New school year starts for students in Juneau

A new school year began for students in first through 12th grades in the Juneau School District on Tuesday morning, and with the start of the semester comes new district leadership, policy changes and a few losses.

“We’re excited,” said district chief of staff Kristen Bartlett. “We have a lot of new people, we have a new superintendent, we have a couple of new directors — so there’s a lot of new energy.”

In July the district welcomed new Superintendent Frank Hauser, who on Tuesday began his first semester at the helm of the Juneau district. Along with him, a handful of new principals also begin their tenure at several schools across the district.

“It’s going to be a great school year,” Hauser said. “The first day of school to me is the best day — it’s just full of excitement, energy and enthusiasm, and there’s just an energy that schools have when students and families come back.”

Bartlett said she’s excited to see the 2023-2024 school year start following several years of uncertainty in school operations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said though the district leaders are “grateful” to get back to a more traditional start of the school year, some new changes are on the horizon for students and parents — specifically for elementary students.

Beginning Monday, Aug. 21, elementary students will get out of school 30 minutes early every Monday during the school year. The new early release policy was adopted by the Juneau Board of Education in July with the intent of giving teachers an extra hour for required training and other non-classroom activities. This year is the policy’s first year being implemented, which Bartlett said could open the doors to some initial hiccups.

Bartlett also noted that though first through 12th grades began classes Tuesday, Juneau’s kindergarten class has a later start date set for Friday, Aug. 18, followed by a pre-K student start date on Tuesday, Aug. 22.

This year the district is almost fully staffed for key areas like teacher positions across schools, Bartlett said, noting the administration will continue to hire even after the start of the semester. She said the district continues to seek substitute teachers as well. According to a report shared on Aug. 8, the district is looking for two counselors and three special education teachers. All but one of the elementary classroom teaching positions have been filled, and the district is fully staffed for building principals and assistant principals.

Despite the many new faces in the district, the school board was forced to make some difficult position cuts to the district in July to offset state funds vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy that left the district with a $758,181 budget shortfall. Two full-time jobs were eliminated, along with the equivalent of 3.6 other full-time jobs that will be covered with remaining COVID-19 relief funds following the budget adjustments.

“Every time we have a reduction in the number of positions, that has an impact on those particular positions,” Bartlett said.

The two jobs eliminated were a $140,000 administrative services position and a $110,000 HomeBridge position. Bartlett said because the administrative position was not filled when the cut was made the district will “continue to do the work that we’ve been doing without that position.”

She said the HomeBridge position would have replaced an employee who retired from the homeschool/correspondence programs and adjustments to fill that position may be made depending on enrollment numbers.

Enrollment numbers won’t likely be known until a few days into the semester, Hauser said. The district is projecting this year’s enrollment to be 4,240 students, a slight increase compared to last year’s actual enrollment of 4,221 students.

• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or (651)-528-1807.