Dear Northfield School District Families:

I hope you and your students have had a restful spring break. We look forward to students returning to school on Wednesday.

I want to remind you about the community meeting for public input regarding the priority based budget reductions this Thursday, April 3, from 6:00-8:30 p.m. at Northfield Middle School. This is an opportunity for the community to provide feedback to the board regarding the proposed budget reductions. You can view the agenda here.

As a reminder, the reasons for the budget reduction are:

  • Ongoing, incremental declining enrollment due to lower birth rates and limited available housing.
  • Inflationary impacts on district costs and a lack of corresponding state funding.
  • Unfunded or underfunded state and federal mandates.
  • You can read more details about the recommended budget reductions, the reasons for the reductions, and the process used to identify reductions here.

The recommendation development process included:

  • More than 80 people were part of the priority-based budget reduction teams. This included parents, staff, community members without children, high school students, and administrators. All those who completed an interest form were included.
  • Five budget teams met three times and created initial reduction packages.
  • Administrators adjusted the plan to ensure alignment with other budget team proposals and reduce unintended district-wide consequences.

We have also published a frequently asked questions document and will update it throughout the process. You can view that document here.

These are difficult decisions. The event is a listening session so the board can hear your perspectives about them. If you cannot attend the community meeting, but would like to provide input to the board, you can do so via email using the board@northfieldschools.org email address.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or feedback about our school district.

Sincerely,

 

Matt

—
Matt Hillmann, Ed.D.
Superintendent
mhillmann@northfieldschools.org