Anoka-Hennepin school district to approve $3.2 million in cuts

Dennis Carlson
In this Oct. 8, 2010 photo, Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District Superintendent Dennis Carlson stands in the hallway of Coon Rapids High School in Coon Rapids, Minn. before the start of homecoming festivities.
AP Photo/Dawn Villella

Leaders of the state's largest school district are expected to sign off on $3.2 million in cuts Monday night.

Anoka-Hennepin Superintendent Dennis Carlson said these cuts should be enough to have a balanced district budget for the 2011-2012 school year. He said further cuts were averted for a year because of money from a federal education jobs bill that passed last year.

Carlson said all of Monday's cuts are in operational costs, like transportation, and not classrooms.

"One of the things we're really trying hard to do is make sure we do not raise class size," Carlson said. "Our class sizes are high at all levels and we don't want to raise them any higher."

While Monday night's cuts do not include teacher layoffs, Carlson says he expects about 20 to 25 teachers will be laid off later this spring to account for the district's declining enrollment.

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