The Hermantown School Board has proposed budget reductions for the 2025-2026 school year, totaling $750,000.

Reductions were discussed at Monday night’s School Board meeting, where the district said there is an expected spending deficit this school year of about $350,000. Rising insurance costs, salary increases, and general costs of inflation are all factors, according to the district.

“Next year we’re projected to be at about $1.3 million budget shortfall, said Hermantown Superintendent Wayne Whitwam, “Originally we were going to try to cut a half million, but then at the last boarding meeting I recommended we go up to $750,000.”

The plan to get the school back to a balanced budget calls for that initial $750,000 cut, followed by $450,000 cuts in the two following school years.

Cuts include three paraprofessionals, reduction of the curriculum budget, reduction of the technology budget, and not filling positions of staff who are retiring.

While the administration and school board work to get back into the black, the teacher’s union wants to make sure that they’re part of the talks.

“I mean, everyone is so different and has such different experiences and maybe they have, you know, kind of a creative solution that we just haven’t thought of yet,” said Brent Chouanard-Nguyen, a Hermantown teacher and president of the Education Minnesota local 1096, “We just want to make sure that we are looking at all different avenues of where can we make some of these other cuts so we don’t have to lose people.”

The Hermantown Schoolboard is expected to vote on the proposed cuts during it’s March 10 meeting.

Proposed reductions & savings estimates:

• $60,000 – Two retirements (attrition with new hire savings)
• $3,000 – Eliminate summer days for media specialist
• $131,000 – High School social studies teacher (attrition)
• $75,000 – High School business teacher
• $55,000 – Middle School/High School math .5 reduction/reassignment (retirement)
• $57,000 – .6 reduction of German foreign language
• $60,000 – Intervention positions, .5 Middle School & .5 Elementary school (ESSER funded)
• $50,000 – Reduce curriculum budget
• $18,000 – Reduce capital equipment budget
• $50,000 – Reduce technology budget
• $3,000 – Eliminate one assistant track coach
• $60,000 – Reduce contracted services for maintenance
• $66,000 – Reduce two paraprofessionals at the Elementary School
• $12,000 – Reduce one playground paraprofessional

Additional revenue:

• $20,000 – Assign intervention time to American Indian Education
• $30,000 – LPN to be assigned to 1:1 reduce outside services
• $0 – Reassign Dean to AP at the Middle School, assign MA billing to recover cost difference

The School Board is expected to vote on the cuts at their March 10 meeting.