Listen here:
During Thursday’s meeting, the Juneau School Board discussed adding rather than cutting positions next school year. But unsettled union contracts continue to bring uncertainty to the budget process.
The board added new positions to next year’s proposed budget to support the school district’s homeschool program and nursing staff.
Board member Steve Whitney proposed adding a full-time health assistant to the budget. District leadership recommended adding another position to give the district’s lead nurse the flexibility to support all schools.
Whitney said adding a position is needed to support the district’s nine person nursing staff. District staff have reported an increase in the number of students with medical needs in recent years.
“From what I’ve seen, that’s a hole the district has, and I think it’s a liability, and I think we’re putting kids in danger,” Whitney said.
Board member Jenny Thomas also requested adding a counselor position for the district’s homeschool program, HomeBRIDGE. The program doesn’t currently have a counselor. It was requested by the program’s principal, Corey Weiss. Thomas said she wants to support the 210 students expected to be enrolled in that program next school year.
“They said their graduation rates were higher when they had a grad counselor, and we’ve seen them going back down because they lost that grant funding,” she said. “So I think it’s very important – for thinking about what is best for our students, and is going to help them achieve graduation – that we put a counselor in there.”
The $4.4 million deficit in the board’s proposed budget will grow larger with the two added positions – but the board decided earlier to fill the deficit with district savings.
The previous projected deficit was almost $1 million more. The budget now assumes 10% of employees will opt out of the district’s health insurance plan. As of earlier this month, more than 22% of them have waived the plan this school year.
But there are still some uncertainties. The district hasn’t reached new contract agreements with its teacher and support staff unions.
The current budget is based on the district’s most recent offer to Juneau Education Association, the teachers union – as well as on the district’s initial proposed contract for Juneau Education Support Staff.
Kelley Harvey, a teacher at Auke Bay Elementary School and co-chair of JEA’s negotiation support team, testified Thursday with that reminder.
“I would just ask that you remember that you have two units that have not settled a contract, that it’s just a one year contract that’s been offered to JEA, that we potentially would turn around and go into this again,” Harvey said. “And you’re just going to lose more teachers, and it’s the kids who suffer.”
It’s been more than a year since negotiations began with both unions. The district has an arbitration hearing scheduled with JEA on April 27 and 28, and JESS has been in mediation with the district.
During Thursday’s special meeting, there was no discussion of adding two positions that the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program could stand to lose when grant funds end this year. There had been significant public comment in support of adding those positions in a previous budget forum.
The board will meet again about the budget on March 5. In the meantime, members will submit priorities on what else they want to add to the budget. The public can submit feedback on the budget by emailing the board at budgetinput@juneauschools.org or by completing Balancing Act, an interactive tool that lets the public build a budget and submit changes they want to see. That tool will close on March 1. The board plans to approve the budget by March 12.
