Bemidji school board to review amended budget, hear public comment

Bemidji Area Schools will put its amended FY26 budget back in front of the public Monday night, with families, staff and taxpayers watching for signs of what comes next in staffing and school programming. The Bemidji Area Schools Board of Education is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. in the district office board room at 502 Minnesota Ave. NW, after an informal listening session at 6 p.m., and the board is expected to call for a Nov. 3 election.

The June 10 board agenda already opened the district’s public hearing on the FY26 amended budget, and materials for that meeting showed the board recessed its regular session to take up the budget review. Board officers Tomschin, Dominick and Manouzi, along with members Terracino, Couch, Moreno and Barrera, were listed on the hearing agenda as the district presented the amended budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

That budget work lands in the middle of a long-running deficit problem. Earlier 2026 coverage said Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Olson proposed $1.6 million in reductions for FY26, and that the district had been operating in a severe deficit since 2018. A January report said a revised 2025-2026 budget projected a $2.7 million deficit, up from $1.9 million, with higher payroll costs among the reasons for the change.

By April, the board had targeted $2.7 million in staffing reductions for the next fiscal year. Those cuts included seven elementary education positions, 3 FTEs of special education and 1.8 FTEs of K-8 specialists, after the board decided to keep J.W. Smith Elementary open at least one more year. That sequence makes the June 15 meeting more than a routine budget check. It is another step in a process that could affect staffing levels, class offerings and the district’s ability to absorb future costs without more disruption.

The district’s business office, led by Ashley Eastridge, handles budget, payroll and benefits, student accounting and the annual audit, a reminder that the financial decisions reach well beyond one line on a spreadsheet. Bemidji Area Schools says it serves more than 1,000 district employees, substitutes, coaches and others working on behalf of students, and Ballotpedia lists the district as serving 4,812 students in 15 schools across Beltrami and Hubbard counties.

The board’s next moves also come as the district keeps planning for the year ahead. Its 2026-2027 calendar is already posted online, and kindergarten registration was highlighted earlier this spring, signaling that enrollment, staffing and budget decisions are moving on the same schedule. The Nov. 3 election call will add another public decision point to a year already defined by financial pressure and the board’s effort to show how it plans to close the gap.