Who among us would like somebody else deciding how we’ll spend our money or manage our budget?
It’s an unsettling thought, but one that Ely school officials now have to deal with after several years of deficit spending.
A once healthy reserve fund is dwindling quickly, and at the current pace it may not be long before the unrestricted reserves fall into negative balance and trigger every school official’s worst nightmare: statutory operating debt.
If SOD occurs, the Minnesota Department of Education steps in and, with a heavy hand, has large say in dictating how our school resources are spent and what measures would be taken to not only balance the budget but rebuild the reserve.
This isn’t the first time Ely has dealt with the possibility of SOD. Twice in a matter of a decade, first in 2000 and again in 2006-07, the reserves for the Ely district dwindled but the SOD bullet was avoided with some budget reductions and voter support by way of an operating referendum.
After some healthier years, Ely is back here again because of dwindling enrollment, some high school student defections to Vermilion Community College and the PSEO program, as well as homeschooling and rising costs.
Ely is hardly alone. Many schools are in similar situations and are facing difficult choices in order to keep the doors open.
While the sky isn’t falling, the time for waiting is over and the district must face these challenges head on and consider solutions that will maintain the quality of education and activities at the school, while maintaining a balanced budget, We’re sure that one of the options may be something that was unthinkable not long ago: the four-day school week.
Neighboring schools including those in Babbitt, Tower, Silver Bay and Two Harbors have gone this route and the reviews have been largely positive, and there’s no indication or data that education has suffered.
If savings get close to or into the six figures, it’s a viable choice.
No doubt there are savings to be realized as teachers retire and the district either fills those positions with teachers at the bottom of the salary scale, with part-time posts or, maybe because of the enrollment declines, not at all.
With top-end salaries of $75,000 or so, additional Q-Comp pay, insurance benefits of $20,000 or more and other costs, each retirement could save the district $100,000 or more.
Again, a possibility worth exploring and the district might even stand to gain by offering an early retirement incentive. It’s something that has been done recently up the hill at Vermilion, which is in a similar cost-cutting mode.
We’re hopeful also that State Sen. Grant Hauschild and State Rep. Roger Skraba are successful in changes to the property tax system that could send more seasonal-recreational property tax dollars to the Ely district. With so many cabins and summer homes around Ely, this would surely be a boon to the district’s bottom line. And long overdue.
And while we’re on the subject of taxes, school officials shouldn’t rule out going back to voters and asking for more property tax support.
While none of us like to pay property taxes, it’s a fact that because of declining enrollment, we’re paying less in school taxes now than we were three years ago. The audit report released at Monday’s school board meeting showed that the district collected $2,728,247 in 2022 but just $2,509,412 this year.
That’s $219,000 less, or right around the amount of the most recent budget deficit.
A modest operating levy should at some point be on the table, particularly given that the drop in school enrollment has lessened and will continue to lessen the burden. Ely voters have proven time and again that they will support the school and our kids and we again may have be part of the solution.
We’re hopeful that school board members take an active role as the budget talks continue. Their input is necessary and vital and indeed there is no longer time to wait.
The district has already taken a scalpel to the budget both in the spring of 2024 and again this year, and it’s no time to bring out the butcher’s knife and ravage what’s remaining for our kids.
Instead, viable and meaningful solutions, particularly on the revenue side, can and should be explored.
The voices must be used now, or otherwise we will be silenced and it will be up to the state to make those choices if SOD occurs.
That’s no way to operate.
