By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Upcoming budget difficulties and possible staff reductions dominated the discussion at the Sitka School Board’s meeting Wednesday night.
The School Board is dealing with a $1.8 million shortfall projected for the 2022 budget, and the staffing cuts recommended by the district administration.
“We are proposing eliminating five certified positions across the district,” Superintendent John Holst told the board. He did not specify the positions on the chopping block.
However, Holst emphasized that multiple unknowns remain in play.
He noted that the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package in Congress is likely to send a significant sum to Sitka. The House has passed the relief bill and it’s now in the Senate.
“It has a huge chunk of money for schools… We’re hoping that this next one won’t have strings tied to it so it’s difficult to use and we can actually use it to close our budget gap,” Holst said. Sitka schools could receive about $1 million from the bill, he said.
He added that district utility costs and insurance premiums also remain uncertain for now. Insurance is projected to rise by as much as 12 percent in the next fiscal year, he said.
Last week the Assembly voted to fund local schools to “the cap,” which is the maximum amount allowed by state law and is based on an index of the total property value within a borough. But the board noted that a question has arisen about how the district calculated instructional and non-instructional funds in its request to the Assembly.
In a later interview, Holst said that the current issue stems from the difference between instructional and non-instructional funding.
“The city has used the cap differently than we are planning on using it. Last year the actual cap, the maximum, became the instructional budget and then all the other items (such as activities travel) were added to that... (But this year) some of the items that we thought were going to be beyond the cap are going to be included in it,” he said over the phone. “So right now we’re looking at an additional cut.”
The superintendent noted that the yearly cuts are very difficult.
“Getting to the point where we are right now in our proposal has been incredibly painful... All of the low hanging fruit is gone. It’s getting harder and harder to make up deficits,” Holst said.
He took responsibility for the issue.
“It’s my fault for not sitting down and going through this with John Leach,” he said.
Board President Amy Morrison summarized the issue at the meeting.
“We didn’t specifically include the money that in the past has been non-instructional expenditures… That’s where we kind of had this ‘Oh no’ moment,” she said.
In the proposal for FY22 funding from local sources, the district requested, and the Assembly agreed to, a figure of $7,764,160. However, this figure did not include “non-instructional” funding, which the city has traditionally provided separately from the instructional funding that is subject to the cap, Failure to include this $565,759 expense in their request to the Assembly has left the district short of funding for instructional programs.
That figure is equivalent to the cost of five teaching positions, Morrison said. These would be in addition to the five who were cut from the 2022 budget in the planning process before the non-instructional funding problem was discovered.
“We’ve got a $500,000 hole in our bucket,” Holst said.
Morrison said the error in the funding amount in the request to the Assembly arose from differing ideas about the funding cap, which is specifically for instructional funding.
“When they were doing their budget planning they were assuming those other items – that’s another five teaching positions potentially – that number was considered to be in our budget and now it’s not,” she said. “I would hate to see our kids suffer because we made a clerical error and didn’t add up our numbers quite right.”
The superintendent said further cuts would hurt.
“It would be very difficult for us to go back and eliminate five more jobs,” Holst said. “There was blood on the floor cutting the first five, and I can tell you it would be really, really painful to go back, and we would start unraveling some of the fabric. Now, having said that, we have stayed within the (pupil to teacher ratios) that you have suggested.”
He said the administration would make further efforts to balance the budget.
“We’ll try to balance our budget without asking for more money but if we can’t do that we’ll be back with that budget in front of you. We have no place else to go,” he said. He noted that about 85 percent of the district budget goes into paying personnel.
Board member Blossom Teal-Olsen said such issues arise when a school district is already nearing its limits.
“This is what happens when you have a school district that’s bare bones,” she said.
Earlier in the meeting, Assembly member Rebecca Himschoot had pointed out that, given the Assembly’s discussion last week prior to the 5-1 vote approving the School Board’s funding request, there appears to be little appetite for additional city funding.
“Any funding outside of what was asked for last week, my sense from the Assembly was examining the 20 percent of what the district does that isn’t personnel would be pretty important to do. Specifically, is there a curriculum that you’re updating? Can that wait? Is there a device exchange that you’re doing? Can that wait? The city has not had capital improvements in all of ’21 in order to keep up with all of our other obligations,” Himschoot said.
Were the city to fund the schools to the cap, which is $7,764,150, and also provide full non-instructional funding, the total from local funding would amount to $8,329,909.
Holst summarized the budget problem: “It becomes five pounds of apples in a three-pound sack,” he said.
As part of the funding discussion, Holst asked the board a pointed question.
“Are you committed to having counselors in every building? he asked.
After a long silence, a number of board members answered in the affirmative.
Board member Paul Rioux spoke against counselor cutbacks.
“Our most at-risk youth suffer when we make that decision … It’s for the benefit of all the students’ health to have counselor support,” Rioux said.
Looking to the future, Holst said the social worker position at Pacific High School needs to be permanent, not debated yearly.
“You need to make the commitment among yourselves that it is not a one-year thing,” he said.
Speaking for PHS, Principal Mandy Summer highlighted the importance of the position at her school.
“I can say with some pretty high confidence that a number of (students) would still be in school if we had some additional mental health support for them and social support for them.”
While the budget discussion consumed most of the three-hour meeting, other topics were brought up.
As part of ongoing government-to-government collaboration, Dionne Brady-Howard told the board that Sitka Tribe of Alaska is moving forward with recommendations for how to phrase a land acknowledgment as well as a new name for Baranof Elementary School.
As for the school name, Brady-Howard noted that additional stakeholder consultation will be needed.
“It’s going to probably need to be a little more of an involved process than that… In order to facilitate community buy-in, we think it’s also important as a Tribe to make sure that different stakeholders are included,” she said.
Regarding the ongoing pandemic, Holst informed the board that administrative policies on risk levels are changing. Specifically, the district shifted to a 7-day virus counter instead of the 14-day tally kept since the reopening of schools in August.
“We have gone to a 7-day instead of a 14-day. That’s to be in accordance with other districts in the region and the state, (which is) for athletic purposes looking at seven days... What it does is it doesn’t smooth it out as much. You can very quickly change but you can also change back. The low risk we’ve decided is nobody having COVID in your community, that’s Green.. Yellow is anywhere from one to eight. And after eight, nine and up in seven days will be the Red zone,” Holst said.
He added that about 85 percent of district staff members have received coronavirus immunizations.
The School Board will hold a community budget hearing starting at 6 p.m. on March 25. The Assembly meets at 6 p.m. today for a special budget meeting.
