district).
Purchased Services, Utilities, Transportation and Supplies to increase at 5.0% on an annual basis.
General Fund Unassigned Fund balance based on unaudited FY23 Financial statements is sitting at 12%

Proposed Budget Reductions

While every position is valued and important, the unfortunate truth is that because salaries and benefits make up 85 percent of our budget, we cannot afford every position we currently have in our system. We have carefully identified central office and district-wide reductions that least impact classrooms, while preserving functions we need into the future.

Though these items are subject to change as we continue finalizing, some of them include:

$1.2 million in district office position reductions, consolidations or reclassifications
$490,000 in district office and district-wide reductions in contracts, printing, travel and professional development.
$1.7 million reduction in reclassifying instructional coaches and restorative specialists from general fund into categorical
$420,000 in reclassifying eligible general fund expenditures into community education
$400,000 in restructuring our media center program into a digital literacy program.

Reductions for 2025-26

Proposed Transportation Efficiencies

Before the pandemic, transportation costs were $6 million per year—today, those costs have risen to $11 million, significantly impacting our overall budget. We are motivated to find transportation efficiencies due to the need to reduce our overall District budget by $7 million.

Solutions we are exploring:

Paid Transportation for Open-Enrolled Families – Exploring an option for open-enrolled families to pay for door-to-door service rather than driving their child to an in-district bus stop.
Resident Families Who Can Opt Out – Identifying resident families who have historically signed up for transportation but have the flexibility and resources to drive their children to school, carpool with other parents, or signed up for services but rarely/never use the bus.
Expanding Walk Zones – Increasing the walk zone for resident families to two miles from the school, in alignment with Minnesota state statute.

Media Center Restructure

Ideally, we would love to maintain our current staffing structure in media centers (this currently includes a full-time library media specialist, 1-2 full-time media paraprofessional(s), and 1-2 technology specialists). Unfortunately, this model is financially unsustainable for us.

Under our proposed model, media centers will remain intact. High-quality books and literacy support will continue under the supervision of our professionals. In addition, computer science and coding will be introduced as a new learning feature of our schools’ multimedia center spaces.

Reasons for the Restructure

This plan was created for two main reasons. Firstly, we currently fund our media center professionals using capital project levy (CPL) dollars, which are meant for technology equipment, software, and technology professionals. Recently, the state adjusted CPL spending criteria to be more specific, requiring us to align expenditures more closely with this criteria. Therefore, the first reason for the restructuring is to align the role from library media specialist to digital literacy specialist, ensuring continued funding from CPL without facing scrutiny.

The second reason concerns our budget. Currently, we use general fund dollars to pay for certain technology items. We have the chance to shift some of these expenses to CPL, which would free up space in our general fund. However, we need flexibility in our budget to make this change. Since we are committed to prioritizing core instruction and classroom teachers, we must find alternative ways to make district-wide budget cuts.

Retention

Our goal is to retain as many (4-6) of our ten library media specialists. Thus, the proposal is to eliminate the specific position/title, create a digital literacy specialist job description, and invite our current professionals to apply for this new role. We regret any negative impact this proposal is having on our media professionals. And, every budgeting crisis presents an opportunity for innovation and potential transformation.

How we compared to our neighbors

Almost all districts in Minnesota are managing budget cuts. In fact, survey results of 40+ metropolitan districts project that metropolitan districts will collectively experience $193.5M in budget shortfall for next school year. This assumes no additional funding is approved in the 2024 legislative session. Hopkins plans to cut $3.8 million from its budget. Here is how we compare to our neighbors.