Closing the achievement gap and maintaining a high-quality education for all students remain priorities as Saint Paul Public Schools manages an expected $25 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year.Twenty-five million dollars is about 5 percent of the district'soperating budget. This is the largest single-year shortfall the district has faced in more than a decade.

With past budget shortfalls, school and district officials made every effort to keep cuts as far from classrooms as possible. That will be the primary goal as district officials plan for the 2009-10 budget, however, a deficit of this size will touch all areas of Saint Paul Public Schools. A task force of Business Services staff, principals and other administrators currently are developing priorities for eliminating the shortfall.

SPPS assembles a preliminary budget outlook in December then revises it based on updated enrollment counts, state forecasts and the Legislative session. This year the forecast was made in August to accommodate a presentation to the Board of Education on Large-Scale System Changes in the district.

The Superintendent began to discuss the shortfall at the regular Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, Jan.20. Discussion continued through the Feb. 10 Committee of the Board meeting at which guidelines for the 2009-10 budget were presented. Later this winter the district will assemble enrollment and budget allocations for schools. Those are sent to schools in March. Principals and site councils prepare their budgets and return them to the district office in May to be assembled into the final budget. The board is expected to vote on approval of the 2009-10 budget at its June 16 meeting. By law, the district must have a board-approved, balanced budget by June 30.