The Sitka School District is now looking at a budget deficit as it enters Fiscal Year ’27.
School Board President Phil Burdick told the Sitka Assembly on Tuesday (2-24-26) that an audit in mid-February yielded a couple of findings, leaving the district’s most recent budget estimates in the red.
“Due to those audit findings, and fixing them so they don’t continue to roll over– staff turnover and training needs in the business office, and an overestimation of student count and, of course, the anticipated cost increases that we’ve all been feeling— we’ll be entering the next fiscal year facing a deficit, and we don’t know what that final number is yet,” Burdick said.
Burdick said they’re looking for ways to reduce costs, including spending freezes and a retirement incentive. But he noted it contrasted with the budget projections the school board brought to an assembly work session in late January.
“But it’s not the rosy picture that I had painted when I came and talked to you last month,” Burdick said. “We’ll figure it out and take responsibility for our actions, but I do want to remind everybody [to] remember how we got here at all, and that’s the fact that the state flat-funded education since 2012, and last year’s increase was still half of what districts needed to keep up with inflation.”
Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz asked Burdick to reach out if he wants to schedule an additional work session with the assembly.
