While the Juneau School District board celebrated its newly elected member Martin Stepetin yesterday, the district continues to face the tough challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Estimates show the district will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars this year. Superintendent Bridget Weiss says that’s because the district lost nearly 11% of its enrolled students.
“So rough calculation, we’re still running numbers by other people to make sure because it is complicated,” she said. “But we have a rough estimate of about $358,000 loss due to enrollment.”
That doesn’t exactly mean fewer students are in class this school year. Many enrolled in the district’s HomeBridge program.
“Where we normally have about 35 Homebridge students we now have over 400 Homebridge students,” said Weiss.
The district is receiving some aid from the state because of a provision of Alaska’s public school funding that covers them if a loss in enrollment is greater than 5%. The district is also requesting additional aid in CARES Act funding from the City and Borough of Juneau.