Sartell-St. Stephen Schools Facing Budget Adjustments Next Year

SARTELL (WJON News) -- Another area school district is facing a budget shortage for next year. Sartell-Stephen School District Superintendent Michael Rivard says the district has to make a $750,000 budget adjustment for the 2025-2026 school year.

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He says the district will use $600,000 from the fund balance, bringing it to 11.5%, and that will allow them to still respond to unexpected needs. Even with using the fund balance, Rivard says the district will still have to make some staff reductions:

"The challenge always is with school districts is that about 85% of our budget goes towards the people that are here for our students so we will have to look at some positions being cut. Always really difficult decisions and we never take them lightly. We know that our staff are the heart of our schools and they're the ones that show up every day for our kids."

Sartell High School, photo by WJON.com's Jim Maurice

Rivard says state funding has not kept up with inflation, and an increasing number of unfunded state mandates is stretching the district's resources. He says there is some hope the district could receive additional funds once legislators figure out the state's budget:

"The challenge that all school districts have is that contractually we have to make some of these decisions, we have to have our budget prepared for the 2025 - 2026 with some of those being unknowns and we can't wait until May 19th to make those decisions or if the legislatures were to go into a special session that could go on into June 30th and so we're not able to wait."

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He says the district has been reviewing positions for over a month already to try to minimize the impact on students.

Rivard says the district's goal is to remain as transparent as possible while continuing to care for the people who make the Sartell-St. Stephen School District strong.

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