Byron discusses superintendent search, budget cuts

A busy several months are coming up for the Byron School Board as it searches for a new superintendent while continuing work on devising a budget reduction plan for the district. Plans are also for a new levy referendum in November.
Superintendent Search
On Monday, the Minnesota School Board Association (MSBA), which is assisting the district in the search, posted the superintendent job description.
Applications will be accepted until March 16. Following the close of applications, the MSBA will conduct screening, preliminary verification of references and pre-interviews of recommended applications. Byron board members will review the applications between March 18 and 24 and will meet March 24, at 4:30 p.m. for a special meeting to determine the finalists, interview questions and procedures.
The first round of applicant interviews will be held March 26 and 27 at 4 p.m. both days. A second round of interviews will be conducted on April 1 at a special meeting at 4 p.m. The board will then select a lone finalist and determine the negotiation process.
Board members anticipate they will approve the employment contract with the new superintendent at the 6 p.m. regular board meeting on April 7. The new superintendent will begin his/her duties on July 1.
Budget adjustments
Also on Monday, at their first monthly meeting of February, board members were given a financial update as the district continues to deal with significant financial concerns.
Interim finance director Dan Payan reviewed the procedures the district is using as it works on adjustments to the 2025-2026 budget and makes projections as to the future financial needs of the district.
Student enrollment, he said, is the single most important factor in determining the district’s revenue needs as the largest portion of the revenues comes from money received from the state. Currently, the basic funding formula determined by the state legislature means the district receives $7,281 per pupil unit. The term pupil unit, rather than per pupil, is based on a formula that is different for students in different grades. Kindergarten through grade six counts as one pupil unit while those in grades seven through 12 are counted as 1.2 pupil units.
A local option in Byron brings in an additional $724 per pupil unit. There are also additional monies that the district receives through various aids, he said, bringing the district’s total to about $9,500 per student.
For years, he said, school districts lobbied the legislature to tie the basic funding formula to inflation. Last year they did change the funding formula to 4% for the first year and 2% for the next year with future formula increases having a base of 2% and a ceiling of 3% which does not take into account the real inflation rate.
These three factors, he said, are what is creating the need for budget adjustments as the district’s as enrollment is decreasing, inflation continues to rise and there is uncertainty in whether the state per pupil rate will be 2 or 3% each year.
Payan said his current projections are for revenues to increase about $550,000 for the 2025-26 school year. That, he said, is assuming a 2% increase in the basic formula. He said he projects the district needs to keep expenses to an increase of about $400,000. As salaries and benefits account for 78% of expenses the district will need to reduce services through budget reductions.
School administrators have been working on a plan to make those reductions and will be presenting the Budget Adjustment plan at the next meeting later this month.
The district will continue to monitor expenses, reduce as many expenses as possible, monitor the legislative activity for funding updates, give treasurer’s reports and budget projection reports to the board, prepare the 2025-26 budget and also prepare a five-year financial forecast.
Levy Referendum in the fall
With all the factors playing into the district’s financial situation, board members have agreed that the district has no choice but to put a levy referendum before the voters in November. A referendum presented to the voters in November 2024 failed.
At Monday night’s meeting the board took initial steps towards a referendum by beginning to create a Referendum Committee that will work on crafting the referendum during the next several months.