School cuts music teacher

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

June 17, 2022

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Approval of Bemidji School District's 1997-98 budget too a back seat to talks of cutting a full-time music position at Monday night's School Board meeting.

The budget was passed eventually after one motion by board member Neil Skogerboe to reinstate the full-time music position was defeated in a 3-3 vote, and another motion to reinstate a half-time music position was withdrawn by Skogerboe, pending further discussion of the alternative.

Overall, the board accepted a budget with nearly $800,000 in slated cuts, leaving the district next year with projected revenue of almost $30.7 million and expenditures of more than $31.4 million.

Factoring in the board's cuts made in April, the district's projected general fund balance for June 30, 1998, will stand slightly more than $1.1 million. District officials expect to have to cut another $800 next year as well.

Superintendent Rollie Morud told the board although the budget needed to be approved for planning purposes, there will still be revisions to be made in coming months. He said in the 17 years he has worked as a superintendent, budgets have become more and more fluid.

"In the good ol' days -- if there were any good ol' days -- you use to pass the budget once, and it was done," he said. "Now budgets are more fluid."

Skogerboe's amendment to the budget -- which would have reinstated a full-time, high school music position recommended to be cut by High School Principal Ev Arnold and subsequently Morud at a prior budget workshop in April -- was no surprise to the board.

He had threatened to make the motion at a budget workshop held June 5, saying he could not condone a cut so deep to a program of such excellence -- a position that disagreed with Arnold and Morud.

Speaking on behalf of High School administration and faculty, Morud recommended keeping the cut, saying the more than $50,000 salary was too significant of an amount to reinstate in a time of cutting $800,000 from the district's budget.

In addition, he said there were other budget reductions that concerned him as well -- such as cutting a swimming pool assistant, sharing a principal between Lincoln and Central Elementary Schools and the large class sizes among the district's fourth-grade classes -- but they were appropriate cuts during a tight budget.

"The High School (administration) did a pretty good job of recommending a number of difficult cuts where there is not much to cut," Skogerboe said. "And I know we as a board have a responsibility to be fiscally (conscious), but we also have a commitment to excellence."

Skogerboe said with three teachers and more than 500 kids in the Music Department, there is a teacher-to-student ratio of 1-to-169, which is much higher than what is allowed in any other classes.

"In core areas, we do not go past one teacher to 80 kids," he said. "There is no area in the High School where we stretch our resources as thin as we are doing in music."

Board member Mary Auger agreed, saying although other cuts had been painful as well, the music position was a cut the district should not make.

"In the big picture, we've seen tremendous growth in the music program. And our expectation is that if kids sign up for a class at any level, we given them the best we can provide," she said. "The losers (with the cut) are the students themselves. It's the wrong thing to do. I do think the position needs to be reinstated."

Board Chairman Jim Smalley, who opposed reinstating the position, said whether the cut was made or the position reinstated the Music Department would continue to excel. But as a School Board member, he said he had to follow the recommendation of the High School principal and superintendent, which was to make the cut.

"Maybe it's a Band-Aid approach ... but we have to take care of the (budget) problem," Smalley said. "I'm not comfortable with reinstating a position after it has been recommend to be cut."

Skogerboe's amendment failed on a 3-3 vote, with Skogerboe, Auger and Carolyn Jacobs voting for reinstating the position and Nancy Eubanks, Smalley and Diane Corcoran voting against.

A subsequent motion by Skogerboe to reinstate a half-time music position was withdrawn pending a further board discussion about the alternative at July's regular meeting. Morud said in the meantime he would work with Arnold to see what would best benefit the school.

"That might not be as much as we needed to do, but it's better than nothing," Skogerboe said of the compromise.

The overall district budget passed on a 4-2 vote, with Auger and Skogerboe dissenting because of the decision about the music position.