The Juneau School District’s FY24 Budget Reconciliation document came as a shock to the school board, district personnel and our community. Since we have been aware of the budgetary details for less than 24 hours, we do not yet have a detailed plan going forward.
While I am the current school board president, I am writing this as an individual board member. I want to provide our citizens with some background information to help inform community decisions moving forward.
For members of our community who have come from other states, school funding in Alaska is very different. District funding is determined by the state’s School Foundation Formula. The state sets the maximum allowable funding for our instructional budget. Neither the district nor the community can opt for better or more than the ceiling the Legislature and the governor dictate.
Our current budget for the school year FY23-24 was constructed in January-March of 2023. The proposed budget was required to be presented to the city by April 5, 2023.
The budget was built on projections for the 23-24 school year in brief:
Revenue Projections
• State funding: School Funding Formula driven by the Base Student Allocation
• State funding: pupil transportation
• State funding: School Bond Debt Reimbursement
• CBJ funding
• Federal programs
• District-initiated grants from education partners
Expenditure Projections
• Wages and benefits
• Instructional materials
• Student activities
• Facilities and maintenance
• Pupil transportation
• Student nutrition
• RALLY
Student Enrollment Projections
Each year the district holds public meetings regarding the school budget. People who attend are advised that in the coming budget year revenues are not expected to keep pace with expenditures. The response has been the same for decades, and as recently as last year, “small class sizes and school activities.” Basically, the message translates into, “cut things we can’t see and generally won’t notice.” For years the district has worked to comply with the community’s wishes, hoping for small increases in state funding that never came and stable enrollment which has eroded.
Enrollment has always been difficult to predict. However with 20/20 hindsight, post 2020, boards should have relied on Gregg Erickson’s enrollment projections and leaned into grappling with the unpopular demographic trend. The FY24 deficit is about enrollment, but it is also funding.
As state funding, which determines the district’s revenue opportunities, has remained stagnant for essentially two decades, the district cut its expenses year after year. Each budget cycle it cut “non-essentials.” Annually the question was, “Can we keep things going with a 10% cut to these line items or those line items?”
Former school boards tried to keep everything looking the same. It might have seemed the same, but inside it was not. Teachers fundraised to buy instructional materials. Fewer custodians were expected to clean the same or additional schools. Fewer classified staff were expected to cover the non-instructional duties in each school. Maintenance bought parts for many of our “systems” on eBay because they were so dated. Fewer classroom teachers were expected to cover more grade levels and content areas.
None of these things has changed, they’ve only intensified. The certified and classified staff of our school district have been heroes for years, doing more with less and less year after year. After years of “non-essential” cuts, personnel is now 89% of our budget.
The state’s Base Student Allocation is $5,960. In January of 2023 it was calculated that for the BSA to have the same purchasing value as it had in 2012 the $5,960 would need to be raised 21%, an additional $1,251 just to reprise 10% cuts and deferred textbook adoptions of 2012.
As discussed at the school board meeting Tuesday night, the budget projections for the 23-24 school year ago were all wrong. The district overestimated revenue and underestimated expenses. The board overestimated enrollment.
There can be no more invisible budget tweaks that no one notices. Student enrollment continues to decline. The city needs more real estate, the district needs less. The board has been researching ways to improve education program delivery and improve learning outcomes through program reconfigurations for more than a year. We need to find ways to meet that goal in a way we can afford.
I am one of seven board members. I cannot predict the potential options or difficult decisions that the board will be forced to make in the near future, but the focus must always be on how can we, the board and the community, provide the best education options for all of our students.
• Deedie Sorensen is president of the Juneau Board of Education.
