St. Paul superintendent cuts 3 top officials as deficit looms

Article by: GREGORY A. PATTERSON , Star Tribune
Updated: January 20, 2010 - 3:11 PM

It's not yet clear how much money the layoffs will save.

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The new St. Paul schools superintendent said Tuesday that she is eliminating three executive positions in her office in the face of a looming $28 million deficit.

Superintendent Valeria Silva requested and received approval from the school board to eliminate the chief of schools, deputy chief operations officer and special assistant to the superintendent positions. Eliminating the chief-of-schools position means there will be one less layer of management between the schools and the superintendent's office, a spokesman said.

Silva, who officially became superintendent last month, said the district is doing the best it can to maximize the funding it has. Silva said the district faces a $28 million budget deficit next year and that additional belt-tightening is likely.

"We are fiscally responsible," Silva said. "It has been difficult to make some of these changes." She added that she is likely to announce a more comprehensive reorganization of her office this spring.

The chief of schools post had been held by Nancy Stachel, who also was a semi-finalist in the fall for the superintendent's job along with Silva. Stachel recently was named principal of Maxfield Magnet School in St. Paul. Joe Raasch had been deputy operations officer, and Jeremiah Ellis had been special assistant to the superintendent.

Silva said she would reveal the amount of cost savings from the moves next week.

The moves, considered Tuesday at the monthly school board meeting, also changed the title of chief financial officer to chief business officer and made the interim appointment of Michael Baumann to that post permanent.

Gregory A. Patterson • 612-673-7287