The Sitka School District budget will be in the red next year without substantial cuts. The Sitka School Board is looking for ways to trim a deficit of at least $1 million and is asking for community input on its process.
When the board met in a work session on March 10, Superintendent Deidre Jenson said if they build next year’s budget status quo, they’ll end up with a $1.2 million deficit. Cutting roughly 10 teaching positions would bring them close to a balanced budget.
That’s not accounting for inflation or if the school district’s health insurance costs increase. Jenson said a 10 percent jump in insurance would nearly double how much the district would be in the hole. Jenson said they expect to have preliminary insurance numbers at the end of March.
View Jenson’s presentation here
While the state legislature approved a funding increase last year, school leaders say it wasn’t enough, and the district still needed to spend down its fund balance last year to keep from eliminating staff. Jenson said she’d grown weary of cutting, and cutting.
“Bottom line is, the state has not funded schools the way they should have, and I’m getting a little frustrated with it,” Jenson said. “They want us to make changes, and they want us to make improvements in the state. And then they talk about like, ‘Can we not talk about what we’re going to cut for half-a-year and instead talk about educational improvements?’ I’m pretty frustrated.”
For around two hours, the board discussed its plans for how to right the ship. Could Secure Rural Schools be a buffer? The federal funding program, which supports schools surrounded by federal lands which don’t contribute to the local tax base, was reauthorized this year, including two years of retroactive pay. It’s still not clear exactly how much money the city will receive or when it will receive it, but the assembly has signaled plans to direct the whole amount from the retroactive years to the school district, which could be up to $600,000 a year. Board member Tom Williams suggested putting the funds in reserves.
“My household money, my car breaks down, and I don’t have anything in savings. You know, I’m walking,” Williams said. “I think a responsible budget has reserves so that when the unexpected happens, which it seems to always do, you have money to be able to cover these costs.”
Several board members including Paul Rioux said given the uncertainty of the amount and timing of the federal funding disbursal, they would prefer to use the money for one-time expenses, like curriculum or tech.
“I do not feel comfortable building a budget around SRS funds that we may or may not be getting. I mean, I know that makes the front end a lot more difficult, probably, for staff, but I would rather build it to the worst case scenario and then add things back in as we get the good news that it’s showing up,” Rioux said. “Rather than build it in a better case scenario and be like, ‘Oh, the check’s not coming in the mail this year,’ and then we have to go back and panic cut, and I don’t want to be in that position.”
Jenson also reviewed the potential effect that merging schools could have on the budget. Sitka’s school enrollment has been steadily declining over the past two decades [by around 400 students], which has reduced revenue from the state. Closing a school would also decrease the district’s revenue, at least at first. Still, board member Courtney Amundson said the long range savings should be noted.
“It’s not going to save us next year, but over the over the long term, we need a plan, right? Because we have fewer students, we have a lot of buildings, and they could be put into a smaller space,” Amundson said. “So it may be additional costs in two or three years, but in 10-20 years you’ll see those cost savings.”
Jenson said if enrollment continues to fall, they would have to consider that down the line. But she said right now there are too many students enrolled in Sitka’s two elementary schools to fit into just one of the buildings.
The board also discussed how to get feedback from staff, parents and stakeholders. Rioux suggested a survey that doesn’t ask parents what to cut, but to instead rank their top 5 programs as a way for the board to gather more information to inform the budgeting process. President Phil Burdick liked the idea, and said they should also ask folks what they’d put an influx of one-time funding toward.
“Considering where we are and what we’re looking at, and what we have already done in the last 15 years because of flat funding,” Burdick said and continued, “there isn’t a lot more for us to do in terms of cutting saving. It’s important to know what the community values. It’s important to know what the priorities of this community are, and the reality may be that we might not be able to fund them.”
The board will host hearings for staff and stakeholders later this month to share budget scenarios and get community feedback on how to move forward.
