The Northfield School District will soon begin a process that district officials are calling “Budget Prioritization,” which translates to budget
cuts due to declining enrollment.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann and District Director of Finance Val Mertesdorf said the district enrollment has been shrinking for the past two years. Working with Demographer Hazel Reinhardt, they have determined that trend will continue until, by 2030, there will be approximately 400 less students than there were in 2020.
The State of Minnesota provides the district with 70% of its annual revenue. The amount received is based on a formula, that works out to roughly $6,700 per student. This year, there are 3,810 students enrolled in Northfield Public Schools, which is down by about 20 students from last year. The number is projected to drop by 60 students in the 2022-23 school year, which means next year, the district will receive about $400,000 less from the state than it did this year.
The reasons for the declining enrollment are varied. Reinhardt, who is considered one of the best demographers in the state looks at several factors. Her report evaluated the district enrollment trends, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, housing projections, and other data from around the state and the area. The 2020 census found Northfield to be an aging community, and, matching a ten-year national trend, the birth rate in Northfield has been steadily declining. The housing shortage is another key factor. Northfield has been dealing with a severe housing shortage for many years, and because of that, there are fewer families in the district with school age children than there were even two years ago. The city of Northfield has several new housing developments coming in the next few years, but it will but the impact on student population will not be enough to maintain current numbers.
“Even if every house projected to be built in Northfield and Dundas is filled,” said Hillmann, “it would still only make up about half of the students [the district will lose.]”
While the district will do everything it can to mitigate the situation, Dr. Hillmann was blunt about the effect smaller enrollment will have on the Northfield School District’s budget.
“I need to be super clear. At the end of the day, there will be reductions to the budget. We are starting from a position of financial strength. We have some tools that we can use to help phase in some of those adjustments over a couple of years, but we don’t want to sugar coat it. We’re looking to prioritize what we want, but we also have to just be clear, there will be less expenditures. And in a school, you do not have less expenditures without having less programming.”
Tomorrow, we will look at the plans Mertesdorf and her team have put together to decide what programming will stay, and what will be set aside.
Lippert says government should lead the way for EV charging
Electric vehicles are growing in popularity across the country. One need look no farther than the Super Bowl played just ten days ago. A
television broadcast as famous for its commercials as it is for the Championship of the NFL, this year featured no less than seven different automobile manufacturers enticing us to purchase one of their brand new EV’s.
Representative Todd Lippert sees that the wave of the future is here and said the State of Minnesota needs to step up and improve its laws and infrastructure to help pave the way. To that end, he has introduced a bill that would allow for EV charging stations to be placed in the state’s rest stops.
“We know that the electric vehicle transition is underway,” he said, “and we need to make sure that people have access to charging. But we need a change in state law to do that.”
Although the technology is rapidly evolving, most electric vehicle batteries have a range of about 300 miles. Lippert said most of the charging is done at home in a person’s garage, but charging stations are needed need to make sure people can get to where they’re going and be able to make it back again.
With free charging stations set up in many locations, including two in Northfield, and should Lippert’s bill pass, readily available at rest stops, it begs the question, what will the gas station of the future look like?
Lippert said it’s a common question that is frequently asked, and even came up at a recent meeting of the House Climate and Energy Committee on which he sits. He said the private sector will adapt to electric vehicles, as it has to every other change throughout American history, but the government first must set things in motion.
“We really need the government to step up to provide the beginnings of this charging infrastructure. As we get a critical mass of it, then private industry is going to come in with some different models in different ways to create that new gas station model for electric vehicles in a way that fits.”
Right now, he said, the technology is so new, that together, as people, through the government, we need to step up and make sure that we put the first building blocks in place.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Todd Lippert can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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