Major Cuts Coming for 2025-2026 at Hillsboro Public Schools
The Hillsboro Public School Board met in regular session Thursday.
In his report, Superintendent Jon Dryburgh informed the board that the district will need to trim nearly $500,000 from its budget before the 2025-2026 school year. Dryburgh listed over thirty possible areas that could be restructured or cut altogether. Some of the possible cuts include classes such as art, ag education, and foreign language, as well as extracurricular activities such as speech, girls golf, and girls wrestling.
Dryburgh says the district is in a tough spot and none of the proposed solutions are ideal.
Despite the bleak outlook, Dryburgh did give the board some good news. The district expects to receive $150,000-$200,000 more in per pupil funding for this school year than was initially estimated. The board will hold a special meeting on January 7th at 7:30 am in the High School Library to review the proposed cuts before the board’s regular monthly meeting on January 9th. You can see the full list of proposed cuts/solutions below:
*Reduce Administrative Salaries
*Move to School-wide Title, Cutting Both Title Para Professionals
*Keep Title Paras, but Cut Strategist
*Shift the Library Model to a Media Center Model
*Restructuring Counselor Roles
*Cut the following classes: Art, Foreign Languages, Ag Education, FACS, Business Courses
*Reduce the Following Departments: English, Math, Music, Physical Education
*Cut the Following Extracurricular Activities: Girls Golf, Girls Wrestling, Speech, One Act Play
*Cut District Para Professionals
*Cut Therapy Services with The Village Family Service Center of Fargo
*Reduction in Office Staff
*Limit Travel to Hillsboro City Limits for Spruce Lane Colony Students
*Reduce Athletic Director Duties
*Reduce Custodial Staff
*Cut Teacher Tuition Payments
*Remove District Payments for Sports Overnight Trips
*Combine Lunch Periods
*Restructuring Kindergarten Class Times/Days
*Combining 2025-2026 2nd Grade Classes
*Other Reductions in Extra-Curricular Activities
*Cut In-Town Bussing
*Sell Land
*Freeze Staff Wages
In other discussion and action items, the board approved the first reading of various policies and regulations. The board also reviewed the current feedback on the 2025-26 calendar options. The board will approve the 25-26 calendar in January. Athletic Director, Dave Nelson, also informed the board that coop with Central Valley will once again file a petition with the North Dakota High School Activities Association for girls basketball to move down to Division B.