During a meeting of the Juneau Assembly and School Board Monday night, Superintendent Mark Miller asked the city to fully fund K-12 education next year.
“Let’s just be flat out honest. I believe what the board is asking, what we’re asking is to fund to the cap and see if we can get some of those activities funds back. I know that’s a hard ask. We’re all hurting,” Miller said.
Last year was the first time anyone can remember the Assembly not funding schools to the maximum extent possible, opting instead to shave $500,000 from its contribution. It also reduced funding for activities by almost $400,000.
Miller said trimming the budget over the years means putting more kids in each classroom. Compared to districts in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Juneau anticipates having some of the biggest average elementary and middle school classroom sizes with 28 to 29 students.
“When you have to decrease your funding, the only real way to make real significant difference is to take the same number of kids and have less teachers,” Miller said.
Assemblywoman Mary Becker wants to explore how feasible it is to give schools additional money from the city’s current budget.
“I think it would mean one more teacher, two more teachers. It would mean something that we could help, so I would like to ask that we consider that in the Finance Committee,” Becker said.
Finance Committee Chair Karen Crane questioned where the money would come from.
“If we do that out of funding this year, it’s that much less money we have to meet the deficit next year,” Crane said.
The city faces its own $7 million deficit for the coming fiscal year.
The school district’s budget is due to the Assembly at the end of the month. Administrative Services Director David Means said the district could be asking for a local contribution upwards of $25.5 million, or about $900,000 more than what the city gave last year.