School Board Approves More Than $2.3M in Budget Cuts

It perhaps wasn't what many wanted to see happen, but the Edina School Board ultimately recommended as part of its budget planning process.

The board voted 5-1 last week to include the elimination of the program as part of more than $2.3 million in cuts for the upcoming 2011-12 school year. As suggested by Superintendent Ric Dressen, the board opted to move forward with Tiers I, II and III of the district's Budget Reduction, Reallocation and Revenue Generation (BRRRG) plan.

Dressen said this was an approach district officials felt they could implement successfully, which "met the charge of the plan and minimized impact to student learning."

Rather than continue to offer Spanish in the district's elementary schools, the board moved to begin a K-5 Spanish education program through Edina Community Education Services beginning this fall. The new program would both expand the amount of time spent on foreign language in a given week, plus would allow for more diversity among languages offered.

"We're going to look at French, Chinese and Latin all as possibilities," said Jenni Norlin-Weaver, director of teaching and learning. "We'll have a good entry point for students as they come into the middle school program."

Lonni Skrentner, a board member and retired Edina teacher, said as much as she would like to see elementary Spanish continue as a full part of the curriculum, it just doesn't seem possible right now.

"The Spanish program is part of our mission, but there are other things that are part of our mission as well," Skrentner said. "In these hard times we have to look for different ways to fulfill our mission."

Bert Ledder, who cast the lone dissenting vote, attempted to amend the BRRRG to remove elementary Spanish from the Tier III cuts, as she said it would effectively create "have and have-nots" within the district. When that motion failed for lack of a second, Ledder insisted removing it from curriculum goes against Edina's mission statement. 

"We have other years to do this," Ledder said. "I appreciate the information that was provided in our packet with examples of how this probably doesn't make any difference to the education process … but for every example that says it doesn't make a difference, there are examples that it does." 

Board Member Peyton Robb countered that "everything we do here is built around mission statements," so eliminating just about any line item would have the same impact on the district.

"It's not a rosy pathway ahead for us," Robb said. "We'll do the best we can. Edina has always been able to create a winning school district in everything they do."

In addition to the elimination of elementary Spanish, the district's plan includes increases in class sizes at the middle and high school, increased fees and a reduction in both staff and training opportunities.

The final approved BRRRG plan clocks in at around $2.34 million, breaking down into $762,000 for Tier I, $806,000 in Tier II and $775,000 in Tier III. Should the district need to cut further, Tier IV includes another $750,000 in potential cost-saving measures.

The administration now has until the School Board's June 20 meeting to prepare the finalized 2011-12 budget for approval.