District leaders notified nearly 50 employees in recent days that they’ve been displaced from their current roles. Where they end up working or whether they stay employed with the Duluth school district depends largely on the number of retirements announced through the end of the school year. Two years after Minnesota invested $2.2 billion in its schools, districts across the state are looking to cut programs and positions to balance their books. State aid doesn’t keep up with the cost to educate kids, Duluth Superintendent John Magas said recently. The loss of pandemic aid plus unfunded mandates like unemployment insurance and increasing special education costs mean “the course correction is a little more extreme” in Duluth, he said, which will cut $5 million. The journalism program will go idle at both high schools next year as the district revamps it. Two media specialists will handle library duties for all four secondary schools. Libraries will be open daily in the middle school...