Stillwater Schools to cut 35 positions due to budget shortfall

Name: Staff cuts planned at Stillwater schools
Uploaded: 2025-04-08T21:29:20-05:00
Description: Facing a financial shortfall of $5 million in its budget, Stillwater Area Public School is likely to cut dozens of staff positions.

Staff cuts planned at Stillwater schools

Facing a financial shortfall of $5 million in its budget, Stillwater Area Public School is likely to cut dozens of staff positions.

STILLWATER, Minn. (FOX 9) - A room full of concerned parents sat through the Stillwater Area Public Schools Board meeting on Tuesday night when the district announced changes necessitated by a $5 million budget shortfall.

Stillwater schools budget cuts

What we know:

The district blames decreasing student enrollment, inflation and uncertainty with government funding.

Administrators have also exhausted their one-time pandemic-era COVID-19 relief funds.

Now, school leaders are brainstorming ways to make up for 3% of the school system’s overall budget; and big changes are coming.

What they're saying:

"We’re looking at eliminating positions not just in one area, or one level," executive director of elementary education Caitlyn Willis told FOX 9. "We’ve had to make difficult decisions across programs. We are… eliminating 35 full or part-time positions. It’s never easy to lose people."

The affected employees are probationary teachers who were hired in the last three years, Willis told FOX 9.

"It never feels good to walk away and know that you may or may not have a position at the district [in] the following year," Willis said.

What's next:

Moving forward, the district will have teaching specialists in place of elementary school teachers. Art and media classes will see changes too.

Employees who stay with the district will see their health insurance benefits drop from the current 85% employer/15% employee cost-sharing relationship.

"The cost of those benefits is continually going up and up. We’re having to have very candid discussions with our employees about what we can sustain," Willis explained. "We know we cannot continue to sustain at 85/15."

The district is also pulling the plug on several online educational tools it adopted during the pandemic.

"We have a finite amount of money, and more things to pay for then we are able to pay for," Willis said.