Red Lake County Central Schools
School District News by Superintendent Guetter
February 2010

         The State of Minnesota is feeling the money crunch from the recession and does not have enough money to run for March, April and May. By law the State must with hold payments to school Districts to increase their funds. Both of the Oklee and Plummer School Districts will have the maximum amount of funds withheld because both of our districts have fund balances high enough to qualify for the withholding. The withheld funds (Oklee $247,433, Plummer $182,022) will be repaid on May 30^th by the State. Obviously this situation is not good, and one major problem I see with it is that our districts have fund balances because you the local tax supporters have approved operating referendums for our schools. The School Boards, administration and staff see these referendums as you putting your trust in us to be good stewards of your money. We do not see it as you putting your trust in the State to use your money. The other legislative issue that is a very concerning issue is the 17% of State education money for every school district that the Governor last year put into a delayed payment through the unallotment process. Now, after the fact, the Governor and Legislature are trying to figure out if they really have to pay schools this amount or not. If not, that would mean a 17% cut in education funding for this current year and no one is sure what it would mean for the future. Once again, this cut and how it would be enacted is not acceptable for the education of your children and school districts. I do understand that the financial picture at the State level is not good, and they have many hard decisions to make to get a balanced budget, but these two moves do not allow for any preplanning on our part, only after the fact financial cuts.   I have already contacted several of our local senators, representatives and the Governor about this and I highly encourage you to do the same.