Board Approves $3.5 Million in Lakeville School District Budget Adjustments

(Editor's note: a previous version of this story included two errors—suggesting the School Board cut one of the district's high school athletic directors, and cut 2.77 full-time equivalency elementary school physical education teachers. While both of those line items were on previous lists of budget cuts, they were NOT included in the approved cuts last week. Patch regrets the error.)

Administrators, support staff, and a handful of teachers are among the $3.5 million in budget adjustments and cuts Lakeville's School Board approved this week after months of deliberation and discussion.

While the cuts were intended to minimize impact in the classroom, half of the district's eight elementary school counselors will be let go, saving $300,000, and an additional $400,000 will be saved by the future elimination of up to eight full-time, to-be-determined teaching positions when efficiencies are made this summer. 

The rationale for the cuts that were made: stakeholder data, Board Chairwoman Roz Peterson said during the meeting. The second highest prioritized reduction was staffing/support while maintaining or reducing class size.

The survey cited “Administration Costs” as their top prioritized reduction, which resulted in a top-level administrative position being eliminated: the district's technology coordinator, saving Lakeville schools $130,000.

In addition to personnel, the district will save $300,000 on transportation costs and $100,000 on vendor services with new deals, $200,000 will be gained by selling property owned by the district, and it will recoup another $250,000 in reimbursements by recoding some special-education salaries and benefits.

Budget line-items account for roughly half of the $3.5 million in cuts needed. The rest will be paid out using the district's fund balance.

To see a full list of the cuts, check out the PDF attached to this story.