Jamie Diep

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The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is appealing a federal decision that could cost the state $80 million – and potentially undermine equitable funding among Alaska schools. 

Federal impact aid is at the center of a dispute between the state and the federal government. It’s money that makes up for lost revenue from land that can’t be taxed, like federal, military or Alaska Native-owned land.

The state can normally use a portion of that money as part of its contribution to school districts – as long as it can prove it’s funding education equitably. That’s done through a disparity test.

The state failed that test earlier this year because the U.S. Department of Education rejected the state’s attempt to exclude funding that districts set aside for transportation from the test calculations. That means the state can’t use $80 million in federal impact aid to offset part of its obligation to school districts.

But it’s appealing that decision. In its appeal, the state argues that the federal department was wrong to count transportation funding in its test calculations. The state also asked to retake the test if the appeal fails.

Bonnie Graham, one of the attorneys representing DEED in the appeal, said in an email that it’s difficult to tell how long the case will take this early in the process, and could not comment on “potential outcomes of the pending appeal at this point.”

The federal department said in an email it will review information from the state and hopes to resolve the issue.

Financially, there are a few ways the appeal could play out. The simplest is if the appeal is successful. In that case, the state could continue to use federal dollars as part of its contribution to school districts.

But if the appeal fails, things get more complicated. Districts that qualify for impact aid would still receive that money on top of what they get from the state. And the state would need to make up for an $80 million gap in its funding. 

Alexei Painter is the director of the state’s Legislative Finance Division. Part of his role is to understand how the decision would affect the state’s budget. 

“If we fail the test under the Legislature’s budget, the state costs would go up by $80 million and then those districts would also get that $80 million,” he said. “So essentially districts as a whole would get about $80 million more.”

But some individual districts would get less, he said. 

Painter said that’s because the Legislature sets aside an open-ended amount of money for education funding. It’s basically however much is needed to meet the state’s statutory obligation to districts. He says in this case, districts get whatever the state owes them, plus the federal funds.

But Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed more than $50 million in education funding earlier this summer. If state legislators uphold the veto, Painter says that changes education funding from something open-ended to a fixed amount of money. The state would still need to make up the $80 million dollars, but it would have to do so by cutting education funding across the board.

“There’s only a fixed pot of money,” Painter said. “Raising the amount the state owes by $80 million means that all districts will essentially see their amount of aid reduce.”

The finance division estimates the state would have to reduce funding equal to an additional $319 cut to the state’s per-student allocation. That, along with the governor’s veto, would leave districts with only a $181 increase to the base student allocation this fiscal year.

That doesn’t mean that all districts would lose money. The division’s estimates show some districts, like the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and Bering Strait School District, would receive enough federal impact aid that they receive more money overall – up to millions of dollars more.

Other districts like Anchorage and Kodiak would receive some impact aid, but it isn’t enough to offset the reduced state funding.

And for the 15 districts that don’t receive any impact aid, it would mean less state funding with no federal funds to fall back on. The Juneau School District is one of those districts. It could lose more than $2.5 million without any federal funding to make up for the loss. 

Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said it’s hard to figure out how things will shape up.

“It’s so difficult to even try to speculate as we’re going through and trying to figure out what could happen, because none of these situations are good for the students,” he said.

Hauser said he’s more concerned about other funding uncertainties that have cropped up in recent months. On top of Dunleavy’s education funding veto, DEED is proposing a regulation change that would further limit local contributions from municipalities to school districts.

On the federal side, the U.S Department of Education blocked millions in grants for migrant education, English language learners and more to the state.

Hauser says the district could lose more than $8 million from those actions.

The appeal process still has to play out. And the state has been successful in a similar appeal before – it successfully appealed a failed test in 2022. 

But at that time, Painter said the state didn’t find out until the end of the fiscal year. He said a similar timeline and a failed result could make things difficult for the state and districts. For example, districts that would receive more money may not have enough time to spend it, and may have more money in savings than state law allows.

In the meantime, Painter said the state is distributing funds to school districts as if it hasn’t failed the test.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that school districts will potentially be impacted by a failed appeal, not states.

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Nestled in the Flats neighborhood near Juneau’s federal building is the city’s oldest and longest running hydropower plant.

For many, the large blue building is just a noisy part of the neighborhood. But for lifelong Juneau residents like Kevin Gullufsen, the building has a fun little Easter egg.

“When I pressed this years ago, and this was about 10 years ago, it would make this really satisfying, like, ‘awooga’, sound, you know, like a Tex Avery cartoon,” he said.

Gullufsen is talking about a small, black button next to the power plant’s door on Capitol Avenue. A sign on the door states that hearing protection is required inside, and there’s a hum of machinery in the air. Gullufsen was one of many people that pressed the button as they walked by, especially in his twenties.

“I lived on the corner over here, coming out of college, and it was like our favorite thing to do coming to and from the bars with my three roommates, was to press this button right here,” he said. “And then sometimes we’d run, like we, you know, we’re little kids playing a prank or something like that.”

But the button’s silent now.

For Curious Juneau, Gullufsen wanted to know what the button is for — and what happened to it.

The answer to what this so-called “awooga button” is, is a simple one.

“A favorite of the Juneau public to push on the way by. I remember it went out from when I was a kid as well,” said Bryan Farrell, the chief power generation operator for AEL&P. “But yeah, it’s a doorbell. It is just a loud industrial doorbell.”

AEL&P owns and operates the power plant. Its office in Lemon Creek is relatively quiet, but over at the power plant, things get loud. Really loud.

“These are just the hydro units running,” Farrell said over the sound of roaring generators. “These are the diesels over here. If these were running, it’d be considerably louder.”

Back in the quieter office, he said that loud noise required a really loud doorbell.

“It used to be that there was someone within that building actually operating those units, and within that building there’s another control room,” he said. “So they’d be inside that control and that had to be loud enough to alert them in that control room.”

But Farrell said they disconnected the doorbell about five years ago, partly because of the noise.

“People do like to push that on the way by, and it is a loud sound. So if you’re in there working on something, and someone pushes that doorbell on their way by, it can be a little bit jarring,” Farrell said. “And then also, we just disconnected it because we don’t want people to be distracted when they’re in there working by them, by those loud noises.”

He says there’s also no need for a doorbell anymore either because of cell phones.

“You would just call someone knowing that there’s an operator in there to get their attention or or we would call our main operations center, and they could radio into that building,” he said.

The building’s small black doorbell is still there now, but it’s just effectively a button.

So what did it sound like? Gullufsen gave his best impression.

“It was like a mix between, like a Tex Avery thing like Wile E. Coyote going, ‘awooga,’” he said. “And then a, like a tsunami siren, because if you would hold this down, it would keep going.”

Farrell declined to give his impression. Instead, he reconnected the doorbell one more time for KTOO to capture the sound that delighted and annoyed Juneau residents for years.

Click here to hear the awooga sound!

But for now, that small, black doorbell will go back to being a defunct relic of the past.

The Juneau School District Board of Education accepted a $145,000 grant from a Juneau philanthropic foundation Monday.

The money from the Juneau Community Foundation will maintain a counselor position at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé for another year and go toward professional development for counselors.

The grant money is the last piece in the funding puzzle that allows the district to keep counseling services at the same level as last year at the middle and high school. 

Grant funding for three positions ended earlier this year. The board originally budgeted to retain two of them. The new grant takes care of the last position.

This is the third position the board added this month as the district gears up for the next school year that starts Aug. 15.

The district approved adding a librarian and administrative assistant to handle homeschool registration last week after receiving more state funding than it originally anticipated.

But funding remains uncertain on a state and federal level. 

The federal government has blocked more than $400,000 the district planned on using for English language learners, professional development and enrichment education.

The district also estimates a proposed state regulation change from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development could cost it at least $8 million in local funding and services.

A windfall of state education money means the Juneau School District Board of Education can pay off debt and hire new positions. But looming funding uncertainties on a state and federal level could mean future cuts.

The board had $994,688 extra to work with after legislators boosted state education funding, even after Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto. At a meeting Tuesday, members opted to put most of it toward the district’s transportation and food service deficits, as well as a new school librarian and a registrar for the district’s homeschool program.

Board member Amber Frommherz said they have to really consider what’s necessary.

“Everything right now is a moving target and … we are all trying to budget for a moving target with disappearing pots of money,” she said.

Last week, the federal Department of Education blocked millions in grants for Alaska schools. The district is supposed to receive $419,694 of funding for those programs.

That money pays for a high school computer science class, as well as support for English language learners, professional development and four staff members. District officials say they could reassign some staff members, but the board set aside $80,000 to keep the programs’ administrator if the blocked funding doesn’t come through.

Board member Emil Mackey said the district shouldn’t count on the frozen federal dollars.

“I regard them as gone until proven otherwise, because that is the stated intent of this administration, and it’s the stated policy of the Supreme Court to allow that to happen,” he said.

There’s state funding uncertainty, too. A proposed regulation change from the state Department of Education and Early Development could cost the district $8 million in funding, as well as services provided by the City and Borough of Juneau.

Several board members like Mackey were in favor of closing the deficit in transportation and food service.

“This is an intergenerational deficit that if we don’t address each single year, we pass it on to the next group of students,” Mackey said. “It will compound, and eventually there will be a day where this becomes an oppressive amount.”

Mackey said he would only approve the deficits, but later voted to approve the homeschool and federal grant administrators.

The district also approved adding an administrator to act as a registrar for the growing number of homeschool students. State data shows HomeBRIDGE had 224 students in October last school year, and 164 were in high school.

Board member Steve Whitney supported the position because it would support students who he said really need it.

“I just think it’s worthy that for that number of students we have. It sounds to me like this is understaffed and and especially relative to other schools, especially if you compare the amount of services students are getting,” he said. “So I think that is justified to add back in.”

The Dzantik’i Heeni campus, which houses three schools, will also be getting a librarian. Member Elizabeth Siddon said the students need it, even with funding uncertainties.

“These are hard conversations and frustrating conversations, and there’s a lot of, like … theoretical crises happening all around us,” she said. “But when I think about those students at that Dzantik’i Heeni campus, you know, walking to school August 15, they deserve a library.”

The board funded the positions, but the district still needs to recruit and hire staff to fill them.

These additions took up most of the additional revenue the district received. The board chose not to continue the long-running universal free breakfast service, and did not add staff to support teaching math and reading at elementary schools.

The school year begins Aug. 15.

Editor’s note: Amber Frommherz is a member of KTOO’s board.

The Juneau Symphony has appointed a new music director for its next season. 

Brad Hogarth is a conductor and trumpet player based out of the San Francisco Bay area. He made his conducting debut with the Juneau Symphony in April with performances in Juneau and Sitka.

The symphony announced the appointment on its website and social media Monday following a season-long process to find a new director.

Juneau Symphony Executive Director Charlotte Truitt said Hogarth has performed in Southeast Alaska in the past and has worked with local high school students as well.

“He’s very excited about getting more involved in the community and doing more in education outreach and really connecting as a community,” Truitt said.

Hogarth was one of four candidates the symphony considered. Each person conducted a concert and the decision was made after a vote from symphony members, supporters and staff.

In addition to Juneau, Hogarth also works for the Monterey Symphony, Art Haus Collective and Peninsula Youth Orchestra. He serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well. Hogarth is working with the Juneau Symphony to finalize details for the upcoming season, which starts Oct. 18.

The U.S. Department of Education is withholding about $6.8 billion in education funding for programs serving students in programs that range from migrant education to English language instruction and gifted education.

A Tuesday estimate from the Senate Congressional Appropriations Committee says that breaks down to more than $47.6 million withheld from Alaska.

Lon Garrison is the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards. He said that’s about 15% of federal funding the state receives for education. Garrison said the funding loss builds on an overall lack in education funding in Alaska.

“It continues to compound itself,” he said. “We’re losing federal funds to help do the things that we want to get done, and then the state itself is not funding education adequately, so we continue to be kind of hit from all sides, where the funding keeps getting rolled back for public education.”