Listen here:
The Juneau School Board on Tuesday approved its budget for next year. The district will be able to maintain its services, but there are still funding uncertainties. For instance, teachers don’t have a new contract, and they’ve been making noise about it.
More than 80 teachers and their families stood in the snow at the intersection going into Thunder Mountain Middle School on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of the school board meeting that night at the school. Many waved signs as children played on massive snow berms. Some signs got creative, like the one Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy teacher Kalchani Joshua Jackson held.
“One sign says, ‘Has du ḵóo at latóowu áyá x̱at, tléil ḵu.aa ax̱ yáa has awooné. I am their teacher, even so they don’t respect me,’” he said, “And on the other side, there’s a picture of an emoji that says ‘mood’ and ‘meh.’”
The contract between the district and the teachers union Juneau Education Association ended at the end of June last year. The district and union negotiated for more than a year and have moved into arbitration. A hearing is scheduled for April 27 to 28.
Tanya Roust is a teacher at Sayéik: Gastineau Community School. She said teachers are picketing to tell the community how they’re working without a new contract.
“We need community support, because the teachers have been asking for over a year that the district recognize our contributions to education in Juneau, and now we need to hear from the community,” she said.
Teachers picketed twice at different locations around town last Friday, and then again on Tuesday. Roust wants community members to show their support by contacting the school board or speaking out at board meetings.
Amid this tension, the school board unanimously approved its budget for next fiscal year during its regular meeting Tuesday night. But members have a list of “addbacks” to consider when uncertainties, like a teachers contract, are settled.
The final budget maintains services from this year and adds new ones. It funds a Lingít language teacher for TCLL, which is currently funded through a grant ending this year. The board also added to the budget a health assistant, a HomeBRIDGE counselor and the additional costs from the district’s tentative agreement with its support staff union.
The budget is based on an updated method to the way the district calculates staff for each school. It estimates that both Thunder Mountain Middle School and Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé would each get an additional teacher.
Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon proposed also adding universal free breakfast to the budget, which is estimated to cost $230,000.
“All of the other supports we put in – may be able to put into place across the board – won’t do anything if our kids are hungry,” Siddon said.
Board members wondered if they could pull back this decision if they didn’t have the funding for it. But board member David Noon said they shouldn’t approve the program only to walk back the decision later.
“I don’t think that there’s any way we can vote to approve this with any idea that at some point we will pull the rug,” he said. “I think (it) should not be a consideration. We either wait until some of the unknowns are sorted out and do an add back, like we did earlier, or we just go ahead and approve it now.”
The board approved the change in a 5-2 vote. Board members Steve Whitney and Amber Frommherz voted against it.
Altogether, the district’s operating expenses total more than $81.8 million, and requires drawing on more than $5.6 million in district savings.
In addition to funding for instructional services, the school board is asking the city for $2.1 million for non-instructional items.
The board unanimously approved increasing its request by $9,000 for bus passes for Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi High School students. Board member Amber Frommherz brought the idea forward.
“Our transportation requires that they arrive to the campus 45 minutes before their school day and then wait 45 minutes after their school day in order for them to partake in the bussing that we provide,” Frommherz said.
She said she wants to support students who have issues with attendance at the high school.
The district has until March 13 to submit its budget to the city. The Juneau Assembly Finance Committee and school board are scheduled to meet and discuss the city’s contribution to the school’s budget on March 18.
Editor’s note: Amber Frommherz serves on KTOO’s Board of Directors.
