Bemidji School Board Approves Budget For 2019-2020 School Year

The Bemidji Area School board has approved a budget for the 2019 to 2020 school year. With the projected revenue and expenditures considered, the school district is looking at a shortfall of $259,591 dollars.

The budget was projected for $66.89 million, while the expected expenditures come in at $67.15 million. The budget incorporates any increases to revenue, inflation and recent staff reductions and school consolidations. The school board has plans to explore options that would help reduce spending in the future.

Jeff Haack, the Bemidji School Board Chairman, said during the most recent school board meeting, “It seems like the general consensus from the board would be to direct staff to make a plan to study the four-period day and making a plan to change that to some other schedule, and to generally look at these facility issues that we’ve had before and to summarize information that’s already been communicated, and in the case of what Jeff was asking, summarize the alternative programs that we have and take a look at what gaps we have and what are some of the things that we can offer.”

The school board has plans to put together a committee to further explore reduction opportunities.