Juneau Schools

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:

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 Juneau School Board held off on returning $1.05 million in funding earmarked for child care to the City and Borough of Juneau this week amid questions about the current privately-run program and the possibility of an additional operator in the future.

Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon said at a meeting Tuesday she still has questions around how things are going with Auke Lake Preschool, like the status of its state licensing. Auke Lake Preschool started running an after-school program at the beginning of this school year after the district stopped operating its own.

“I just think we’re not ready, especially in a final reading, to make this decision,” Siddon said. “We don’t have all the information about the programs and what options we have for kids at all of our sites.”

Siddon said there is also a possibility for YMCA Alaska to expand its child care program to Juneau, and that the city funding might be able to be used for that.

Nate Root is the CEO of YMCA Alaska. The organization currently runs after-school child care in Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough and Kodiak.

In an interview with KTOO, Root said YMCA is looking into how feasible it would be to expand its after-school program to Juneau. He toured three schools last year and said the organization is working on surveys to see how many families are interested in the program.

He said running a program depends on how financially sustainable it will be. And it will still take a while to get licensed by the state if they move forward with starting a program in Juneau.

“To be completely transparent, it would look like the soonest we would open a program would be the beginning of the 26-27 school year,” he said.

Derik Swanson is the co-owner of Auke Lake Preschool, which runs the current after-school child care program out of Harborview Elementary, Auke Bay Elementary and Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary.

He said in an interview Friday that the program is still currently unlicensed. Swanson said staffing issues have delayed the process, but with those now resolved, he plans to keep working on getting licensed.

“It’s been pretty successful overall,” Swanson said. “It was kind of a rush to get the program started and up and running, but now it seems to be running fairly smoothly.”

Swanson was unaware of the potential for YMCA to expand to Juneau, but said child care providers in the city generally work together to meet the high demand.

The school board unanimously agreed to discuss the state of the after-school child care program and the remaining city funding at its facilities committee meeting on Feb. 3.

The Juneau School District Board of Education agreed to approve up to $180,000 dollars in funding to help pay for a new playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus in Lemon Creek.

During a special meeting Thursday, board members agreed to pull the money from an afterschool child care fund to match a foundation’s grant toward the project. The child care fund has previously been used for the district’s former RALLY program.  

Michelle Nakamura is a parent of two children at Montessori Borealis, which operates out of the campus. During public testimony, she said having a playground is crucial for children’s learning and advocated for the board’s approval of the funding.  

“Recesses where kids get their wiggles out and then come back to the classroom, ready to focus. Right now, our kids don’t have that,” she said. “They get a muddy field full of dog feces, and they’ve been making do for the last two school years.”

The Dzantik’i Heeni campus also houses students from Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi High School and Juneau Community Charter School. The Montessori school serves students from preschool through middle school, and the charter school serves kindergarten through middle school.

All three programs moved into the building in 2024. It used to be a middle school until the district consolidated Juneau’s middle and high schools that year to address budget shortfalls.

Right now, there isn’t a playground on the campus, and that’s meant students have access to a dirt field at recess. Since the consolidation, parents of students at the campus have been advocating for a playground to be built there. But, settling on who and how to pay for it has become a thorny issue.

The playground’s price tag is about $1.3 million including design, materials and construction, according to the district. In September, the Juneau Assembly approved $735,000 in funding for site preparation. This fall, the school district also launched a “Buy a Brick” campaign to raise funding for the project. As of Thursday, the district has raised about $71,000.

The Benito and Frances C. Gaguine Foundation, based in Juneau, agreed to match up to $250,000 to help pay for part of the project. Altogether that gives the district just under $500,000 for play structure equipment, specifically. 

Board Vice President Ebett Siddon made the motion to approve up to $180,000 dollars in additional funding. 

“I think we all wholeheartedly support a playground at this campus, and I hope people can appreciate that,” she said. “Both the school board and the assembly wrestle a lot with many, many competing needs, and this is just trying to balance all of those needs.”

The board also agreed to seek approval from the city to free up additional funding for the project. The city plans to begin work on the playground this summer.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified Ebett Siddon at the board president.

The City and Borough of Juneau has largely wrapped up shoveling on Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx — Glacier Valley Elementary School and began work on Mendenhall River Community School on Friday. 

This comes after record snowfall caused the district to close schools multiple times this week, including all schools Friday.

Assistant City Manager Robert Barr said at a press conference Friday the rain from the current atmospheric river could increase the weight on roofs.

“We expect snow weights to increase because of the rain, until it is able to warm up sufficiently for that snow-ice melt to drain both through the roof drains, which we’re giving careful attention to, as well as off the roofs through through, you know, gutter and gutter style systems,” he said.

Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said shoveling on the roof of Mendenhall River Community School is expected to continue this weekend. He said CBJ engineering teams plan on inspecting schools through this weekend to make sure it’s safe to occupy them on Monday.

Hauser said schools will move to remote learning if there’s any need to be closed for snow removal next week. He said a wider number of factors will determine if another districtwide closure is needed.

“Though none of our schools are in the avalanche zones, it is something that, you know, could inhibit transportation,” Hauser said. “And so as we’re looking at that and looking at the road conditions, those are factors we take when we look at a more broad potential school closure.”

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and Harborview Elementary School sit just outside the Behrends Avenue slide path avalanche zone, which is included in the evacuation alert issued Friday.  

Hauser encouraged families to make sure their contact information with schools are up to date, and to download the district’s app to receive the latest alerts.