TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
School Budget Gets Final Board Approval
By BRIELLE SCHAEFFER
Sentinel Staff Writer
After months of discussions and hard decisions, the Sitka School Board approved its final, balanced budget of $22 million for fiscal year 2018 Tuesday night.
Superintendent Mary Wegner explained the spending document at the public hearing that preceded the school board’s unanimous vote of approval. There were no comments from the public at the hearing, the last of a series over the past several months.
District staff has been working on a revamped budget process since January, trying to predict state and local funding cuts while keeping the same level of service for students.
The budget is based on an $850,000 fund transfer, a 10 percent reduction to supply budgets for all schools, carrying over $179,131 in unspent funds from the FY 2017 accounts, and a city contribution without the $239,000 cut to school support that the Assembly is proposing. The district is seeking the same level of funding from the city as last year – $6,183,762.
The budget also assumes that the state will maintain per-pupil funding at the same level as last year.
“There is too much unknown happening with the state budget,” Wegner said.
District officials have backup plans for more savings, such as moving the second grade from Keet Gooshi Heen to Baranof Elementary and revising schedules at Sitka High, which could both take 3 to 5 years.
“We are working to be more effective and efficient with students,” Wegner said. “I just want to reiterate we are very aware of the economic reality Alaska is facing and Sitka is facing. We are having exciting conversations but it is a process.”
To balance the budget, $218,490 in “safety net” funding has been taken out of budgets for the Ventures after-school program, the Blatchley pool, pupil transportation and the Sitka Performing Arts Center. All of these programs are self-supporting.
“We don’t feel these are needed any longer,” Wegner said. “We really wanted to save teaching positions. ... We know the best thing for our students is quality teachers working for them.”
The account for supplies was cut by 10 percent overall for a total savings of $110,345.
School board member Dionne Brady-Howard was concerned the supply cuts would be a burden on families.
“As a parent, the school supply list that is required for the kids is pretty lengthy and pretty expensive,” she said. “You’ve got teachers with really specific requests of what they want their children to come to class with.”
An additional $50,000 was gleaned from adjustments to the budget for district staffing, Wegner said.
The $179,000 carried over from the current budget was from things like unnecessary training, travel and legal services, the superintendent said. Noting that school funding cuts have been proposed by the Legislature, Wegner warned that such a cut could force the Sitka schools to cut teaching positions.
“We intend to fill all the positions we have open but we need the state to come through on that,” she said. “We will wait to issue letters of intent for some of our vacancies until we know.”
She said the district has a contingency plan in the event the outside funding sources don’t come through with the full amounts that have been written into the budget.
“We have a priority list we established with the administrative team today,” she said. “All the schools will be impacted if we can’t fill those positions.”
As it stands, the budget has two fewer teaching positions and four fewer paraprofessionals, but they were part of the plan from the start because of the anticipated reduction in enrollment to 1,253 students.
Finance Director Cassee Olin said she was uncomfortable with the draw from reserves that is needed to balance this budget, leaving a fund balance of only $30,000 at the end of the year, on top of the $600,000 minimum needed to operate.
“It’s a very low number and I really, really don’t like it but that’s where we are at,” she said.
The city has until the end of May to decide how much support it will be giving the district.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.