$1.67 Million in Cuts Proposed for Bemidji Area Schools in 2026 Financial Plan

Big budget cuts could be looming over Bemidji Area Schools.

In a special work session on Tuesday night, superintendent Jeremy Olson informed the School Board of the proposed cuts for the next school year that aim to address an anticipated deficit of over $2 million. Olson spoke on how state funding has not kept up with district needs and that Bemidji schools have operated in a constant deficit since 2018.

With the Bemidji school district in a projected $2.3 million deficit, a $1.67 million reduction was proposed to the school board with several potential position reductions. Olson said the goal was to keep as many reductions out of the classroom as possible. Classroom expenses will take up 65% of the annual budget, but cuts there will make up 53.39% of the proposed reductions.

Even the potential $1.67 million that these reductions could save the district will not cover the deficit. Since 2019, the district has seen a 3.2% expense increase but only 2.3% revenue increase, causing the deficit to increase annually.

Olson said that School District Administration and Support Services reductions will amount to about $388,700.

“Again, that makes up 7% of our budget. It actually makes up 23% of our proposed reductions,” he explained. “The proposed reductions are an elementary principal being eliminated, the consolidation of middle school and high school activities department[s] to a single activities department, and the elimination of the Dean of Students position at the middle school.”

The elimination of an elementary principal would create one principal for Northern and Solway Elementary. Combining second and third grades at Solway is also in the talks.

“I got the email from our Solway staff with absolutely no support,” said Bemidji School Board Clerk Jenny Frenzel, “and that made me go, if we don’t have a staff member willing to say, ‘Yes, I can take on this challenge; yes, I can handle this; yes, I want to learn about it; yes, teach me,’ we’re not going to have buy-in on it. It’s not going to be successful.”

Another proposal was the elimination of the middle school athletic director. Seventh and eighth grade activities would be handled by the high school and those for sixth graders would go to Community Education.

“This is a consolidation administratively of our athletic departments,” said Olson. “The goal is to hold harmless as much as possible the activities that our students are in. So the front-facing piece, we’re hoping to keep that as untouched as possible with the administrative piece being the consolidated portion.”

The proposal outlines the reduction of two positions each from the K-3 section, Gene Dillon Elementary School, and Bemidji Middle School, and three from Bemidji High School. It was reported that these reductions would not force classrooms to be over the board target number of students.

No decisions were made Tuesday, as the work session was held solely to inform the board of the proposed reductions. Voting and action will be taken by the Bemidji School Board in their monthly meeting next Monday, April 28th.