Rochester, MN School Board Approves Spending & Job Cuts
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- The Rochester Public Schools (RPS) Board signed off on the district's operating budget Tuesday night.
The district’s budgeting process started in January when Superintendent Kent Pekel presented the elected officials with his recommendations for cutting spending by $14 million. The reduction target was previously at around $7 million, but Pekel said the higher wages and benefits approved for the Rochester Education Association and other school district employee bargaining units caused that number to double.
The budget projected RPS’s enrollment to decrease by 295 students by the next school year and assumed a 4% increase in the per pupil funding formula. The most recent version of the budget proposal, discussed during a school board study session last month, proposes the district start the upcoming school year with 118 fewer employees than in 2022.
The RPS board unanimously voted to approve the roughly $390 million budget. The board also authorized spending just under $11 million in remaining federal dollars allocated to schools to combat COVID-19. Next school year’s budget will be the final budget that includes the COVID dollars.
Employees whose jobs are axed by the position cuts have been offered other positions within the district that are unfilled. District officials expect less than 10 people to be without jobs within RPS under the new budget.
RPS administrators also made some adjustments regarding positions funded by the budget before Tuesday night’s vote thanks to further clarity regarding state education funding. The state dollars allowed RPS to scrap a cut of a media specialist role and Quarry Hill Nature Center instructor. The funding will also allow RPS to hire a temporary assistant principal at Century High School to assist the district with transitioning to a new principal.
See How School Cafeteria Meals Have Changed Over the Past 100 Years
More From KROC-AM
