Project

A rural Minnesota school district facing significant budget cuts and hiring shortages turned to NOVA to help sustain its special education department through a period of financial strain.

Challenge

Economic shifts in the district's population led to several consecutive years of budgetary decreases, compounded by declining enrollment. These fiscal pressures forced the district to eliminate full-time positions, and the district began losing veteran special education staff to neighboring districts not facing the same constraints. At the same time, the rural location made it difficult to find qualified candidates to fill the vacancies that remained, leaving the special education department stretched thin and at risk of falling behind on both compliance and student support.

Solution

Rather than pursuing a one-time fix, NOVA and the district engaged in ongoing problem-solving meetings over a two-year period to identify sustainable ways to support the department within the district's real financial limits. Together, they landed on a flexible model: part-time support services delivered by multiple consultants, each filling specific need areas across the district rather than a single full-time hire covering every gap.

Work

This part-time, multi-consultant model allowed the district to distribute specialized support exactly where it was needed, without the overhead of full-time district employment. It gave the district access to the range of expertise a fully staffed department would typically require, scaled to match both budget realities and actual need.

Impact

The model allowed the district to maintain compliance and continue supporting both students and staff efficiently at a cost savings that would have been unattainable through direct full-time hiring. District staff morale improved as remaining team members felt supported rather than stretched to cover growing gaps, and expressed gratitude for the sustainability the model brought to their day-to-day roles.

Recommendations

This approach is well suited to districts facing similar fiscal downturns and staffing shortages, particularly those open to creative, out-of-the-box problem-solving and willing to engage in ongoing dialogue about what support actually looks like given their constraints.