Juneau Schools

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During Thursday’s meeting, the Juneau School Board discussed adding rather than cutting positions next school year. But unsettled union contracts continue to bring uncertainty to the budget process. 

The board added new positions to next year’s proposed budget to support the school district’s homeschool program and nursing staff.

Board member Steve Whitney proposed adding a full-time health assistant to the budget. District leadership recommended adding another position to give the district’s lead nurse the flexibility to support all schools.

Whitney said adding a position is needed to support the district’s nine person nursing staff. District staff have reported an increase in the number of students with medical needs in recent years.

“From what I’ve seen, that’s a hole the district has, and I think it’s a liability, and I think we’re putting kids in danger,” Whitney said.

Board member Jenny Thomas also requested adding a counselor position for the district’s homeschool program, HomeBRIDGE. The program doesn’t currently have a counselor. It was requested by the program’s principal, Corey Weiss. Thomas said she wants to support the 210  students expected to be enrolled in that program next school year.

“They said their graduation rates were higher when they had a grad counselor, and we’ve seen them going back down because they lost that grant funding,” she said. “So I think it’s very important – for thinking about what is best for our students, and is going to help them achieve graduation – that we put a counselor in there.”

The $4.4 million deficit in the board’s proposed budget will grow larger with the two added positions – but the board decided earlier to fill the deficit with district savings. 

The previous projected deficit was almost $1 million more. The budget now assumes 10% of employees will opt out of the district’s health insurance plan. As of earlier this month, more than 22% of them have waived the plan this school year.

But there are still some uncertainties. The district hasn’t reached new contract agreements with its teacher and support staff unions.

The current budget is based on the district’s most recent offer to Juneau Education Association, the teachers union –  as well as on the district’s initial proposed contract for Juneau Education Support Staff. 

Kelley Harvey, a teacher at Auke Bay Elementary School and co-chair of JEA’s negotiation support team, testified Thursday with that reminder.

“I would just ask that you remember that you have two units that have not settled a contract, that it’s just a one year contract that’s been offered to JEA, that we potentially would turn around and go into this again,” Harvey said. “And you’re just going to lose more teachers, and it’s the kids who suffer.”

It’s been more than a year since negotiations began with both unions. The district has an arbitration hearing scheduled with JEA on April 27 and 28, and JESS has been in mediation with the district.

During Thursday’s special meeting, there was no discussion of adding two positions that the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program could stand to lose when grant funds end this year. There had been significant public comment in support of adding those positions in a previous budget forum. 

The board will meet again about the budget on March 5. In the meantime, members will submit priorities on what else they want to add to the budget. The public can submit feedback on the budget by emailing the board at budgetinput@juneauschools.org or by completing Balancing Act, an interactive tool that lets the public build a budget and submit changes they want to see. That tool will close on March 1. The board plans to approve the budget by March 12.

The Juneau School Board will hold its first reading of the school district’s budget on Thursday. 

In a work session on Saturday, the board directed district administrators to create a list of items that they can discuss adding to the budget. That includes things like additional positions for the district’s nursing staff, special education and homeschool program.

Student services director Jason DeCamillis said at the meeting that an additional position for the nursing team could support the growing number of students with severe medical needs.

“It’s a little bit more of a centralizing of a position, but it does allow that person to float, be more supportive of the whole system,” DeCamillis said.

The discussion comes as the board grapples with a preliminary budget with a more than $5.3 million deficit. That could be addressed by dipping into savings or making cuts. The district is projected to have about $7.8 million in savings, which is almost $7 million more than what it’s required to maintain.

Board members also requested adding grant-funded positions for the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program to the list. Grant funding for three positions is ending after this school year, and the board has to decide on directly funding them from its operating budget. The board already supported funding one of the positions.

The board is also considering ways to factor in staffing vacancies and people that don’t opt into the district’s health insurance plan. Right now, the district budget assumes it fills all positions and that everyone hired uses the district’s health insurance plan. Unspent funds from vacancies and people waiving health insurance currently go into the district’s savings. The Juneau School district began the school year with about 6% of teaching positions unfilled. And as of February 9, about 7% of the district’s classified positions were vacant.

The board requested staff to present various scenarios: how much money a 1% and 3% vacancy rate would look like. Those funds could be budgeted toward other items. The board is also looking at how much money it can use if it assumes 10% of employees waive the district’s health insurance.

Since at least 2022, the number of district employees opting out of the district’s plan has increased. As of this month, more than 22% of them have waived the plan this school year.

The board will meet to discuss the budget Thursday at Thunder Mountain Middle School at 5:30 p.m. The meeting can also be accessed on Zoom, and the public will have an opportunity to testify in person, online and by emailing budgetinput@juneauschools.org.

The Juneau School District released a budget simulation tool on Wednesday that allows people to build and submit what they think the district’s budget should look like.

Balancing Act focuses on building the district’s operating budget. That includes funding for student instruction, including teachers, administrators and school supplies.

The district originally planned to also send a budget survey to families earlier this month. But Juneau School Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon said during a budget work session last month she was concerned that the community might not see its responses reflected in the budget.

“I don’t want to put a survey out that is not real clear to the public how we used it later, especially in our budget,” she said. “So this all needs to have clear line of sight, what we’re going to do with the feedback we get in the budgeting process.”

The board unanimously decided to set the survey aside this year after board member Steve Whitney brought up the idea.

The budget tool starts off with a preliminary budget that maintains all of the district’s current services going into the next school year. It gives the public options on where they can add or cut teachers and funding. But there are some limits.

Some funding is required by law and can’t be changed. Other services can’t be cut by more than 10%. Information in the tool states larger cuts “would likely result in the inability to maintain compliance.”

The initial budget begins with a $5.3 million dollar deficit and assumes the city will contribute $35.8 million – the maximum it’s legally allowed to. Even when making all the cuts possible within the tool, the district is still left with a $1.1 million deficit. That could be covered with the district’s savings.

There’s an opportunity within Balancing Act to write comments on every source of revenue and expenditures.

Juneau School District Chief of Staff Kristin Bartlett said in an email the tool will likely close between the first and second reading of the budget, which is currently scheduled between Feb. 19 and March 10.

This isn’t the first time Juneau residents have been able to build their own budget. The city released its own version when building a budget in 2022.The next budget related meeting is Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. Community members can also submit written feedback by emailing budgetinput@juneauschools.org. The board is expected to approve a budget by March 12.

The Juneau School District is returning $1.05 million earmarked for child care back to the city.

The school board unanimously approved returning the funds following multiple delays since November as board members mulled over the future of after-school child care in the district. The decision was made during a regular board meeting Tuesday night. 

Board member Melissa Cullum said she supports returning the money and hopes to work with the city when the district has a clear plan for after-school child care.

“As much as I would like to hold on to that in hopes that we have a plan, I don’t feel comfortable continuing to table it or hold on to it, hoping that we have a plan for after-school care,” she said. “And I would rather give it back and then preserve that relationship.”

The district ended its program, RALLY, last summer, citing staffing challenges. Private provider Auke Lake Preschool stepped in this school year to offer after-school child care at three schools. As of Wednesday, the provider is still in the process of getting licensed through the state, according to Derik Swanson, one of the owners.

Board member Jenny Thomas said families have reached out to her with concerns about the current RALLY program run by Auke Lake Preschool. She said the board should step in to provide support.

“Whether we give the money back or not, we need to put our foot in the door to try to help make the program a little smoother,” she said.

During a phone call Wednesday, Thomas declined to elaborate on what those concerns are.

The decision comes as YMCA Alaska is looking into the feasibility of running programs in the district. Nate Root, the organization’s president and CEO, said in an interview Wednesday they are working with local organizations in Juneau to survey parents. He said YMCA Alaska wants to see if it’s sustainable to offer after-school child care in Juneau.

“We understand the need for it right now, but for us to be able to expand our services to Juneau – which we’re very interested in doing and helping the community – we need to know that there’s a long term stability to that initial investment,” he said.

Root said if they decide to run a program, they will also need to look for staff and opportunities to raise startup funds.

Support for grant-funded positions and teacher contracts became the main issue during the Juneau School Board’s budget public forum on Thursday. 

Most of the 28 parents, elders, teachers, students and community members at the forum testified in support of funding positions in the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program, as well as reaching a new union contract for teachers.

Jodie Gatti is the parent of a kindergartener at TCLL and said the program has allowed her son to bring the Lingít language home with him.

“I never imagined I would witness a child, let alone my own child, teaching my mother the language that was once denied to her,” she said. “That moment is deeply emotional for our family and shows how powerful this work truly is.”

Three positions at TCLL are funded through a federal grant, and that funding will end in September. The school district’s preliminary budget doesn’t include these three positions. But the school board last month directed administrators to include one of the three grant-funded positions in its budget. That leaves the program’s principal and biliteracy specialist positions without funding.

Jamie Shanley is the director of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s language and education departments. She oversees the grant for the district’s positions and testified in support of the district funding the positions while the nonprofit works on securing long-term funding.

She said the district’s Lingít culture and language program is growing.

“They are teaching their language, they’re writing curriculum, they’re creating resources,” Shanley said. “They’re writing Lingít language proficiency assessment. That’s a standardized assessment tool that people use in their classrooms. And they’re doing it all, really at little cost to the school district.”

Shanley said the program has doubled in size since the grant began in 2023, with 121 students currently enrolled.

In addition to grappling with grant-funded positions, the school board is working through contract negotiations with the district’s teaching and support staff unions. Both unions have not yet reached a new contract.

Deborah Rakos has taught for the district for more than 25 years. She testified before the board last year and testified again last week about contract negotiations. She said what teachers are asking for is not beyond contracts other districts have with teachers.

“Look at the salary schedules in the state – please look at Ketchikan, look at Fairbanks, look at Anchorage,” she said. “I urge you to do that, because we’re not out of our tree in what we’re asking. We’re not.”

The board will also consider an over $5.3 million dollar deficit in next year’s budget. That can either be filled through dipping into the district’s savings or by making cuts to services.

The district plans to release a budgeting tool this week that will allow community members to build their own school budget and provide feedback. There are also several meetings over the next month where the public can testify about the budget. The next opportunity is during Tuesday’s school board meeting. The board expects to approve a final budget by March 12.

Nineteen people have applied to be Juneau School District’s next superintendent, according to search firm McPherson & Jacobson.

The job posting to replace outgoing Superintendent Frank Hauser was open for more than three weeks before closing Thursday. The search firm will use data from surveys and stakeholder meetings to narrow down the candidates.

Meanwhile, the Juneau School Board is continuing to collect public feedback.

Consultants met with various groups inside and outside of the district. Board President Britteny Cioni-Haywood said the board is heavily relying on a community survey to understand what people want to see in a superintendent.

“We’re not going to catch everyone in one-on-one meetings, and so that default is back to that survey, that then anyone in the community can have their voice heard in the process by utilizing that tool,” she said.

As of Thursday afternoon, there had been more than 300 responses to the survey, said board member David Noon, who acts as a liaison between the consultants and the board.

Within the district, search firm consultants met with several stakeholder groups, including teachers, district staff, administrators, student governments, and site council parents. They also met with the University of Alaska Southeast, U.S. Coast Guard and Juneau’s delegation of state lawmakers.

The search firm plans to hold another meeting with the district’s site councils on Thursday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. Only a handful of parents attended the first one on Tuesday.

Noon said the board will conduct multiple interviews with finalists before selecting a new superintendent. He said there will be some type of public forum with finalists for the position, but the board hasn’t decided on a date or specific format yet.

“As a board, we haven’t talked about what that was going to look like,” he said. “It can take any shape that we want it to.”According to the timeline for the superintendent search on the district’s website, the board plans to select a new superintendent in the second week of March. The new superintendent is expected to begin on July 1.