Juneau School Board finalizes prioritized list of budget needs and wants

Juneau School Board members finished setting budget priorities Tuesday night, separating essential items from the extras that are contingent on the budget state lawmakers put together.

During an interview on KTOO’s Morning Edition on Wednesday, Superintendent Mark Miller explained that the panel started with a bare-bones budget that would keep schools open. They then tried to prioritize items that could be put back in the budget.

Superintendent Mark MIller
Juneau School Superintendent Mark Miller.

“We were trying to prioritize about $8 million of things that we had done in the past or would like to do,” Miller said. “Between $3.4 million to $3.9 million we felt were the highest priorities to put back into the budget.”

Miller said some of the top priorities included keeping the extended learning program viable, updating the social studies curriculum, retaining a Tlingit language teacher, and keeping class sizes down in grades K-2.

“Everybody agrees that the little guys need as much attention that they can get,” Miller said.

Miller said working from a base budget is a different approach than earlier efforts to just simply cut items from previous budgets.

“That led to some very difficult and poignant conversation,” Miller said. “Rather than come at with the slash-and-burn, we came at with the build from the ground up.”

Miller said it’s better way to look at the problem.

Listen to the interview with Juneau schools Superintendent Mark Miller:

Miller will present the list of priorities during a joint meeting of the school board and Juneau Assembly on March 7. School district staff will flesh out a budget based on those priorities. It will be up for debate and public comment during the school board’s March 8 meeting at Thunder Mountain High School.

Final approval of the school district budget is expected at the end of March.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications