NEW ULM – New Ulm Public School’s budget reduction was the top topic of conversation at Thursday’s school board meeting, though no official action was taken.

Following Tuesday’s work session discussion on the district’s budget deficit, the school board received significant feedback from the public.

Board Chair Steve Gag confirmed school board members received many emails regarding the budget cuts. He said the volume of emails has made it difficult to read through all and respond, but the board appreciated hearing feedback from the public.

Superintendent Sean Koster submitted a letter to student families in the district regarding the budget cuts. He read the letter during the board meeting for those in the community who did not see the letter.

Koster began by explaining the deficit was caused in part by declining enrollment. The decline is most noticeable in the lower grade levels. Incoming kindergarten classes have fewer students than outgoing senior classes.

For a decade, New Ulm Public School has averaged 150 kindergarten students, but last year there were only 135 kindergarten students with a similar number this year.

“Our current projections based on birthrates, county data is that we will have 130 next year as well,” Koster said. “Because school funding is largely funded driven by enrollment, approximately $10,000 per student, this decline has a direct impact on the resource available to support our schools.”

At the same time, the school faces rising cost from employee contacts, insurance and additional state mandates and requirements.

In the last two years, the school cut $200,000 from the 2024-2025 budget and $375,000 from the 2025-2026 budget, but the district has been deficit spending for three years. Going into the 2026-2027 school year, the school is already looking at a $2 million deficit.

Koster said the school has identified close to $2 million in reductions. These cuts impact the entire school, including administration, social studies, physical education, art, math, career and technical education, music, Spanish, English, Pre-K, mental health service, childcare, activities, facilities, custodial and technology. The number of elementary sections will be reduced as well.

“I want to acknowledge that many of these programs and areas are deeply valued and near and dear to our hearts,” Koster said. “Our goal as a leadership team is to spread out these reductions thoughtfully and fairly as possible rather than concentrate the impact to one area alone.”

Koster said the reductions ultimately center on people who serve students each day.

“These are not easy decision and I understand the concern and emotion that comes with them,” he said. “Please know that we are balancing our responsibility to be financially sound while providing meaningful opportunity and support for our students.”

Later in the board meeting, Koster gave a facility report and list of summer maintenance projects. He clarified that long-term facility maintenance cannot be used for operational expenses. This means the fund being used to make these repairs cannot legally be redirected to pay for staff or programming.

During public comments, the board heard from Laura Schotzko, vice president of New Ulm Fine Arts Booster Club and New Ulm High School Assistant Principal Joseph Lopez in regards to the budget reduction.

Schotzko’s concerns were related to potential cuts to the school music program. During Tuesday’s work session, it was suggested the high school music department be reduced to a single vocal and instrumental teacher and possibly sharing the vocal and instrumental teacher between the high school and middle school.

Schotzko believed neither of these options would work.

“This would decimate the program,” she said. “It is rare that someone is competent at [vocal and instrumental], it is different licensure. You’re going to have someone who is out of their element and these kids know it. They know what quality instruction looks like.”

She believed the loss of the schools music program would be damaging to student morale and she assured them the student would not be quiet.

“We don’t shift the girls softball coach to girls tennis,” she said. “They are both hitting a ball, but is that a good fit? Do you think those programs would thrive or even survive? I don’t think they would.”

Lopez said he was lobbying the board to maintain administrative personnel. He spoke on the work he has done for the district since being hired two years ago.

Lopez said administrators are not just overhead, but people who keep the school running every day. The elimination of an administrator would not decrease the workload, but spread it across the school, overloading teachers.

Lopez said his work included overseeing special education services and making sure the school complies with state law. He said across the state and nation, there are many administrators who do not know the laws surrounding special education.

Lopez said when he came to the district two years ago, he noticed New Ulm out of compliance on creating Individualized Education Programs (IED) goals for special needs students. IED goals help provide a plan for students after school and is a mandated program.

Lopez said he worked with district principals and staff to make sure IEP goals were being met. He said without additional administrative support, the school would have been out of compliance.

“Cutting too deeply into administration does not just risk efficiency, it risks legal consequences and failure to serve the most vulnerable students,” he said.

The school board made no official comments on the budget or reductions during the meeting, but will need to make a finance decision by next week. A special school board meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, for the board to make a final budget reduction decision.

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