Our Challenges
We Are Falling Further Behind In Local Funding
72% of Minnesota school districts rely on local voter-approved operating levies to fund essential services.
The average per student funding in Minnesota is $1,147 per student.
Annandale has one of the lowest voter-approved operating levies in the state at $79 per pupil.
This puts our district at 306 out of 328 districts for per-pupil revenue to support classroom education and resources.
State funding has not kept pace with inflation for the past 20 years and unfunded state mandates have challenged our district to do more with less.
Last year’s proposed operating levy did not pass, directly impacting the 2025-2026 school year budget. The hard decisions we made to balance the budget included:
Making $1.2 million in budget cuts
Raising activity and athletic fees
Instituting a student parking fee
Continuing to spend down our fund balance
This means we have fewer teachers, larger class sizes and reduced student services for the 2025-2026 school year and have diminished our emergency funds.
Making Hard Budget Decisions
Annandale Public School District isn’t the only district facing financial challenges. Schools across the state are running into similar issues and turn to voter-approved operating levies to stabilize their budgets. To dive deeper into why Minnesota Schools struggle to balance budgets, watch this informational video:
We have excelled at helping students stay with their peers, whether they need special education or advanced courses. But now, we have to pull from those areas to focus on financial stability.
With larger class sizes, it is harder to personalize learning for students of all ages and abilities and provide the supports, resources and programming to help all of our students succeed.
With financial instability, districts like ours risk negatively affecting students and learning with:
Disruptions in daily operations
Costly borrowing
Sudden deep cuts to staff, programming and activities
Financial Instability Is Impacting Student Learning
We Are At A Critical Turning Point
Our district needs a consistent, long-term funding source to stabilize the budget and maintain staff, class sizes and programming to protect quality education for our students.