St. Francis board approves program-reduction plan after projected $600,000 funding drop

The St. Francis Area Schools board on Feb. 23 approved a district plan to discontinue or reduce certain programs after administrators said the district faces an anticipated reduction — described as 'about $600,000' by Superintendent Anderson — in compensatory education funding and lower projected kindergarten enrollment.

Superintendent Anderson told the board the projected shortfall results from changes in the state's compensatory funding formula and that the district is also 'about 30 kids down in kindergarten' compared with last year. To address the gap, the administration proposed a combination of reassignments and targeted reductions: recoding positions to generate reimbursements, assigning some literacy and coaching staff to regional programs (Crossroads and Crossroads East) that reimburse participating districts, eliminating a coach/data-coordinator position and reducing an elementary online teacher position, and reducing the budgeted equivalent of two full-time certified intervention teachers if reassignment avenues proved insufficient.

Anderson said some changes aim to improve services while saving money — for example, moving a coach to serve as an intake coordinator at Crossroads East, which the administration said would be reimbursed by partner districts. He also reported more positive news on federal Title funding: a previously lost Title allocation of roughly $200,000 may be restored because current counts put the district 'just slightly above' the eligibility threshold, which would help offset cuts.

Board members pressed for clarity on implementation and asked staff to continue looking for alternatives, including grants and recoding of positions. The board held a roll call vote and the motion to adopt the resolution recorded as prevailing on the motion (roll call recorded in the meeting minutes as a vote in favor; see meeting record). The superintendent said further, more detailed staffing and assignment decisions will be managed administratively and reported back to the board.

What the plan does and does not do: the resolution authorizes the administration to proceed with specified reassignments and program reductions as part of the budget process; it does not list the names of individual positions to be eliminated in the public motion. Administrators said the goal is to minimize layoffs by reallocating personnel where feasible and to seek reimbursement and grant options to reduce net impact.

Next steps: administrators will finalize job recoding and assignments, post replacements where applicable, and return to the board with subsequent operational details. The board set follow-up budget discussions and indicated policy and staffing committees will review implementation details.

Vote and procedural note: the board considered the item under the meeting's action items and conducted a roll call vote after discussion; the recorded minutes show the motion prevailed.