The Juneau School District is facing a $9.7 million deficit for the next fiscal year, caused by a likely drop in enrollment, an end to one-time state funding and increases in staff salaries and other costs. That’s on top of the deficit in the current year’s budget.
District leaders are considering closing schools to balance the budget, which would allow them to lay off duplicate staff, like principals, nurses and librarians. But those cuts alone would not be enough to balance the budget.
“Anything that is not realized in structural savings is coming straight from the very finite levers we have, which is staff,” Superintendent Frank Hauser said at a school board work session on Saturday.
Lyle Melkerson, the district’s human resources director, estimated how many other layoffs it would take to close the budget gap depending on how many schools they close.
Filling the budget gap after combining just the middle schools would require laying off 60 to 100 people, depending on their positions. But combining middle schools, combining high schools and closing an elementary school could cut the number of layoffs needed in half.
The district has 309 teachers. Melkerson said 30 to 50 typically leave the district each year.
“I believe we can hit those marks with natural attrition by the end of the year, or close to it,” he said.
District leaders said combining the high schools would also help them staff elective classes. Board president Deedie Sorensen said students already have limited course offerings, which can make it hard to meet graduation requirements.
“I don’t think we have two comprehensive high schools right now. I think we have two high schools that are grossly understaffed,” Sorensen said. “We are relying on a whole range of online courses to provide electives to students who should be able to get those electives in an in person class.”
Andy Bullick teaches construction and welding at Yadaa.at Kalé Juneau-Douglas High School. He said it’s important for kids to have access to electives like his.
“It’s a fun outlet for them. It allows them to discover things they like to do,” he said. “A lot of kids that have gone through these classes we’ve offered, it’s sparked an interest in them and they have really good jobs.”
At a school board meeting last week, Juneau Education Association president Chris Heidemann said layoffs would lower the quality of education in the district and push more young people out of Juneau.
“Layoffs will continually and repeatedly damage this community because the people that are laid off, according to our collective bargaining agreements, are the youngest, early career teachers who will leave this town,” he told the board. “This town will continue to get older, we will have fewer kids to educate and our schools will continue to suffer.”
The board asked district staff to come up with a plan that would keep both high school buildings in use, and from there, use as few buildings as possible. One example they discussed was putting 10th through 12th graders at Thunder Mountain High School and seventh, eighth and ninth graders, along with students from the optional programs, at Yadaa.at Kalé Juneau-Douglas.
The board’s next meeting is on Thursday, Feb. 22.
