Bergstrom Talks SR-R Budget, State Education Budget
SAUK RAPIDS -- The Sauk Rapids-Rice school district is looking for students from outside the district to help balance a budget deficit.
Superintendent Brad Bergstrom says they opened up the enrollment window in the month of April and raised the open enrollment caps. He says he doesn't know the final number of new students yet that will be enrolled in the fall, but he says they were targeting 50 additional students and they will safely reach that number.
Every student that comes to the district generates about $10,000 in revenue for us. So, if we've got 50 students we budgeted for $500,000. If we have more than that it will help narrow that gap that we have.
The Sauk Rapids-Rice school district was facing a nearly $5.3 million budget deficit for the next school year.
Earlier this week state lawmakers and the governor announced the agreement on the framework to spend an additional $1 billion on education funding. The money is coming from the state's projected $9.25 billion surplus.
Exactly how that money will be allocated to school districts still has to be worked out, but Bergstrom says he's hearing they may focus on the special education cross-subsidy.
We get funding for students who are receiving special education services, and unfortunately, that funding is not near what the cost is, so we're spending close to $5 million a year for programming for students receiving special education services out of our general education fund.
Bergstrom says there is also talk of bumping up the general formula funding.
Which as a school superintendent I believe that is best because then it allows us to be able to use those dollars as we see fit.
The Minnesota State Legislature has until Monday to come up with and pass a compromise education bill.
Bergstrom says graduation day for Sauk Rapids-Rice is May 31st with the last day of school scheduled for June 2nd.
Over at Pleasantview, the new building is just getting some finishing work done on the inside. They are now prepping the current Pleasantview to be demolished. The blacktop is slated to be laid down on August 15th. The green space at the school will not be available to be used this fall because there will be fresh sod put down.