The Juneau School District Budget Committee on Tuesday will hear the first proposal on how to cut $3.9 million to $5.6 million from the budget for fiscal year 2013.
The committee will meet at 6 p.m. in the Juneau-Douglas High School library, and is scheduled to meet at least four more times through February. The budget recommendations are supposed to hit the school board on March 6, and be submitted to the City and Borough of Juneau by March 30.
“We would bring you a budget that assumes the larger amount and gives you incremental suggestions,” Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich told board members last week.
Board members serve on the budget committee, along with members of the public and union representatives.
Gelbrich said they will kind of treat the budget like a construction bid — in that it will assume one level of funding (the worst-case budget scenario) and include specific options to add back should more revenues come in.
“The reason we would do it that way — fundamentally we have the duty to present a balanced budget,” Gelbrich said. “If we started from the other end we would be making last-minute decisions, and those generally aren’t very good. The proposed budget is going to contain very difficult to swallow reductions, and its not because we want to.”
Gelbrich said those proposed cuts will be rolled out in draft form at Tuesday’s budget committee meeting.
This meeting will not include time for public testimony — though the public is welcome to attend. The next opportunity for public comment is at the Jan. 24 committee meeting.
Last year, the district also faced a shortfall largely due to decreasing revenues and declining enrollment for what ended up being about $4.1 million. The cuts garnered extensive public testimony against cutting programs on the chopping block, and the budget was passed by the board in a narrow vote.
For more information on the district’s budget and related documents see bit.ly/sVQyod.
• Contact reporter Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com.
Comments (23)
Add commentAnother reason to build the AJ
We can cut teachers and hurt our schools or we can raise revenues either by increasing property taxes and sales taxes -or by developing the gold mine that the CBJ owns.
I wonder how many other communities wished that their town was sitting on a gold mine that their community owned?
Maybe this should be a question on the CBJ budget survey?
The Parnell Regime's War on Public Education
In his recent budget proposal, Parnell proposed flat funding for the public education funding formula for the next two years, which if approved by the Legislature will mean 3 years of $0, even to cover inflationary increases beyond the control of school districts, eg health care premium increases.
That's 'cuz Parnell hasn't seen any "tangible" results from public education. And 'cuz he doesn't want to increase recurring expenses.
Does Parnell apply the same standard to state government? Nope. He requested a 4.6% increase for state operations- a huge increase in recurring expenses. 'Cuz state workers like Corey Rossi are providing "tangible" results.
The proposed Parnell budget of $10.6 billion leaves the state with a projected surplus of $3.7 billion, certainly a cushion adequate enough to support providing our schools with at least an inflationary increase.
'Course Parnell wants to gives billions back to oil companies with no guaranteed "tangible" results. Someone has to pay the piper. Might as well be teachers and kids.
Hopefully the Legislature will show some leadership by assuring adequate funding of public schools since Parnell has abandoned the field.
budget cutting Nurses
I urge parents to attend, they are planning on cutting the school nurses in most schools. This will put office staff in the nurse's office to care for the medically fragile kids who need NG tubes suctioned, feeding tubes, IV meds infused, TB shots and medications that require an RN to administer to your children. This cut is putting our children in serious risk.. pls come and attend, let the district know its not ok to cut medical staff. Find other places to cut out. Maybe start down at the admin office is a good place. I am a parent of 2 students who require an RN to assist their medical issues, not a joe smoe who fills in. I have 4 medically fragile students in my classroom, they require suctioning many times daily just so they can breath, and they also have feeding tubes cleared and hooked up and filled. Some have severe seizures and implants that need maintaining. These are all to be aided by a NURSE.
Really Ratty? The added costs
Really Ratty? The added costs of health care could be passed on to the employee. The teachers could instead of taking a pay increase, stay where they are in negotiations. We don't have to belittle the oil industry every time something gets cut, after all they are the ones paying ALL the state bills already. As far as the Gold Mine goes, try to open that up in Juneau, see how far you get with the nutty liberals who hate anything that would change the city.
The day of reckoning is just
The day of reckoning is just about here, in regards to the public sector unions. We're out of money. I'd say they've had a pretty good run.
It would be one thing if the taxpayers felt they were getting their money's worth but the public education system is horrible, by almost every measure.
Get ready to hear all the anecdotal stories about how this program or that program just can't be reined in or cut.
Two Points
First, @AlaskaTeacher, I must start by saying I wish I knew your real name so I could make sure my children never see the inside of your classroom. Your grammar and spelling are atrocious; I cringe whenever I read your posts. Remember, when you choose an ID like yours, you unfortunately represent a large group of educated, passionate people who are facing discriminatory attitudes. Please be careful to represent teachers a bit more carefully, or you could change your ID.
Second, remember that teachers don't have a choice whether or not they are in a union. They are either in the union or they are fee payers... just like State workers. If teachers take a pay freeze AND accept increasing health care costs, wouldn't that be a pay cut? Who is going to negotiate a pay cut, especially in a state that has surplus and is giving out raises to state employees?
Comment
This is a very poorly written article. The entire story is about a proposed budget cut but nowhere can the reader learn from this article whether the proposed cut is a material percentage of the budget. Is this the amount usually spent upon paperclips and speakers to teachers on in-service days, or is this amount of a large size compared with the entire budget?
Also, the writer should tell us why the budget cut is proposed. Is the state reducing the actual dollar amount paid per student (not likely of course), is the demand for education in Juneau going down (fewer students), or is this the phony "cuts" usually voiced by government; a cut in the rate of increase rather than a cut in actual spending?
Finally, many taxpayers would like to know how much is spent on student travel outside of Juneau, sending students to Eaglecrest, and newly created jobs for washed-out principals, and how do these amounts compare with the proposed budget cuts. The entire point of the article is a number yet there is no context for that number. With the sort of reporting in the Empire today it would be better for taxpayers if there was no reporting at all.
Bloated admin and rubber-stamp school board
The way this situation should be handled is there should be a neutral party, not admin or teachers or classified staff, who make decisions. Every single person, from the lunchroom monitors up to the super himself, should have to justify their existence to this neutral group. The school board should fill this role and be asking the tough questions: "What do you do and how does it help our students?"
But instead what we have is the superintendent - the head of the administration - telling the school board what they should do, and generally they just do it. This results in far fewer cuts at the administration level than there should be. It's a huge conflict of interest.
And that's where the cuts should happen first. The administrative staff in our district is incredibly bloated. We have a ridiculous number of administrative people and I couldn't tell you how any of them help our students. Over the years they've created new admin position after new admin position and nobody ever seems to ask what these people are doing. I can tell you what the history teacher next door is doing for the students. I can't tell you what any of the admin staff do besides send the occasional "go team" email. In addition the salary of one admin is three or four times the average teacher's. We could have EL teachers or nurses in every building if we cut one dead weight assistant director of something something.
And maps testing needs to go. A colossal waste of time and expense, but it's the current admin's pet project so it'll stick around and instead we'll lose more people that actually help the students.
@chelsea - a "neutral group"
@chelsea - a "neutral group" will never happen because school funding is all about power. Whether it's elected officials or unions or school board members whose campaign donations came from whatever group, they're all there looking out for themselves.
Public schools are bloated, gigantic, special interest behemoths that, dare I say, are not serving the taxpayers or the students well. They really do exist for political agendas and power. It might not be so evident in a small town like Juneau, but convince me otherwise.
Better idea: you convince us
Better idea: you convince us you're correct. You don't get to make outlandish statements with absolutely no evidence or logic behind them and then demand others prove them wrong.
You are exactly right Chelsea S!
MAP testing is a complete waste of time and money...
Bloated administrative staffing is an understatement...
The schools have lost reading teachers, technology teachers, the science coordinator, librarian hours and custodial staff have been cut - now extended learning teachers and nurses next? Plus, those "instructional coaches" who were forced on schools as an ill-fitting band-aid for all the support lost last year will now surely be on the chopping block this year...along with raising the PTR...that's a given.
So, basically - let's stuff more kids into a room with one teacher who has insufficient resources, support or time - oh, and let's ask that teacher to take a cut (they're lucky to have a job, anyway). They can wear extra clothing to keep warm and use a small lamp to see their paperwork late at night since the heat and lights have to be off to save $, too. Good plan.
What teachers make
Ok constant complainers. Lets do it your way. Pay me babysitting wages for teaching your kids. Lets see, 15 years experience, three college degrees, two teaching awards, I should at least qualify for the $10 an hour you would pay a teenager. I teach 130 kids a day at $10 per hour, an average of 1 hour per day. No pay for prep time, training or inservice time, parent contacts, grading, fundraising or coaching, grading just time teaching in front of students. That's 130 kids x 1 hour a day x $10 for 179 days a year. That comes to $232,700 per year. Last year my employers total expense for me (insurance, wages, everything) was $98,500. So, you owe me $134,200. Pay up.
Persnickety
What do you do as a profession- just curious- perhaps it would enlighten me with regards to your views, if you're a student what is your major?
Close JDHS
Close down JDHS .
Thunder Money High
The real budget buster is that stupid second high school that
should be sold. All of the extra administrators are what
cost not the classroom teachers. Classrooms are now more
crowded than in the era before oil money. Thunder Money
would make a great prison-it's so depressing.
Not enough info
I feel as a parent and taxpayer we are in the dark. Where do revenues come from? What are the major expenditures in the school district today? Juneau Empire...a nice pie graph would be great. Get some of your roving reporters out to get hold of some concrete info so we can make informed, not emotional, decisions.
Comments from Clueless People
glasseye and oneofwe, you are absolutely clueless. It appears you need to attend some School Board meetings and learn about how the schools function and operate and how funding is determined. The funding that the State provides for two schools is different than what they provide for one. By your chain of thought, we are given X amount by the State and it is divided. It's not. I was a parent of high schoolers when there was only one high school and the quality of my childrens' education was uncomparable to my other childrens' now that there are two high schools. Quit bringing up the "we need to go back to one high school" argument. In the very least, educate yourself to how schools are funded and how the administration was hired. I think you will find that many were just simply moved from JDHS to TMHS, along with the students. You would like everyone to think they hired all new administration and staff. They didn't and I know that for a fact.
To eowyn
While I sincerely appreciate your service and the amount of time you dedicate to our students, there is no amount of money you could pay me to be a teacher. I have gone on field trips, graded homework, helped tutor, assisted in the nurses' office, worked in the office, shelved books in the library, walked the halls at JDHS, and assisted with spelling, reading and math in Juneau classrooms for Juneau teachers. I have a deep sense of appreciation for what they do. I never realized it until I regularly volunteered. You couldn't pay me enough to work with students who largely are sent to school unprepared academically and emotionally to be educated. However, having said that, I can tell you there are some teachers/administration in this district that should retire or should be forced to retire because their ability to provide any meaningful education to Juneau students is debatable, at best. Their salaries alone could support several teachers. With their retirement, perhaps we might even see a dip in the drop out rate. JDHS has too many dinosaurs.
Oh you are so right, let's
Oh you are so right, let's cut sexual education AND consolidate back into one high school.
Since everyone falls within the Juneau upper-middle class to upper class bracket, Grim's right, there's no need for reduced school breakfast or lunches, I'd rather kids who were hungry think about being hungry all day than learn anyway...
Curriculum programs and national testing have completely done away with the need to actually teach in a classroom, so maybe we can focus our money in those arenas, cut teachers, and have administrators do what they do best-make students complete meaningless paperwork.
Hopefully, all the students whose needs aren't being met by our "horrible" education system will drop out, have plenty of time for sexual exploration they know nothing about, and give us a much needed boost in Juneau's high-school aged population so that we can revisit our budget issues in the future.
All these cost-saving ideas should give Parnell and his administration some extra spending money to counter the many lawsuits that will ensue from cutting school nurses.
I'm glad we all agree that $49,000 per prisoner is a much better use of money compared to $5,000 or $16,000 per student (prices vary depending on previous comments), because fortunately, a lack of schools will always mean that our jails will thrive.
Oh you are so right, let's
Oh you are so right, let's cut sexual education AND consolidate back into one high school.
Since everyone falls within the Juneau upper-middle class to upper class bracket, Grim's right, there's no need for reduced school breakfast or lunches, I'd rather kids who were hungry think about being hungry all day than learn anyway...
Curriculum programs and national testing have completely done away with the need to actually teach in a classroom, so maybe we can focus our money in those arenas, cut teachers, and have administrators do what they do best-make students complete meaningless paperwork.
Hopefully, all the students whose needs aren't being met by our "horrible" education system will drop out, have plenty of time for sexual exploration they know nothing about, and give us a much needed boost in Juneau's high-school aged population so that we can revisit our budget issues in the future.
All these cost-saving ideas should give Parnell and his administration some extra spending money to counter the many lawsuits that will ensue from cutting school nurses.
I'm glad we all agree that $49,000 per prisoner is a much better use of money compared to $5,000 or $16,000 per student (prices vary depending on previous comments), because fortunately, a lack of schools will always mean that our jails will thrive.