Robbinsdale Area Schools is bracing for layoffs ahead of the 2025-26 school year after a budgeting error resulted in a $21 million shortfall.

In all, roughly 200 employees across the district will be affected, including 182 certified school staff and 18 full-time-equivalent jobs at the district’s Education Service Center, Superintendent Teri Staloch said in a letter on Friday. Three assistant principal positions are also in line to be cut.

The district says its budget crisis came about by erroneously double-entering $20 million in compensatory funding into the district’s revenue projections. In November, when the mistake was found, Staloch acknowledged that payroll comprised 80% of the district’s expenses, so any cuts would have to impact staffing levels.

“These reductions are incredibly difficult—and they are not made lightly,” Staloch said. “We know each position represents a person, a team, and a meaningful connection to our schools, students, staff and families.”

Education Service Center layoffs are expected to save $2 million, and staffing reductions in schools will amount to $13-15 million, Staloch said.

Staloch said not all of these cuts were due to fiscal pressures and “many reflect routine, annual staffing changes due to enrollment changes, licensure, program shifts, or non-renewals unrelated to budget.”

In addition to the staffing cuts, Staloch said the district will “likely” operate fewer schools in the near future.

“I would call Thursday and Friday a couple of the toughest days that we’ve had in a long, long time,” Peter Eckhoff, president of the Robbinsdale Federation of Teachers, said about last week’s news of the cuts. 

Eckhoff said of the cuts, around 140 are teachers. 

“It’s a painful, a painful time, and we’re going to do our best to lean into each other, support each other, and get through this year and try to help those folks that don’t have a position with us [find] a great place to land,” he said, adding the impact will be felt in the classroom as well. 

“We know that next year they’re going to be fuller classrooms, which means that we’ve got less time to dedicate to those one-on-one relationship building pieces as we try to individualize that instruction for our kids,” Eckhoff said. 

Also concerned are the many families in the district.

“It’s been rough; [we] have two kids in the district,” Cait Bielefeldt said. 

Her main worry is learning one of her son’s councilors won’t be there next year – after learning about possible cuts that were to be made, Bielefeldt started an online petition that has more than 1,000 signatures.

“There are just certain things that you can’t cut,” Bielefeldt said. “This is about kids. It’s not about budget cuts. And my own children and so many others in the district have benefited from these services at school. Without them, students lose a vital support system.”

For school board member ReNae Bowman, she said while nobody wants to be in their position, it was a necessary move. 

“We’re the grownups in the room, and we need to make sure that we have a rock-solid foundation for moving forward, and the cuts absolutely had to be made,” Bowman said. 

She also says it’s been years in the making: “I can kind of look back and connect the dots and see where the mistakes were made in the past 10 years, and there were mistakes made.”

But now, Bowman is hopeful for the future with new district leadership in place: “We have a foundation to go from when I don’t think we had that in the past.”