FAIRMONT – Across eight different sections, it was announced at Tuesday’s Fairmont School Board meeting that Fairmont Area Schools will be cutting $745,100 from the budget for the fiscal year 2027.

This follows budgetary adjustments made since the 2022-2023 school year. For fiscal years 2023 and 2024, cuts of $600,000 and $700,000 were offset by ESSER funds. Reductions of $250,000 and $691,000 were then made for fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

After steady student growth for nine of the last 10 years that exceeded projections by 17 students, this year they were below their projections by two. This, combined with 70 fewer students across the district now compared to this time last year, was also considered when trimming the budget.

At the January 27 school board meeting, the board approved directing Superintendent Andy  Traetow and the public school administration to reduce expenditures, preferably by around $500,000-$800,000. This also included potential cuts of programs or positions.

Multiple positions have been absorbed through faculty transitions, and as a result, there will be no cuts to current programs or course offerings.

“Any individuals impacted by our budgetary adjustments were communicated with last week,” Traetow said. “Staff at each of our buildings had the opportunity to hear the same summary that I’m sharing right now.”

The largest cut is to staffing at $395,000. Traetow said this includes cost adjustment for retirements, reducing elementary sections at three grade levels from six to five and cutting down greatly on doing elective courses with a single-digit number of students registered to save on enrollment elective staffing.

Food Service fund balance is next at $150,000, cut down due to reallocation of funds elsewhere and requirement by the federal government to spend that money down. While not a direct savings, Traetow said it is good they can use the cut fund balance excess instead of the general fund.

Technology will be cut by $64,000 via a change in software used for technology and custodial requests and a restructure of how the schools do tech replacement cycles.

The Community Education and Recreation (CER) office move, a non-renewal of some contracts and a change in audit services used that was approved by the board will save $42,800 in district operations, while non-renewal of some educational software and some standardized assessments that were optional will save $38,300.

Rounding it out, minor cuts to activities, buildings and grounds and supplies will yield savings of $25,000, $20,000, and $10,000, respectively.

“It’s been extremely difficult, but at the same time, to make sure our expenditures align with our revenue is extremely important,” Traetow said. “By being proactive over the last five years, we’ve avoided a singular large reduction all at once. By making passive adjustments where contracts with service vendors have expired, or individuals have left the district and we haven’t replaced all those positions, we’re confident we’re continuing to be focused on what we need to.”

No vote was held on these expenditures, as administration had already been approved to seek out and make cuts as part of the January 27 school board meeting.

If anyone has any questions about budget cuts, Traetow said they can reach out to the school district’s office. This can be done by calling (507) 238-4234.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, the teaching contracts of Andrew Moeller, Madison Sinn, Cade Jepsen and Samantha Kleese were not renewed for the next school year. All four are probationary teachers, where new teachers are hired on a trial period of at least one year and evaluated.