Schools

How Do You Feel About the School District's Preliminary Budget?

The Minneapolis Public Schools District is looking for feedback and has created a resident survey. Find out how to take the survey below.

Minneapolis Public Schools are hoping to gain some resident feedback on its recent preliminary budget proposal. The district has put together an online survey asking for residents' top three concerns, as well as their top three positive reactions to the proposal

The school district is facing a nearly $25 million budget shortfall in the 2013-14 school year, which begins July 1.

Take the survey now.

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The budget calls for the cutting 50 central office staff, but the addition of 12 English as a Second Language teachers, among other shifts and changes for all school buildings.

"I worked with my leadership team to make tough choices, knowing that strategic cuts at the central office level would be necessary to continue to focus on our priorities for schools," Superintendent Bernadeia H. Johnson said in a statement last week. "While in recent years we have relied on our fund balance to partially address budget deficits, this practice is not sustainable. We can no longer afford to meet annual budgetary obligations by using our fund balance."

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Some parents have already spoken out in anger against some of the proposed cuts, calling them "catastrophic."

As previously reported by Patch, while the board won't vote on the final budget proposal until June, parents and the board effectively only have until March 29 to make substantive changes to the proposal. After that point, individual schools are told the minimum amount of money they will receive from the district, in order to lay off or hire staff for the coming school year.

To take the survey, go to surveymonkey.com/s/K2BZQCF. We also encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Related articles:

  • Why Is the School District Drastically Cutting Local School Budgets?
  • What Could Your School Lose?
  • Parents Ring Alarm Bells Over "Catastrophic" Schools Cuts

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