Brooks: Budget cuts at the Science Museum hit Minnesota right where it learns

It took a while for the layoff notice to reach paleontologist Nicole Dzenowski.

“I found out I was laid off in the middle of field season in Montana, when I crested a hill that finally gave me enough service for the messages that my position had been eliminated,” Dzenowski said Tuesday afternoon, standing in front of the Science Museum of Minnesota, surrounded by museum staff reeling from another round of layoffs.

Facing state and federal budget cuts, rising costs and declining attendance, the museum announced earlier in July that it was eliminating 43 jobs — cutting 13% of its remaining workforce, slashing millions from its own budget. A “comprehensive restructuring,” the museum called it.

For almost 120 years, the Science Museum has collected wonders and shared them with the state. Fossils. Antiquities. Questionable medical devices. A giant astronaut. Cool rocks. Residents bring in their own treasures and set up shop in the Collectors’ Corner. Museum scientists operate a field research station on the St. Croix, working to reduce pollution in the watershed. Thousands of children spend their summers at the museum’s camps each year. Thousands more are visited by staff who bring the exhibits and lab equipment to schools and communities across the state.

The restructuring hit scientists, summer camp staff and ticket-takers who make $35,000 a year and want to know why their jobs are the ones getting cut at a museum where the CEO earns six figures.

Museum staff rallied with members of AFSCME Council 5 under a great yellow puppet — of a bird? Pterodactyl? — and a banner reading “no more layoffs.” People who devote their lives to museum work know how to catch the public’s eye.

One of the eliminated positions was the paleontology lab manager, Dzenowski’s job. Initially, she said, the museum planned to have volunteers run the lab, but eventually offered the position back to her, but only part-time.

“I feel incredibly lucky to work here, to get to do what I love and to share it with you all every day,” she said. “But I can be grateful for all of those things while still recognizing that the way these layoffs have unfolded does not feel like management has followed our contract and considered any alternative to these layoffs.”

The Science Museum has been through round after round of painful cuts — 158 staffers were laid off during the pandemic in 2020, another 15 jobs were cut in 2023. Budgets keep shrinking and admission keeps declining as families face ticket prices that are almost $35 for adults and almost $25 per child.

The museum burned through $16 million of its reserves trying to restore staffing to pre-pandemic levels, officials said in response to the protest. Eighteen of the eliminated positions had been funded directly by state or federal dollars that were taken away, said Emma Filar, the museum’s senior director of communications.

“None of the decisions were easy, and all of the staff laid off were doing good work,” Filar wrote in a email response. “But we had to cut $7 million from our expenses to match our revenues.”

Museum CEO Alison Rempel Brown took a 25% pay cut. She currently earns a salary lower than the one she had when she started, the museum noted, and lower than her predecessor’s. Other senior executives also took pay cuts and pay freezes.

“But I think there are so many ways people can support the museum,” she said. “They can physically come, they can buy a membership, they can donate. … They can advocate for us with the Minnesota Legislature. They can advocate for science federally, too, with those elected officials. Science is under attack.”

But for now, these cuts are hitting Minnesotans right where they learn — and hurting people who are the most passionate about science and education.

Jennings Mergenthal, who uses they/them pronouns, is a community engagement specialist at the museum. A year ago, they worked in an eight-person department. Now it’s down to a staff of three, all of whom have been laid off, effective Friday.

“Community members have told us the museum was inaccessible, expensive and lacked relevant programs. Our job was to break down those barriers,” said Mergenthal. “Now that we are gone, whose job is that?”

Sheridan Small’s friends and family couldn’t believe summer camp was a year-round job at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

The museum runs 40 different classes for more than 2,500 children, from pre-K through sixth grade. Summer registration first opens in February. Small even heard from one mother who brought her child up from Alabama because she said there was nothing like this summer camp down there.

“At this camp, kids learn how to code. They saw pieces of wood and they dissect squid,” Small said. “They design their own spacesuits. They make chemical reactions fizz and bubble, and they hold real fossils in their hands.”