Members of the St. Paul school board are set to vote Tuesday on a $1 billion budget for the coming year that leans on big cuts and deficit spending.

While it’s roughly the same size as last year’s overall budget, the spending plan includes about $114 million in cuts to school programs. Those include cuts to teaching and other positions that threaten programs like arts and music, as well as special-education interpreters.

The cuts are mostly tied to the expiration of pandemic-era federal aid, $128 million of which was included in last year’s budget and supported programs and positions beyond what the district typically would be able to offer.

Other cuts in the proposed budget include:

Reductions for school lunches that will result in menu changes
Potential school bus route cancellations
Loss of additional custodial staff supported by federal aid
Credit recovery programs for students at the four high schools with the lowest graduation rates would be available only after school or in the summer.

Amid the cuts, the district also plans to increase spending on pre-K and early-childhood family education with the goal of preparing students for elementary school so they can meet third-grade literacy standards.

Board members first saw the 2024-25 budget proposal at last week’s meeting. While district administrators have shared information with the board over multiple meetings, that was the first time members saw what they’d be asked to approve before the end-of-June deadline.

Major cuts have been on the horizon at St. Paul Public Schools and other districts for a while. About 70% of metro-area school districts faced shortfalls this year, according to the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, and St. Paul had one of the largest.

“There’s a lot of things I think, that the board, administration and parents and students are really disappointed that we’re having a cut in this budget session,” board member Chauntyll Allen said. “But we all knew that it was coming.”

An original projected deficit of more than $150 million shrank to around $108 million this year, but the district still required cuts to balance the budget.

The proposed budget still tops a billion dollars, despite the cuts, because of what budget chief Tom Sager described as “favorable bond sales,” which grew spending on previously approved construction and renovation projects by close to $90 million.

This is a breakdown of the overall budget members are set to vote on Tuesday:

General fund: $707.5 million — $114.6 million less than last year
Food service: $29.3 million — $5.4 million less than last year
Community service: $32.7 million — $2.8 million less than last year
Building construction: $204.4 million — $89.7 million more than last year
Debt service: $63.2 million — $9.7 million more than last year

The 2024-25 budget also marks another year where the district is tapping into its reserve funds to minimize program cuts. The district is spending $37 million from its reserves, leaving a projected $36.4 million — slightly more than the 5% minimum set by school board policy.

Last week, interim Superintendent John Thein told board members that this year’s proposed budget was built around community input. That input led to three main themes in building the budget:

Increasing school communities’ sense of belonging and feeling of safety
Ensuring students are respected and reflected in their curriculum and classrooms
Making literacy a priority in instruction

Some board members last Tuesday raised concerns about transparency in the budget process. The plan presented by district staff grouped many spending areas together, sometimes in ways different from the current year’s budget, presenting a challenge for comparing the two spending plans.

Allen said she appreciated district efforts to present the budget in an easier-to-understand format, which she called an improvement over past budget cycles. Still, more work is needed, she said, noting the board continues to push for greater budget transparency.

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