The Juneau School District Board of Education appears to maintain its concerns about state funding as it moves through the budget process for the next fiscal year.
Board President Deedie Sorensen appeared troubled by some assumptions the budget is based on at a budget work session Thursday. The proposed budget depends on a $400 increase in per-student spending from the state.
“I want to feel confident that, you know, if it’s a big zero, that we have planned our contingencies based on how we can weather it without making everybody’s lives a total misery for an entire school year,” Sorensen said.
Superintendent Frank Hauser said that if the state doesn’t raise its per student contribution the budget would fall about a million dollars short. That is, after factoring in adjustments and what’s projected to be in the fund balance,
“That leaves a million dollars left over,” he said. “That could be addressed through the year, through whether we look at what the vacancy factor looks like, maybe holding back on some spending, It would be easier to absorb a $1 million difference throughout the span of a whole year. So we could do budget revisions to address what that would look like.”
The budget discussion is happening as a bill to increase the per pupil funding formula by $1000 is expected to go onto the House floor for debate on March 10.
District Finance Director Liz Pearce said at the work session that the proposed budget that assumes the state will increase funding by $400 per student includes about $1.36 million in unallocated funds. That’s about $350,000 above the minimum the district needs to maintain.
Several board members requested a list of items that funding could be used for before its next meeting.
The board is scheduled to hold a final hearing on the budget on Tuesday.
