The Juneau School District was finally able to put its budget to bed after the Alaska Legislature wrapped up last week.
Superintendent Mark Miller says he’s relieved, even though he thinks the district is worse off than it was this time last year.
“Not knowing where exactly we were going to land caused more than a few sleepless nights for me. So it feels great to actually know exactly how much we’re going to be getting,” Miller says.
In May, the Juneau School Board and Juneau Assembly passed an $86.5 million school budget.
“Basically we anticipated what the legislature would do so we do not need to make any additional budget changes,” says the district’s finance head David Means.
Overall, the district says it cut spending by about $2.5 million. Means says almost 11 positions were cut, most of which is being absorbed through attrition. Class sizes in the elementary schools will stay the same, but they’ll increase in middle and high school.
The district postponed buying a new social studies curriculum. The high school activities program was also pared down.
“We will pay for officials, coaching salaries and the dues that we have to pay to our state associations and then travel is basically going to be up to the teams and the students to figure out,” Superintendent Miller says.
The district still hasn’t touched the extra $500,000 allocated by the Juneau Assembly for the budget year that’s ending this month. Miller says it’ll be up for board discussion.
Miller expects next year to be rough, too.
“We will not get enough money to keep up with inflation; we just won’t. And so we’re going to end up next year having to spend more with about the same amount of revenue coming in, so exactly where those cuts need to be made and where scaling back needs to happen are all discussions that are going to have to occur,” Miller says.
District administration and the school board will start the whole budget process again in just a few months.
