Why an Operating Levy?
A message from the superintendent
Dear St. Charles Parents, Staff, and Community,
As the superintendent, I want to take a moment to reflect on where we stand as a district, celebrate our shared resilience, and look transparently at our financial landscape. Our mission at St. Charles Public Schools remains unwavering: to Involve, Challenge, and Achieve. To continue delivering on that promise, it is vital that our community understands the fiscal realities we navigate together.
School finance can often feel unnecessarily complex. My goal is to break down our current budget, enrollment trends, and upcoming decisions in a way that is clear, straightforward, and easy to digest. The website and this short summary serves as a resource to provide context, answer questions, and help voters understand the reasons behind the proposed operating levy so they can make an informed decision.
The school district, since 2022, has been impacted by declining enrollment. For St. Charles, nearly 83% of revenue for the school system comes from state sources while the remainder comes from local taxpayers. The state sources, or revenue for schools, are directly impacted by student enrollment. The questions I often receive about our declining enrollment is connected to open enrollment, birth rates, and affordable housing for young families. For only three of the past ten years, St. Charles is a net positive for open enrollment. Birth rates are down across the state and the nation. Finally, the housing market in St. Charles is great for current homeowners, but young families find it difficult to purchase their first homes. The last point that is important to make is 90% of students who live in the St. Charles area attend St. Charles schools.
In 2022, St. Charles enrollment was 1008-students. For FY27, student enrollment is projected to be 875-students. The simple math for St. Charles is each student equals just over $10,000 per student. That math suggests $1.33 million (133-students * $10,000) in less revenue since the end of the 2022 budget year. For many, the memory of the school district going into Statutory Operating Debt (SOD) is still fresh. This occurred at the end of 2023 budget year. For those who do not know, SOD is the status that the Minnesota Department of Education gives to school districts that do not meet financial expectations outlined in state statute.
The most efficient way to reduce expenditures for school districts to meet substantial revenue shortfalls is to reduce people because people make up 74% of a school district’s total expenditures in the General Fund. With that context in mind, St. Charles has reduced eight classroom teachers since 2023. With salary and benefits, each teacher can be generalized to equal $88,000 in annual expenditures. This means $704,000 is the potential in expenditure reductions. Less teachers equals larger class sizes and less opportunities for students. Furthermore, in 2023 there were 131-total staff (including teachers, paras, cooks, custodians, office staff, etc.). For 2026, St. Charles reported a total staff count of 111-staff (15%). It takes a village to educate a child and all staff support the journey for teaching and learning. Having 20-less overall staff makes it more difficult to provide for students across the entire learning system.
The St. Charles School Board has taken appropriate measures to meet the demand of less revenue and rising expenses. The General Fund has grown from $193,634 in FY24 to $1,137,114 in FY26. We are projecting $1,462,162 at the closure of FY27. This is a substantial improvement but reductions in staff and other operations are the consequences. This was the goal of the School Board after SOD - to provide the public evidence that it can manage its budget appropriately. Without an Operating Levy, maintenance of a fund balance is substantially challenging in subsequent years without future reductions.
The district is at a critical juncture where it needs the help of the community to meet the high expectations for student learning at St. Charles Public Schools. For several years, St. Charles High School is recognized as one of the best high schools in the nation by US News & World Reports as recently as 2026. The high school maintains this level of excellence with the foundation provided by the elementary. This means, even through the most recent financial challenges, St. Charles continues to educate at the highest levels in the nation.
For the cost of taking a family out to lunch once a month, the St. Charles School Board is asking the voters to approve an Operating Levy of $650-per student pupil. Residents with a $300,000 home value will see an increase of $22 per month ($264 per year) in taxes if approved.
If you have any questions, please email or call my office. This website is meant to answer most questions you might have. Please reach out if you seek any clarity.
Sincerely,
Robert Routh, Superintendent of Schools