Jamie Diep

The Juneau School Board will take public testimony Thursday as it works on building out a budget. This comes as a preliminary budget projects a $5.37 million dollar deficit. 

Nicole Herbert is the CFO for the district. She said during a board retreat last month that the deficit could be covered in a couple of ways. One method is taking from savings.

“We’re looking at needing about $5.3 (million) in fund balance and/or reductions in services provided to maintain our current level,” she said.

The preliminary budget includes all budgeted positions from the current fiscal year and assumes all employees will opt into the district funded health insurance plan. But some of those positions are not filled, and not all employees enrolled in the insurance plan this year.

That means there are unspent funds that can go into the district’s savings, which is projected to be $7.8 million at the end of the fiscal year in June. Those funds are not used to cover any expenses in the preliminary budget yet. 

The projection also doesn’t include how union contracts and non-personnel costs could affect the budget. The district has not yet reached a new agreement with two unions representing teachers and support staff.

The preliminary budget makes a couple assumptions when it comes to city funding: one, that the City and Borough of Juneau will fund the maximum of what state law allows, which is about $35.8 million. And, two, that the city will also allocate more than $2 million for non-instructional programs, including student activities, transportation, food services and preschool.

The city is looking at an estimated $10 to $12 million gap in its own budget beginning this July. Because of that, Superintendent Frank Hauser said it’s uncertain how much money the city will contribute to the school district.

“The city might not have as much money to support the school district,” he said. “And so we’re not sure if that instructional funding is going to be coming back to the district, or even if maximal contribution is going to be coming to the district.

The board also decided to take universal free breakfast out of the preliminary budget. The board approved a budget without the program for this school year and added it back in September after the Alaska Legislature restored about $50 million in education funding through a veto override.

The public forum will take place Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Thunder Mountain Middle School. Community members can also testify online through Zoom and by emailing the district at budgetinput@juneauschools.org.

During the forum, the district plans to give a presentation on the budget before taking testimony from school principals and the public. Chief of Staff Kristin Bartlett said in an email the district also plans to release Balancing Act next week, but no date is confirmed yet. The online tool allows people to try building a balanced budget and provide feedback for how they think the district should be funded.

According to the budget calendar, the board plans to approve the budget by March 12. City code requires the board to submit a budget to the Juneau Assembly by April 5.

The Juneau School Board is quickly moving through the search process for a new superintendent. And it’s working with a search firm to collect feedback from the community before it makes a hiring decision.

Board Member David Noon said at a super site council meeting last week that the board plans to hire a superintendent in March.

“It’s an aggressive horizon,” he said. “But we’re pretty sure we can do it.”

Current Superintendent Frank Hauser announced his resignation in October.

The board in December approved a $29,000 contract with national search firm McPherson & Jacobson LLC to recruit candidates for the position. The job post lists characteristics the board is looking for in a new superintendent, which Noon said includes being able to work with local stakeholders and look at “new educational pathways.”

“We want someone who can, you know, create and sustain a positive educational environment, someone who has a record of advocacy for families, for students,” Noon said.

The application for the position closes on Feb. 5.

Noon said consultants with the firm are also meeting with staff, administrators, students, families and businesses to get information on what they are looking for in a superintendent.

In addition to meetings and interviews, community members can fill out a survey by Feb. 13. According to the district’s website, the board plans to make an offer to a new superintendent in March, with a July 1 start date.

Listen here:

Murals will soon adorn the Marine View building parking garage near Juneau’s cruise ship docks. 

It’s part of a project years in the making that teaches local artists about the legal and creative sides of murals.

Maddox Rasmussen washed paintbrushes in between sections of a mural he was working on at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center on a recent Sunday afternoon. The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé junior was painting a realistic orca swimming through the tendrils of an ethereal kelp forest. Rasmussen finished the orca’s fin and moved to a section of its body that’s white. 

“I like blending on the palette or on the piece itself,” he said. “So sometimes, if I have leftover blue in a section that I want to be more white, it’ll mess it up.”

Rasmussen is one of 13 artists participating in a workshop to create murals in downtown Juneau. It’s the first time he’s worked on a large project like this. But art is not his only interest: he also swims competitively and works as a lifeguard.

He said it’s been a bit difficult to make time for the project on the weekends while balancing his other interests. He had a swim meet earlier in the day.

“It’s definitely a little hard, because the swim meet lasts all day, so I have to sacrifice the finals to come here,” he said. “But it’s okay.”

Rasmussen’s project is sandwiched between two artists along the wall of the JACC. Every mural has a different style – one artist is experimenting with spray paint and another carved a massive block print. The designs vary from folk art to landscapes and wildlife.

Each mural is 8 feet wide and 4 feet tall. Altogether that’s more than 100 feet-worth of new art for downtown Juneau.

Dezarae Arrowsun is at the helm of the project, which is a collaboration between her business, the Downtown Business Association, the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council and Princess Cruises.

Arrowsun owns Picture This, a custom frame shop in downtown Juneau with a view of the concrete walls of the Marine View parking garage that will be the future home for the murals. She said the idea came from wanting to beautify space downtown outside of her store, and she turned it into an opportunity to teach local artists more about mural making.

“A lot of the things that are very intimidating to artists is the permit process, the legal side of it, contractual side of it, and then site preparation. What do you have to look for as warning signs, those kind of things,” Arrowsun said. “So that’s how we came about this.”

The artists don’t get paid. Instead, they get education and materials, including large sheets of plywood that are treated to withstand the elements. After a year the murals will come down and the artists can either keep or sell their work.

Arrowsun said she put a lot of thought into making sure the murals will last an entire year in the Southeast Alaska elements. She said she wants it to be art for the community as a whole, not just something for tourists.

“I want us in Juneau to appreciate it all winter long, especially when it’s dark and, you know, we need some brightness and some beauty,” she said.

Arrowsun has a three-year contract with the Marine View owners and plans to run the workshop again next year. She said they plan to take applications this September.

Lillian Egan is another artist in the workshop. They work at the Pottery Jungle as a ceramic studio assistant, and have had their art featured around Juneau in the past. They’re painting a landscape with a little bit of fantasy added to it.

“I was thinking of, you know, what it’d be like to be up at Gold Creek, and kind of being the salmon in the river and coming up,” Egan said. “But also being able to be aware of the city in the backdrop and seeing the channel in the distance and stuff, but kind of seeing it from a perspective of, ‘This is what Juneau is.’”

They said it’s been fun to do more community art and they feel the city needs more of it.

“It’s been really cool to find out that it is kind of attainable for people, even in Juneau, to do community art and … have it like, actually support you financially,” they said.

In the future, they want to use their newfound skills to create more art in the community.

“How can I apply that into ways that can help our community more? I don’t know. I think about our recycling center right now, and how could I maybe make a mural like this, but with recycled materials in the future, would be pretty cool,” Egan said.

The murals are going to be installed in late April, with a celebration taking place May 1.

Listen here:

Juneau high school students are speaking out about how unresolved contract negotiations are affecting them in the classroom. 

It’s been nearly a year since contract negotiations officially began between the Juneau School District and its teachers’ union. During negotiations, they reached an impasse and the district declared it would enter arbitration with Juneau Education Association. But they haven’t yet reached a new agreement. The district also hasn’t reached an agreement with its support staff union.

Seventeen-year-old Zoe Lessard is a senior at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. She sits on the Juneau School District Board of Education as a student representative. At meetings, she typically gives updates on school dances and sports.

But during a meeting in October, she got up from where she normally sits for board meetings and sat at the testifier seat to speak as a student and not a representative.

“These people were and are my advocates, my friends, my support, and some of them, my family,” she said. “My teachers have pushed me to be better and go into my future with confidence. Please allow them to continue to do this.”

Lessard spoke after more than an hour of comments from teachers and community members sharing their experience about working without a new contract. Some spoke about taking multiple jobs to make ends meet. Others said they were overwhelmed with the workload. 

Outside of the board setting, Lessard is continuing to speak out. She wants to send an even stronger message. So she turned to the high school’s student government last week with a drafted message.

“I cannot say what I really want to say at school board meetings, and I thought it would be a powerful statement if it was approved by the whole student council,” she said.

The high school’s governing body of 42 students unanimously approved the statement. Lessard is part of the student government because of her school board role. 

The written statement speaks to the need to have contracts that adequately pay teachers. 

“We, as the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Student Government, are completely appalled at the Superintendent and School Boards (sic) lack of action about this matter,” part of the statement reads. “We do not support your decision to leave teachers and support staff with insufficient contracts.”

Lessard has some personal insight into teachers’ lives; her dad is a teacher. But, she said, students in general notice and see the impact not having a new contract has on teachers.

“If they are stressed, if their needs aren’t getting met, if they need to work one or two other jobs, we notice, and we notice because they aren’t able to focus on teaching as much as they would like to, which is by no means their fault,“ she said.

The statement also brings up teacher vacancies. Based on reports from early January, the Juneau School District has more than 40 open teaching and staff positions. Vacancies and employees not opting into the district’s health insurance plan amounts to $8.5 million dollars in unused funding, according to board documents.

Bella Reyes-Boyer is the student body president at the high school. Her mom is a veteran teacher and now the school’s librarian. Last year, Reyes-Boyer volunteered at an elementary school and said she saw the effect teacher vacancies have on students.

“I really got to see firsthand how important having those paraeducators and, like, teachers who are actually able to accommodate each student individually, and how important that really is.” She said. “It was really apparent that there is a lack of, like, specialized teachers for certain students.”

Lessard said many students don’t know much about the contract negotiations, so she’s trying to educate her peers. She wants them to speak to the board in support of teachers.

“I would hope people come and testify for their teachers and support staff at the next school board meeting, that they tell the school board how much the teachers and the staff in the schools matter to them and how that’s what they need to be investing in for everybody’s future,” she said.

The school board is holding several budget-specific meetings in the coming weeks, including a budget work session on Tuesday evening and a budget public forum on Feb. 5.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect new information from the district. 

The State Board of Education and Early Development unanimously approved a school psychology master’s program at the University of Alaska Anchorage aimed to address the state’s shortage of school psychologists. The approval took place during the board’s special virtual meeting on Thursday.

This comes after the board voted it down last October after some members brought up concerns about social justice mentioned in a sample syllabus.

Several people testified at the meeting in support of approving the program, including Palmer resident Rebecca Emerson. Her son Winston is a second grader with Down syndrome, and she said school psychologists are instrumental to make sure he gets the services he needs.

“I ask you to look past the ideological debate and see the faces of the students like Winston who rely on these services. Please approve this program so that more Alaskan students can have the support they need to succeed in the classroom,” Emerson said. 

Board member Kathryn McCollum originally brought up concerns about social justice in the program. After receiving clarification about how the program works, McCollum said she appreciates the efforts to create a homegrown program.

“I’m not thrilled that we have all these contractors from outside of our state. So I would much prefer to see people from Alaska serving Alaskans so I appreciate your efforts here,” McCollum said.

Board member Barbara Tyndall, who previously opposed the program, voted in favor this time around. She still had concerns about the focus on mental health.

“As I’m going through the health and safety stuff, it’s mental health, mental health, mental health,” Tyndall said. “And I don’t think we should just only be looking for mental health, because there are people out there just looking for problems.”

People have a few ways to become licensed school psychologists in Alaska. One main way is to graduate from a program accredited by the National Association of School Psychologists. Another is to go through a program approved by the state’s education board.

UAA’s program is on its way to getting NASP accreditation. The earliest it could achieve that is 2029, one year after the program’s first cohort graduates. Now, with the state board’s approval,  those students could become licensed and hired to work shortly after graduating.

Alaska’s state education funding formula is really complicated. It’s based on data, collected during the school year, that takes months to process. That can leave districts building budgets based on projections that might be inaccurate. Juneau Democratic Rep. Andi Story wants to address that through a bill that would change what data is used for funding calculations. 

Story, who served for years on Juneau’s school board, said there’s a level of uncertainty built into the way students are counted.

“When I was a school board member, when we were asking community members, parents to come and work on our budgets, we were always projecting cuts and not knowing what we were going to do,” she said.

Part of that uncertainty comes from not knowing exactly how many students are enrolled until later in the budgeting process. Right now, school districts count the number of students enrolled in October of their current school year. That count needs to be approved by the Department of Education and Early Development, and it determines how much state funding a school district will get for the following school year. 

Districts typically don’t receive the approved numbers until months later – in January. That lag means districts begin planning their budgets based on projections instead of actual data.

Story’s bill – House Bill 261 – would make several different changes to which student counts would be used when determining state funding for education.

Story said one of the main things her bill would do is to base student counts either on the previous school year or an average of the previous three years – numbers that would have already been processed by DEED and wouldn’t change throughout the budgeting process.

“I’ve been living in this roller coaster, and seeing how it does not build confidence in our public schools,” Story said. “And so we need to get on a more stable plan, a smart plan.”

This isn’t a new idea. Story is on the Legislature’s Task Force on Education Funding. She said this part of the bill came from a recommendation made by an education consulting agency more than 10 years ago. The idea came up again last November, during a task force meeting.

The bill also seeks to address budgeting for students with disabilities, keeping schools open

There are a couple of other pieces in this bill as well. One addresses how the state counts students that qualify for intensive services. Students with disabilities that require those services receive 13 times the amount of funding that’s typically allocated for a student. If the state determines there are fewer of those students than what the district counted, that can create serious shortfalls in its budget.

The new bill would offer four different options for how to count students who qualify for intensive services, to ensure districts receive the funding needed to support them.

Districts could count students in October or February of the current school year, in October of the previous school year, or take an average of the last three years. They could then use the number that would provide the largest amount of funding.

Story said this method would account for students who might move to other districts.

“Sometimes students move after the count date, they might move to another community, and all of a sudden that community is going to have to hire another staff person, but they’ve already budgeted,” she said. “So where do they pull that money? Because by law, we need to meet that student’s needs.”

Story’s bill also addresses how enrollment counts determine how many schools a district can have. She said small districts can sometimes fall below the threshold that allows for opening another school or keeping an existing school open if enrollment drops by just a couple students in a given year. She said taking an average would help stabilize numbers in situations where the difference of one student could have big financial consequences.

“Those big funding cliffs that really make— that really have communities on edge of, ‘Am I going to get a couple more or a couple less?’” she said.

Lon Garrison is the executive director of the Alaska Association of School Boards, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Alaska students. He said the bill would provide far more stability as school districts build out their budgets. But he said the issue of adequate education funding remains.

“That’s the piece that we have to be focused on,” Garrison said. “What are we going to do to ensure that we’re getting the student outcomes, and what resources do we need?”

It’s unclear if this bill will make its way through the Legislature. Story expects the House Education Committee, which she co-chairs, to take it up in a couple of weeks.