North Branch Schools Approve 4-Day School Week

NORTH BRANCH, Minn. - The North Branch school board will move to a four-day school week next year as part of a new 2010-11 budget recommendation approved Friday.

In addition to the four-day school week, the approved budget recommendation calls for the closing of the Main Street school and the use of the school district's other post-employment benefits trust.

The approved recommendation calls for roughly 80 percent of the overall cuts to be "non-instructional" in nature, which led to what the district called an "outside the box" approach, including the above decisions.

The budget recommendation also includes administrative cuts and the use of one-time resources to cover a portion of the budget deficit. Some one-time resources, like stimulus money, have been reserved to address expected future deficits and as a safety net for possible state cuts to education funding.

Cuts to classroom teachers equal 19 percent of the overall budget recommendation.

The decision followed weeks of deliberation and public comment.