The Juneau Assembly plans to give schools the maximum local contribution allowed by state law, but that amount is based on how the Alaska Legislature will fund schools, which hasn’t been settled yet.
The Juneau School District submitted a budget request of more than $25.5 million dollars to the Assembly at the end of March. The Assembly is budgeting for that amount, but at tonight’s meeting, the city manager is recommending $1 million less.
Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl is the Assembly liaison to the school board. He spoke at the board’s special meeting last night.
“The charter mandates us to provide a guaranteed minimum of funding, however we are permitted to go above that amount as we complete our budget process,” he said.
Kiehl said the Assembly won’t know how much it’s allowed to provide the schools until the legislature passes a budget.
“So I would anticipate it being, even more so than usual, setting a minimum and everyone hoping that there will be an opportunity to provide more,” Kiehl said.
Last year was the first time in years the Assembly hasn’t funded schools to the maximum, It was $500,000 shy of the cap. It also reduced funding for activities, to which the cap doesn’t apply, by almost $400,000.
Kiehl said the Assembly is still considering giving supplemental money to the school district for this current fiscal year. He said that decision will be made independent of next year’s funding.