SITKA, ALASKA
A little about the process: Every year, the Sitka School District gets a significant amount of its funding from the city. In order to do that, they have to ask the city for it, and once they’ve asked the city has 30 days to answer. If the city doesn’t answer in 30 days, the school district’s request is automatically granted.
Part of the money the school district gets comes from federal funding the city and the school district usually split. But this year, the school district asked for about 85 percent of the federal money, Municipal Administrator Jim Dinley recommended keeping the 50-50 arrangement in place.
Dinley said he’s supportive of the schools, but he wanted to stop that that 30-day countdown, and that he didn’t want to send more federal money to the schools until Assembly members had time to review the city budget.
“The Assembly received the budget this past Friday,” Dinley said. “In my opinion it would be irresponsible for the Assembly to approve the presented school district budget without even reviewing the (City and Borough of Sitka) budget itself.”
While the city tried to stop the clock to buy itself more time, the Sitka School District found itself running out of it. Superintendent Steve Bradshaw says there’s a possibility the legislature will add money to the school budget, to the tune of about $110 per student.
“We’re going to have to wait for 30 days after the legislature gets through to be able to know whether the governor’s going to sign what they put into the budget – whether we’re going to get it in the school districts or not,” Bradshaw said. “So I ask of you, to take a gamble with us. Give us the resources we need to educate the kids next year.”
The Assembly narrowly decided to take those odds, and approved the full school district request, 4 to 3. Terry Blake, Thor Christianson, Phyllis Hackett and Mim McConnell voted yes. Larry Crews, Pete Esquiro and Cheryl Westover voted no.
City and school leaders both have expressed frustration over how the budget process works. The school board must plan its budget before either the city or the state – its two major funders – have done theirs. And the Assembly usually must commit to a dollar amount for the schools before it has gone through the city budget.
Mayor Cheryl Westover has asked Assembly members to avoid discussion of the city budget – or any predeterminations of where the money will go – before the budget process begins in earnest. That happens later this month.
“We’ve been asking since last fall to have some budget work with you all that’s real, and that really hasn’t happened,” said school board member Mollie Kabler, who is also executive director of CoastAlaska, the consortium of radio stations to which KCAW belongs. She expressed frustration that more budget information is not available from the city side. “So, basically, the community is lost. They don’t know what your intention is, they don’t know what your budget is, they don’t know what you think of the level of funding that the school district’s asked for. This is not a functional relationship between these two organizations.”
Assembly member Larry Crews on the other hand says the city gave the school district at least an idea of how much money was coming its way.
“I mean, it’s already there,” Crews said. “So to rebudget yourself up and over what we already said, I think, was not the best gesture to do. And to allow us to look as though we’re potentially dysfunctional, what we’re doing, I didn’t take it too kindly.”
Still, amid the frustration, there was some common ground on at least one idea.
“The process needs to be looked at,” said Assembly member Terry Blake. “If that’s Mr. Dinley, if that’s Mr. Garrison, whoever it is, if it’s Mr. Bradshaw, obviously, there’s a problem.”
A problem perhaps brought to light by tough times. For a long time, says Assembly member Phyllis Hackett, it was always a given that the school district would get full funding from the city. So when the process happened wasn’t an issue. The question for Hackett was how to fix that problem.
“And we need to have this community step up,” Hackett said, “and either put up some recommendations of what cuts can be done in our services, or come up willing to buck up and pay a little more in taxes, and stop passing the buck all the time to somebody else to pick up our bills.”
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