Juneau Schools

The Juneau School District’s current school closure plan would have it vacate three city-owned buildings: the district office on Glacier Avenue, the Marie Drake building and Floyd Dryden Middle School. Now, the city is eyeing those buildings as possible new homes for City Hall. 

“The universe of options is expanding,” City Manager Katie Koester said at an Assembly committee meeting Monday night.

Fewer than half of city employees work at City Hall. The rest work in rented office space in four other buildings. One of those is the Marine View Building, which has frequent plumbing issues. 

“Last week, Marine View had a leak that damaged some GIS equipment and flooded three offices,” Koester said. 

Other employees work in a building next to City Hall, which Sealaska Heritage Institute is renovating. Koester said it’s been disruptive to employees.

“Although SHI has done a great job trying to mitigate some of that construction interruption, it really is not a great work environment,” Koester said. “Everything from dust to noises to toxic fumes.”

In October, Juneau voters rejected a bond proposal for a new city hall building for the second year in a row. 

One alternative is the Michael J. Burns Building, which houses the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, where the city could rent office space for about $1.6 million per year. Not all of the city’s work stations could fit into the Burns building, but the rest could fit in the district office nearby, according to the city.

“The Burns building is a great facility but hard to justify when we have two vacant buildings over 70,000 square feet available,” Koester wrote in her memo.

The Marie Drake building, which houses the district’s alternative high school and Montessori programs, would keep City Hall downtown. It has the lowest estimated operating cost of $530,000 per year. But it’s an aging facility with little parking, especially if all high school students end up going to Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé next year.

Floyd Dryden Middle School needs an upgraded HVAC system and part of its roof repaired. It’s also more expensive to operate – about $778,000 per year – because of the amount of snow removal in the larger parking lot. But it has a good amount of parking and room to develop more, and it has community amenities like a gym.

“Those, obviously, would still have community use. Which would be cool, right? City Hall having pick up basketball while we’re maybe in a meeting like this?” Koester said. 

Floyd Dryden’s location in the Mendenhall Valley would also put it where most of Juneau’s residents and city employees live. But Koester said that would put them further away from downtown businesses, the Legislature and state offices.

Koester told the Assembly that renovations at either school could cost anywhere from $13 million to $31 million, depending on the extent of the work.

“$13.1 million gets you carpet, paint, cubicles. If you want to do bathrooms, if you want to do walls, if you want to do some of these other things, you start getting more expensive,” she said. “With any of these options, I would say let’s see what we can get for $16.8 million because that’s what we have right now for this purpose.”

Koester said there are a lot of other possibilities for the school buildings if they don’t become City Hall. Marie Drake could be demolished – for an estimated $4 million – and the space used for parking. Floyd Dryden could be used as a childcare center or new home for Juneau Animal Rescue.

“I think Floyd Dryden is a better facility to let community agencies use,” Mayor Beth Weldon said. “I’ve said from the very beginning, one side kiddos and the other side kitties.”

Assembly members asked Koester to bring back additional information, including parking and renovation costs.

The Juneau School Board voted Thursday to reconsider the school closure plan it approved last month. 

The approved model puts seventh and eighth grades at Thunder Mountain High School and high school grades at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. At the end of a more than four hour meeting Thursday night, board member Amber Frommherz proposed amending the plan.

In an interview, she said the board should take the time to consider putting 7th through 12th grade at both campuses.

“We’re in a time crunch, but I think the community of Juneau deserves one more chance to see if there’s something else that could work better for the entire community,” she said.

The board voted 4-3 to reconsider the closure plan at Tuesday’s meeting. 

Frommherz and members Will Muldoon, Britteny Cioni-Haywood and David Noon voted yes, while board president Deedie Sorensen and members Elizabeth Siddon and Emil Mackey voted no.

“We made the hard decision,” Siddon said. “I know there are people not happy about it. There’s going to be more people unhappy if we change direction right now. 

Siddon also questioned how Frommherz could provide accompanying budget information for a different model on short notice.

“You’re asking us, your colleagues, to trust a budget you develop by yourself between now and Tuesday versus the budget developed by our superintendent and director of admin services?” she asked.

If the amendment vote fails on Tuesday, Muldoon said the original model will still stand.

Several important deadlines are quickly approaching. Gov. Mike Dunleavy has until Thursday to sign or veto the Legislature’s education bill, which would give millions of state dollars to the Juneau School District.

The school board plans to approve next year’s budget by Friday so they can send it to the city well before their April 5 deadline.

“The reason we are targeting March 15 is because it’s a very complex document, and any transposition, typographical errors will have pretty major impacts,” Muldoon said. “And the likelihood of those errors increases substantially the closer we get to that April 5 date.”

District Human Resources Director Lyle Melkerson urged board members to pass a budget as soon as possible. The district has to send out layoff notices to teachers by May 15.

“By that time, people will have likely made decisions for their future,” Melkerson said. “The hiring season for teachers in the state of Alaska begins in January. They’ll be looking to move on. We could wait until May 15. I would recommend not doing that because I would like to be able to staff our buildings in the fall.”

The board has a work session and regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday. At the work session, they’re set to discuss logistics of the board-approved reorganization plan, plus a “final summary of non-board-adopted models.” The regular meeting agenda includes the adoption of next year’s budget. 

The regular meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé auditorium and on Zoom.

The Juneau Assembly voted Monday night to loan the Juneau School District more than $4 million from the city’s savings to help address this year’s budget deficit.

The loan is a major piece in resolving the district’s deficit for this year. A finance consultant found in December that incorrect budget estimates had left the district with a $9.5 million shortfall. The incorrect estimates were partly due to accounting errors and overestimated enrollment numbers.

Members of the public told the Assembly on Monday that they wanted the district to be held accountable.

“We’re not asking for the loan to be denied, we’re just asking for stipulations to be put on it, for some accountability for the Juneau School Board,” said parent Bonnie Webster.

The ordinance requires that the district start paying back the five-year loan by fiscal year 2026. Assembly member Paul Kelly also suggested requiring the district to publish a budget book. 

Superintendent Frank Hauser said that’s something he intended to do anyway.

“My goal is to make sure that we’re reinforcing that the Juneau School District is good stewards of the money that’s provided to the district, not only from the state but from the Assembly,” he said.

The Assembly agreed to add the budget book requirement in a 5-3 vote. Member Wade Bryson, who voted in favor, said it will help future school boards and district leaders avoid making the same mistakes. 

“What has got us in this predicament that we’re in right now is the fact that a previous superintendent and a previous budget manager did not create a budget book,” Bryson said. “It had errors in it that have cost every student and every teacher in this community untold heartache.”

Last month, the school board approved a school closure plan that puts seventh and eighth grades at Thunder Mountain High School and ninth through twelfth grades at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. 

The Assembly also voted to give the district nearly $4 million this year and more than $1.5 million next year for non-instructional costs like maintenance, utilities and insurance. Last year, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development threatened to limit that kind of local support starting in fiscal year 2026.

The school board will discuss next year’s budget and staff layoffs at a meeting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Juneau School District leaders say an education funding increase approved by the Legislature this week would cut the district’s budget deficit in half.

Juneau schools face a $10 million budget deficit for next year. District officials say the school closure plan approved by the board last week will save the district about $3 million.

The Legislature has approved an education bill that includes a $680 increase to the base student allocation, part of a formula that determines state funding to schools. That would give the Juneau School District more than $5 million in additional state funding.

“No one can say that the Juneau School District and this board have not done their part to balance their budget,” Superintendent Frank Hauser said at a school board meeting Tuesday. “The legislature has done its part, too. The next part will be solely on the governor.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said at a press conference Tuesday that the bill leaves out some of his priorities. He wants it to include teacher retention bonuses and a new approval process for charter schools.

“We have 15 days before it becomes law or before I veto. And I made it clear that if there are not certain elements in that bill, I won’t sign it into law,” he said. “I’ll veto it.”

Hauser said a veto would mean more staff layoffs in Juneau in order to balance the budget. The district would also have to increase the pupil-teacher ratio, also known as PTR, essentially increasing class sizes. 

“If the governor vetoes the BSA increase, PTR will need to increase, most likely significantly, since 90% of the district’s budget is in salary and benefits,” Hauser said. “Without the BSA increase, the district is looking at an increase in PTR to balance the budget along with a reduction in force.”

Dunleavy has until March 14 to sign or veto the education bill. The district must notify tenured teachers about layoffs by March 15.

The Juneau School Board has approved a plan that will put seventh and eighth grades at Thunder Mountain High School and ninth through twelfth grades at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. 

It’s an initial step in addressing the district’s $9.7 million budget deficit for next year, caused by dropping enrollment, an end to one-time state funding and per-student state funding that hasn’t kept up with inflation.

The district expects to save more than $2.6 million in staffing and $370,000 in maintenance costs. The plan will let the district close three buildings: the district office, Floyd Dryden Middle School and the Marie Drake building, which houses the alternative high school and Montessori Borealis. 

At a packed school board meeting on Thursday — with more than 500 others watching online — Juneau Education Association president Chris Heidemann said flat funding from the state was the main cause of deficits in districts across the state.

“Every educator that is laid off this year, in Juneau and across the state, can draw a direct line from their pink slip to the governor’s office,” he said.

District leaders say the plan will let high school activities stay on the same schedule. It also provides career and technical education classes to all high school grade levels, a chief concern for many Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé students.

“It really does increase the offerings for all 9-12 students,” Hauser said about CTE classes.

Having middle school at Thunder Mountain will also let many students continue walking to school, according to the district, and it keeps both middle schoolers and high schoolers close to city pools. The Thunder Mountain campus is next to the Dimond Park Aquatic Center, and Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé is next to the Augustus Brown Pool.

Students at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé rallied in support of the model on Tuesday, saying they wanted the four high school grades to stay together at a campus with trades classrooms.

Junior Sophia Percy said she knows she wants to go to college. But she told the school board on Thursday that not all students do.

“Does the student who wants to be a welder or a carpenter or to work at the mine not deserve the resources and support that I get? Is their path in life less important or less respectable than mine?” she asked.

Thunder Mountain High School students spoke against combining the high schools at all, saying that they enjoy being able to choose between two high schools with distinct climates. 

“I take pride in the fact that we are a community that believes in individualized education, that fewer than 600 students per school is a pleasant number for optimal education,” said Thunder Mountain senior Jade Hicks.

The board at first voted the plan down after four hours of public comment and more than two hours of discussion. But at 12:30 in the morning, after taking a recess, they quickly approved it with specifications for two optional programs: moving the Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi alternative high school to the Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School building and leaving the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary.

The motion passed, with members David Noon and Britteny Cioni-Haywood voting no.

The Juneau School Board is considering consolidating Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and Thunder Mountain High School to help address the district’s $9.7 million budget deficit for next year. 

On Saturday, the board proposed putting 10th through 12th graders at Thunder Mountain and putting seventh, eighth and ninth graders — along with students from optional programs — at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. That would let the district close some other schools.

Dozens of students from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé rallied on Tuesday in opposition to that idea, saying ninth through 12th grades should be at their campus instead.

LISTEN:

“It’s not JD versus TM, it’s one building compared to the other,” said Bristol Casperson, a junior. “Which one has the most space? Which one has the proper classrooms — wood shop, auto shop, metal shop? If TM had that, if they had the space for us, if they were the proper place to receive a good four year education, then we would have to put it aside and go there. But J-D is that space. This building has those amenities.”

Thunder Mountain opened in 2008 under the assumption that Juneau’s population would continue to grow. Instead, the school-aged population shrank.

According to the school district, Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé has 545 students this year, putting it at 50% capacity. Thunder Mountain has 569 students, which is 76% of its capacity.

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé can fit 1,091 students. The district expects there to be 1,050 students in 9th through 12th grades next year.

Junior Maisy Messing said she thought ninth through 12th grades should stay together.

“I think that our upcoming ninth graders deserve to have the same high school experience that we did,” she said.

Freshman Sabine Auger joked that if the high school became 10th through 12th, she’d find herself back at the “bottom of the food chain.”

“But I think it’s inevitable that we’re probably all going to be in the same school together, so we should just accept that,” she said. “I really, really hope that the school board knows that we want to be together at JD, which has the bigger capacity, and that it needs to be ninth through 12th like it always has been.”

In 2017, the city and school district hired an architecture firm and consultants to create a school facility master plan. Their report listed challenges and strengths of the two campuses.

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé had been newly renovated. It’s next to the University of Alaska Southeast Technical Education Center and the Augustus Brown Pool. It has a wood shop, metal shop and garage. But it has smaller classrooms, minimal parking and not enough outdoor space.

Thunder Mountain was a newer, well-organized building. It has a football field and track, and the Dimond Park Aquatic Center and Mendenhall Valley Public Library are nearby. But it had minimal space for career and technical education classes and underutilized teacher planning rooms, the report said.

“The big argument is that TM has the pool, the library and all the amenities there, which is true, but they don’t have the capacity,” Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Maggie Higgins said. “There’s lots of neighborhoods with residential parking that you can park in when people are at work. Maybe it’s a little more of a walk, but I walk to school every day. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

Freshman Sam Uyanik said many families have a deep connection to the downtown school. Elders and leaders representing the Áak’w Ḵwaan and T’aaḵu Ḵwáan gifted the high school its Lingít name in 2019.

“A lot of our ancestors and our families went there,” Uyanik said. “I think it would be pretty disrespectful, if you ask me.”

Mary Canapary, a junior, said the rivalry between the high schools can be fun.

“But at some times, I think it’d be really nice to just get everyone together, standing together, for a common goal,” she said. “And I think education should be that common goal.”

The school board is set to decide on a school reconfiguration model at a meeting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The board will consider two models at the meeting. One puts seventh through ninth grades and optional programs at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé while putting 10th through 12th grade at Thunder Mountain. The other puts seventh and eighth grade at Thunder Mountain and all high school grades at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé.

Members of the public can attend the meeting at the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé library or on Zoom.