Last week, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed this year’s state budget into law, including a one-time funding boost of about $175 million to school districts.
The Juneau School District gets a $5.2 million slice of that. But this money comes months after the Juneau Board of Education controversially voted to consolidate schools and reduce staff to offset a multi-million dollar deficit.
This additional state money won’t reverse the plan for the upcoming school year, but the board now gets to decide what budget items could be added back.
During a meeting Friday, Juneau Superintendent Frank Hauser reminded the board that the money isn’t necessarily a reliable source beyond this coming school year.
“The additional state funding would be one-time funding and not guaranteed for FY2026,” he said.
Friday’s meeting was just the first of two on the topic. This Saturday, the board will meet again to make a final decision on which items will be added back for the coming school year.
Some of the things on the table include recovering several elementary and secondary staff positions, paraeducators, custodians, or HomeBRIDGE and IT staff.
Board Vice President Emil Mackey expressed support last week for ensuring the district had an adequate number of IT support staff.
“We need responsive tech support for our HomeBRIDGE students, for our teachers, for our students,” he said. “Because anytime you cannot connect to the internet, no matter what you’re teaching, that is lost teaching time.”
Board President Deedie Sorensen said she thinks that ensuring that there is enough custodial and maintenance staff should be a priority.
“While we focus on being able to have teachers to provide education, we sometimes forget about what it takes to keep the buildings open and operating and clean,” she said.
The rankings the board made last week are still subject to change. The list for Saturday’s meeting includes more than a dozen different priorities that could be added back.