Daily Sitka Sentinel

No Teaching Jobs Lost in Final Budget Cuts

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Meeting Tuesday night with a bare quorum of three members, the Sitka School Board approved $152,000 worth of cuts to make up for financial shortfalls in this year’s budget.
    School District Superintendent Mary Wegner said she tailored the cuts to minimize classroom impacts by not cutting any teacher jobs.
    Wegner told the board that her mission in trimming the budget was to “save all of the teaching positions.” Before the vote, five teachers were without contracts and at risk of being cut.
    Attending the meeting were board president Jennifer McNichol, Elias Erickson, and Amy Morrison. Eric Van Cise and Dionne Brady-Howard were absent.
    The School Board had previously balanced the budget on the assumption that former Gov. Bill Walker’s $30 million set-aside for fiscal year 2020 school funding would survive Gov. Dunleavy’s attempt to cancel it.
    The Legislature is suing Dunleavy in defense of the $30 million for schools, and the parties have agreed to a plan for temporary school funding while the issue is in court. The temporary funding has left the Sitka School Board $151,000 short of the revenue needed to balance the FY2020 budget.
    The largest single cut approved by the board Tuesday night was the school district’s IT technician position, which saved $70,000. The loss of this position caused a debate among board members, as it meant that IT Director Ian Crane would be left to single-handedly service IT needs for all schools.
    “It’s not ideal, but we’ll be able to make it work,” Crane said, assuring the board that the lost position would not impact the security of sensitive student information. Crane agreed with Wegner when he said that “I don’t think it will have as much of an impact on the classroom than removing a teaching position.”
    The board also approved $27,000 in non-personnel cuts and a $15,000 cut made by reducing an Elementary Learning Support position. The final cut was a $40,000 reduction made possible by staff retiring and being replaced by junior staff who will be lower on the pay scale.
    While the idea of a furlough or reduced janitorial service had come up at last week’s board meeting, those options would require a renegotiation of contracts. Wegner stated that there was not enough time for this.
    Wegner firmly supported the cuts she proposed. She noted that since the School District is down to its last $5,000 in unassigned reserves, a final budget decision was necessary.
    Board President Jennifer McNichol noted that cuts were needed because “things are not going to magically improve.”
    Board Vice President Elias Erickson described the proposed budget cuts as “far more palatable than what we were previously considering.” He saw cutting a teaching job as unacceptable.
    Board member Amy Morrison said she wished that more options for cuts had been presented, but observed that the time constraints would not allow this. Though Morrison was concerned about the elimination of the IT position, she said that she had “to vote to support it because if I don’t, we are going another indefinite period of time without having teachers and we can’t do that.”
    While Board members were not entirely satisfied with the solution, Wegner told them that “this is the best I have.”
    After approving the budget adjustments, the board set a schedule for future meetings. The next meeting will be at Sept. 4 at the Sitka High School library.