Daily Sitka Sentinel

School Board to Test New Budget Planning

By TOM HESSE

Sentinel Staff Writer

Sitka School Board members are  hoping an experiment they ran this past year can help when the annual budget process gets under way in the months ahead.

The board is working toward a new method of budgeting that will give schools and departments more of a voice in planning. And to get there, members are adding a new emphasis on outreach while they develop a spending plan for the coming year.

During a work session Tuesday, the board reviewed budget and strategic goals. The focus is a result of the board’s strategic planning process, which aims to find tangible ways of meeting objectives.

In this model, stakeholders propose ways to address specific board goals. The first time around, the board worked with Head Start and Sitka Tribe to create the Wooch.een preschool program. The so-called action research plan was aimed at the board’s goal of closing the achievement gap for low-income students. 

This year’s approach will address  budget goals. Members are looking to build a 5-year plan, replacing their current line-item model with a performance-based model. One of the key differences, Superintendent Mary Wegner said, is giving schools a chance to advocate for funding to accomplish specific goals. 

“It gives our staff the chance to give input and ask, what might we be able to do in our school or department to meet that goal,” Wegner said. 

The changes will require an earlier start of the budget process in order to include all the parties involved. This year’s budget will be similar to last year’s but the new action research goal will add direction to the process, Wegner said.

Essentially, the board is going to try to address specific goals and budget aspects with the community and staff – a step in the direction of the new budget process. 

“It’s not the clean and new budget, but we don’t want to just do our old budget,” Wegner said. 

Involving the staff, Wegner said, will also give more input on where cuts can be made. 

“Those decisions are influenced by the staff at the school and department level,” Wegner said. 

And in light of the financial problems in city and state government, it’s more likely that cuts will be the focus of the budget cycles to come, the board was told. Cuts are what get parents involved, board member Jennifer McNichol said. 

“When those budget meetings come around, what gets people in the door is emotion,” McNichol said. 

Last year’s cuts led to the privatization of Community Schools and the loss of three teaching positions. Two of those positions were at Blatchley Middle School and one was at Sitka High. Wegner told board members she would like to restore some of those positions in the new budget.

“The impact of the loss of those three teaching positions is tough and it’s impacting our students,” Wegner said. 

The School Board made a number of cuts last year in response to decreased state funding. Some of the state funding cuts never materialized and federal funding from Secure Rural Schools eventually came in, allowing the board to start this year with more than $1 million in reserves. Board President Tim Fulton was open to the idea of bringing the teaching positions back. 

“Hopefully, we didn’t put our students in too much of a deficit that they can’t climb back from that,” he said. 

One challenge the board faces annually is projecting how much money the Legislature will provide for education. State funding accounts for more than 70 percent of the budget. 

“Considering that the state won’t necessarily finish the session by April, and we don’t know what the local administration is going to do, how can we budget anything,” board member Tom Conley asked. 

Wegner said the district will always have to do some guessing when it comes to outside funding sources, but she’s hopeful the new process will refine those guesses. 

Fulton said the important part of starting the new budget process will be getting the community involved. 

“It’s always been a question since I’ve been on the board is how are we going to get people involved,” Fulton said.