A free student breakfast program was extended until the end of the school year by the Juneau Board of Education during a special meeting Tuesday, although members said they are concerned about supporting the ongoing cost of the program in future years without help from community partners that have previously provided support.
The board previously approved funding the breakfast program for the first half of the school year in its budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, with plans to assess the program and district’s finances during the fall. Spending an additional $116,000 to fund breakfast during the second half was unanimously approved by the board Tuesday, with the program expected to cost a total of about $231,000 for the fiscal year.
Free breakfasts have been provided to all Juneau students for many years, with significant funding coming from community partners until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when federal funding for the meals was provided. That federal funding has stopped, but district officials said they are struggling to get community support with the only pledge so far being $20,000 from the Juneau Community Foundation.
“This is something we need to really deep-dive in the budget, and really reach out to our partners and see what we can do to accommodate this in the future,” said school board member Emil Mackey. “This is not a cost that we just…continue to absorb without help.”
The vote on extending the breakfast program occurred a week after Superintendent Frank Hauser told board members the district is getting $500,000 more in per-pupil state funding than expected from a one-time increase in the current year’s budget. An extra allocation of $5.2 million was expected in July, but that is now expected to be $5.7 million based on Juneau’s percentage of students relative to the statewide total.
But the one-time increase to the Base Student Allocation, approved by the Alaska Legislature and signed Gov. Mike Dunleavy, is not assured to continue. Dunleavy omitted the increase in his proposed budget last week, but said he is willing to consider a similar hike if legislators support other education policy goals of his.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
