The Juneau School District has asked to the Assembly for greater than $2.5 million to address deficits before the beginning of the next fiscal year.
The formula for funding schools in Alaska permits local government to contribute their own funds until a certain amount. The Borough and City of Juneau has provided the highest amount of local funds for the district every year for over 10 years.
School boards may also request local governments to provide funding above the limit, and in the budget process last year the board requested $2.2 million.. The board is now seeking an additional $2.5 million.
The greater than $1.2 million of it would be used to pay for a growing transportation deficit. Transportation funding is provided by students per student the state. the superintendent Bridget Weiss said declining enrollment resulted in a deficit of the transportation fund the previous year. District officials expect the deficit to rise by the close of the school year, as the number of students enrolled was again lower than the numbers projected.
“When we entered COVID and saw an enrollment drop in COVID, we had an act of hold harmless that allowed us to continue for a few months,” Weiss told the Assembly Finance Committee on Wednesday. “That was the case in general financing, however it wasn’t the case for transportation funds. .”
She also said that fuel prices have also increased.
The second thing to be considered is $750,000 for the RALLY which is the after-school program of the district. Weiss noted that many RALLY employees serve as teachers in classrooms during school hours, and later work they work overtime at RALLY this has driven costs up in the past and in the past. The program is facing the same challenges in hiring like the rest of Juneau’s childcare providers.
It’s a style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Because of our agreement that we negotiated, it means that we’re paying for overtime which is more costly,” she told the committee. “If we transfer those expenses onto our family, what we’ve observed is that it’s not affordable. .”
Weiss stated that the money will also be used to pay for expenses that have arisen this year due to middle school wrestling and summer school, as well as adult classes offered to adults in community settings.
Weiss stated that If the Assembly isn’t willing to provide the district with the additional $2.5 million district will have to make up the difference with money it plans to invest in instruction in the coming year.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Our K-12 instructional funds is our only fund that we’re able to tap,” Weiss said in an interview. “We will need to tap the instructional funds to cover the deficits, which will consume a portion of our operating funds. .”
Assembly members Alicia Hughes and Skandijs questioned school board president Deedie Sorensen about how much the school board has discussed possible alternatives to receiving more money by the City.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”We have not put in any time thinking about these. We’ve spent a lot of hours trying to determine whether or not going to submit this request from the Assembly,” Sorensen said. “Most of our discussions on budgets focused on how much we have to reduce in order to reduce an overall structure deficit.”
Certain Assembly members were adamant against the request. The Assembly’s member Wade Bryson said the Assembly was asked to offer an easy solution to the district’s budget issues.
“If you suspect there are areas where you are costing you money, bring it to our attention to allow us to tackle the issue instead of presenting us with an unpaid bill at the conclusion and insisting that we pay for bad budgeting habits,” Bryson said.
However, Weiss believes the root of the issue is the flat-funding by the state. The basic allocation to students that is the amount per student district receives through the state budget, hasn’t grown from 2017 onwards.
It’s a span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”This isn’t about poor budgeting. It’s not about spending poorly,” Weiss told the committee. “This concerns education in K-12 schools being underfunded and drastically underfunded. .”
The Finance Committee has voted to bring an ordinance that would allocate $2,540,737 in the total Assembly for the final vote. the committee’s members Bryson Hughes-Skandijs, Hughes-Skandijs, and Gladziszewski deciding against it.
The first hearing of the next fiscal year’s budget is scheduled on Tuesday.
