I wanted to take a moment to share some important information regarding our district’s preliminary budget for the 2024-25 academic year.

As many of you are aware, we have been anticipating a tighter budget due to the full expenditure of our COVID funds and the rising cost of education. It is with a sense of responsibility that I inform you that our projected general fund budget deficit will indeed exceed $1 million for the upcoming year. This will mean that our future planning for financial stability means we’ll need to review potential cuts resulting in things like increased class sizes, fewer activity opportunities, reductions in support staff, fewer supplies for our classrooms, or other cost-saving measures.

While the state did indeed increase funding for education last year, the reality is that this incremental increase is not enough to account for inflation and resulting increases to our operational expenses. We’ve been dealing with unfunded mandates and lack of funding for a while; our attempt at passing an Operating Referendum to help provide the district with greater long-term stability in 2022 was not successful.

The lion’s share of our funding, nearly 80%, is provided by the state of Minnesota, supplemented by federal sources and property taxes. Since 2020, COVID funds have been instrumental in maintaining our staffing levels and student services.

Inflationary pressures continue to affect various aspects of our operations, from energy to transportation, specialty services, and supplies. For over two decades, the increase in funding for public education has lagged behind the actual costs of providing quality education, compelling districts like ours to stretch resources further than ever before.

We remain committed to managing our district operations with efficiency to make the most of the resources at our disposal and know we can’t cut our way to long-term success.

The board is actively exploring long-term solutions to address our financial situation. Over the next few months, we will engage in additional communication with all faculty, staff and the community to discuss how we will navigate these financial challenges and the options available to us.

Thank you for your continued dedication to our students and school community.

— Jeremy Williams is superintendent at Marshall Public Schools