Burnsville, MN: District takes $12.7M out of regular ed; shortfall in SPED

Feb 13, 2019, KSTP Minneapolis, MN: [Burnsville] School District 191 facing major budget cuts, parents upset https://kstp.com/news/burnsville-eagan-savage-school-district-considers-major-cuts-budget-shortfall/5245503/ The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District is proposing major cuts to make up for a $7 million budget shortfall. The list of potential cuts includes freshman athletics, middle school orchestra and some elementary school field trips. At a school board meeting Wednesday, parents were invited to share their concerns and thoughts on ways to save money. Hundreds of families showed up. … Dan Gerner started a Facebook page - Fight the ISD 191 budget cuts - to get more parents involved. "Academics and extracurricular activities go hand in hand," he said prior to Wednesday night's meeting. "Those should be two sacred cows that are never touched under any circumstance."… The district cited two main reasons for the cuts: state funding which hasn't kept up with inflation. The district receives around $92 million a year in state dollars and the vast majority of that is spent on salaries for teachers, counselors, janitors, etc. Plus, mandated services like special education classes are underfunded by $12 million according to the district. "We have to spend $12.7 million out of our general fund to make up for the cost of special education services that are not paid by the state and federal government," Superintendent Cindy Amoroso said earlier Wednesday. …