At the Juneau School Board meeting Tuesday, only one person weighed in during public testimony on a proposal to lift the ban on out-of-town travel for middle school athletic events.
Superintendent Mark Miller said the snowy weather may have played a role, though he also noted only receiving a few letters on the subject. The proposal to lift the ban advanced through its first reading, and the final vote is expected at the next regular meeting on April 11.
The board’s conversation about the ban went beyond the policy itself, Miller said.
“There was a lot more discussion about what middle school travel and middle school sports should be about, in terms of equity and equality and fundraising and the ability to pay and minimizing the disruption to the school, and making sure we don’t have students that miss so many days of school that it hurts them academically,” Miller said.
The ban was controversial when it was adopted in 2014, and several board members at the time said they were torn over their votes.
The board narrowly decided to eliminate the opportunity for middle school sports travel in order to increase equity among Juneau’s middle school students.
Fundraising for student travel is a major hurdle, and Floyd Dryden Middle School families generally have more wherewithal than Dzantik’i Heeni families to make it happen. Academics also were a consideration.
School budget proposal unveiled
The superintendent also presented his $72 million budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins in July.
As proposed, average class sizes will be about the same, school lunch prices are slated to go up 25 cents, and about two-thirds of the district’s fund balance, $1.9 million, will be spent down.
Much of the district’s budget is built on school funding assumptions dependent on action in the state Legislature and the Juneau Assembly.
To help plan for the uncertainty in funding in recent years, the school board has ranked and listed dozens of line items for additional spending or cutting.
“It’s more in bands and groups than it is an itemized list,” Miller said. “There are probably three or four things to the bottom of that list that have, I would say, an equal prioritization. And if we were to have to cut one, I think the board would have to come back and discuss that.”
Some items on the bubble include more elementary school specialists, more support for middle school activities travel, funding college and career readiness tests, technology upgrades, a webmaster, and slightly smaller K-8 class sizes.
The board scheduled a special meeting on March 28 to finalize the budget.
