By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Last week, KYMN aired a news special breaking down the Northfield Public Schools budget reductions if you missed it you can find the recording of it on our website or wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we continue our focus on budget reductions, each day this week during the newscast we will focus on a different topic related to the budget reductions focusing on the different proposals and answering some of the most asked questions.
PREVIOUS STORY (3/10/2025): Northfield Public Schools Publishes Budget Reduction Proposals; Public Forum Rescheduled to April 3rd
Listen here (3/18/2025): An In-Depth Look At the Northfield Public Schools Budget Reductions
Today, we are answering the question of why the school district is continuing with the High School Construction project despite the budget reductions; the answer lies in how school district funding works. School districts follow an accounting method called fund accounting. Some of the different funds include the General Fund, Community Education Fund, and Child Nutrition Fund. Northfield Schools Director of Finance Val Mertesdorf stated that these funds have different income sources and separate purposes:
“We have some state-mandated rules and they tell us how we have to spend the money, what we can spend the money on. Again, you cannot mix and mingle those funds. So if it’s for child nutrition for our lunch service, that’s a totally separate bucket of money that we cannot mix and mingle with some very extreme, limited circumstances.” – Val Mertesdorf, Northfield Schools Director of Finance, KYMN News Special
The budget cuts that are being proposed are coming only from the general fund.
With the referendum passed in November, the school district was authorized to borrow $121 million to finance the construction and renovation of the high school. Those funds are placed in the district’s Construction Fund and have to be used for that specific purpose.
“The construction fund will be a new fund that’s opening or reopening. It comes and goes as we have projects, so the money from the bond will get deposited there. Any interest we earn will go towards the project, but we can only use those funds for what we told the voters we were going to do.” – Val Mertesdorf, Northfield Schools Director of Finance, KYMN News Special
The district is then required to levy or set a tax of 105% on the debt payments that due that year. The money collected from the levy then has to go specifically to pay off the construction debt.
Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann noted that fund accounting allows the district to benefit and save costs elsewhere. He cited that currently, the School District utility bill is paid via the general fund and that by improving the insulation of the High School, the district will save money in that fund:
“Reducing our utility costs and the utility costs come from the general fund. The same funding that we pay for teachers and other staff. So I think that that’s important to understand. There’s both the physical structure, but also the longer term operational savings.” – Dr. Matt Hillmann, Superintendent of Schools, KYMN News Special
In tomorrow’s newscast, we will answer the question of whether the school district’s stake in the new ice arena project has changed with the budget reductions.
Newscasts on KYMN air on weekdays at 6am, 7am, 8:30am, Noon, 3pm, and 5pm. If you miss it live, you can subscribe on your preferred podcast app:
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Do you have a news tip or press release? Send it to us email: Logan@kymnradio.net
