ROCHESTER - Mayo Clinic is helping the school district in Rochester avoid severe budget cuts and school closures with a $10 million gift.
Rochester Public Schools officials announced the gift Wednesday morning, as well as significant revised plans to streamline district operations. The district is no longer planning to close three schools, but will shuffle several schools and programs around as it deals with increasing transportation costs.
"This extraordinary contribution from Mayo Clinic means that we will not have to make reductions in next year's budget that would have been devastating," Rochester Superintendent Kent Pekel said.
School board Chair Cathy Nathan called the gift a needed bridge to avoid most of the $10 million in cuts the district was ready to make.
"It has weighed heavily on the board to know the significant budget reductions we were going to have to make this year," she said.
The $10 million donation is Mayo's largest gift ever to the district, but it's a temporary salve for deeper budget troubles. The district has cut $21 million over the past two years — a side effect of schools hiring more staff than needed as student enrollment hasn't met projections.
Parents and staff at Pinewood and Riverside elementary schools, along with Mighty Oaks Early Learning School, have publicly opposed the plan to close their schools for weeks, arguing the schools were necessary parts of the community.
Those schools will instead shuffle around — Pinewood will move into the same building as Longfellow Elementary and operate as two schools in one building, while Mighty Oaks moves into Pinewood's previous location. Riverside will stay in place, but a Spanish immersion program offered at other schools will combine and operate within the Riverside building as a K-8 program.
