The Juneau School District got it’s first look at what $3.6 million to $5.9 million in cuts look like, with many cuts hitting administration, classroom sizes and other programming.
Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich introduced the heavy topic Tuesday night at Juneau-Douglas High School for the budget committee meeting. Among the packed room of about 50 people included Assemblywoman Karen Crane and Alaska Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Mike Hanley.
Gelbrich spoke of the success the district has had in increased graduation rates at both comprehensive high schools, increased reading achievement and significantly higher math achievement results.
“Tonight, I bring you a budget that could seriously undermine our progress,” Gelbrich said.
The committee asked many questions for clarification, and several chose to also include commentary.
Board member Mark Choate was the first to pipe in his displeasure of the funding situation.
“This feels like we’re at a funeral right now,” he said. “I have an image of a room filled with food, flowing out the windows and flowing out the doors. Someone outside is saying there’s no food, there’s nothing to eat but stone soup. This is criminal, this is about as bad as it can be that a state with an $18 billion excess this year is taking money from children. To take the jobs from this district is simply wrong. I’ll do what I can as a community member to say this up on the hill. There’s lots of things we can talk about and do to improve. But we should not be sitting here talking about being broke with the resources the state has.”
Board member Sally Saddler shared the same sentiment. She said she thought she knew what she was getting into with the estimated deficit, but to see the proposed cuts is sad.
“I feel like I’ve been sucker punched,” Saddler said. “There is a perception out there that there is a lot of waste. As I sat and listened … it’s clear we’re cutting to the bone. We need to be rallying. I’m getting over my sad and getting into my mad.”
Superintendent Gelbrich also addressed state funding. He said the Alaska Association of School Business Officials have said an increase in the Base Student Allocation would need to be by $320 per student. Gelbrich said that kind of funding level in Alaska is unprecedented and unlikely to come to fruition. He said the governor’s budget proposal maintains flat funding levels for the next three fiscal years for education funding.
“...I want to emphasize that the current level of funding for public education is detrimental to the future of Alaska, to its economic development, to the strength of our communities, and to the future of our students,” Gelbrich said. “Unless we are willing to further invest in the greatest resources we have — the capacity of our state’s children — we are undermining the potential of Alaska.”
Gelbrich talked about estimates gathered by Juneau Economic Development Council Director Brian Holst — who is also on the committee. JEDC estimates that the cutting of those positions will have an economic impact of -$11.4 million on Juneau.
The operating fund budget revenues for FY12 are $75.3 million, with $74.8 million in expenditures. Estimated FY13 revenues are at $73 million, with $72.4 million in expenditures including budget reductions.
The FY13 budget proposal includes $3.3 million in additions to the operating fund budget — but that figure is a bit deceptive. For example, $1.2 million of those “additions” are positions and programs that already exist in the district, but were not previously part of the operating fund. They are being moved into the central part of the budget because their funding sources were from grants or federal dollars. Another assumption in that $3.3 million is an estimated $900,000 increase in salaries and benefits as the district is currently negotiating with its two largest unions. Gelbrich said they can’t put the number at zero because the district has to negotiate in good faith, however that doesn’t mean the nearly $900,000 will be that much — or that little.
Aside from those two top dollar budgetary additions, the rest include things like adjusting cost allocation to Juneau Community Charter School, increased costs to try and stabilize Internet services and computers, unemployment compensation, AEL&P rate increase, fuel oil increase, educational leadership center and similar expenditures.
The cut list hits administration pretty hard this year, Gelbrich said — at least compared to percentage of that sector’s budget — but students will still be impacted. Approximately 66.3 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) positions are expected to be eliminated given the “worst case” scenario.
Gelbrich said five of 23 jobs at the central office are being eliminated (22 percent).
Cuts by employee group consist of 1 position from the cabinet at 17 percent of the cabinet FTE — $80,000.
• 3 FTE from the JSAA (Juneau Administrative Association) for 12.7 percent — $452,000.
• 11 percent from JESS (Juneau Educational Support Staff) for 34.8 FTE — $2.2 million.
• 26.5 FTE from the Juneau Education Association for 7 percent (teachers) — $2.6 million.
• 1 FTE from a non-union, non-cabinet position for $123,000 at 6.25 percent.
On a school level to school level basis, cuts also were broken down.
• $706,000 at all schools.
• $1.4 million from elementary schools.
• $791,000 from middle schools.
• $1.4 million from high schools.
• $214,000 from optional programs.
• and $1.3 million from the district level.
Cuts include reduction for declining enrollment (estimated by 26 students), reducing legal services to $100,000 max, elimination of a student services coordinator, elimination of one high school assistant principal (leaving one each) but also adding in one teacher for the activities program (still a net loss), six positions between maintenance and custodial staff — merging custodian and maintenance supervisor positions, reducing elementary specialists by .50 FTE at each school, and eliminating a data technician.
They also reduce high school activities fund, cut a finance support staff position, cut high school assistant librarian positions, eliminate secondary instructional coaches, reduce Extended Learning staff by three, reduce site budgets by 5 percent, reduce district supply budgets by 5 percent, reduce HomeBRIDGE supply by $20,000, reduce special education para educators, increase Pupil-to-Teacher ratio at all schools by one, eliminate truancy officer, eliminate assistant superintendent position (Assistant Superintendent Laury Scandling offered to retire in December. (That position won’t be refilled, and her office assistant will be cut thereafter as well. One art specialist will be eliminated. Last year that area was reduced by one as well.
Cuts will also eliminate six of 10 full time school nurses and replace them with health assistants.
Gelbrich and Director of Administrative Services David Means also included “add-backs” in case more revenues come in than projected.
Those add-backs include — in no particular order — cultural para-educators, middle school counselors (1 FTE is proposed to be cut from each), lower PTR by 1, elimination of drug testing contract services at the high school ($45,000), add 2.0 FTE back from custodial. Total add-backs are about $1.1 million.
Gelbrich said that with last year’s cuts they were lucky because the staff losses were through attrition. He said the number of cuts required this year make that unlikely this year.
• Contact reporter Sarah Day at 523-2279 or at sarah.day@juneauempire.com.
Comments (61)
Add commentIt's criminal? Really?
Lets keep this in perspective, JSD has been a bloated, inefficient system for 30 years. In times of glut, maybe it's not that big of a deal. When times are lean you must make changes to ensure that you're living within your means.
These public outbursts of false indignation by representatives of the district make their case even less palatable.
Welcome to reality, suck it up butter-cup.
Honest sentiments
Jan,
I don't believe you know much about these people. They're all expressing sincere concern for the far reaching effects of these proposed budget cuts. Yes, changes must be made to save money. It seems to me, however, that cuts of this scale are quite extreme, ill advised and unnecessary for a state of our fiscal standing. California and Oregon, OK, but Alaska?
As a graduate of JSD prior to the time you've identified as the "inefficent" years, my impression is that the finished product today is, in general, clearly superior in all measures to what it was then.
Lots of fat
JSD has far too many administrators and other high salary positions that don't spend one minute in the classroom
educating. Cutting paras and teacher hurts kids- cutting make-
work administrators does not.
Jan
How do you define $billions in surplus 'lean times'?
spend,spend,spend
Juneau needs to build another High School..........with an attached pool.
Sad
Although the JSD did an admirable job in cutting people who don't directly interact with children each day, it's sad to see the bigger classes. My family has benefited from this state's lower class size.
It would have been nice to see cuts of a couple more "curriculum specialist" or "human resources assistant/latte-collector" or "director of too much testing" positions in the district office. There's a bunch of office folks in the Marie Drake building by the planetarium --- can we lose a few of those to make the kindergarten classes smaller?
It's ironic how people
It's ironic how people complain when government services are cut yet also complain at tax time. Folks, it's really simple. If we want government services, we have to pay for them.
Promote the inept to JSD Admin instead of firing...
it is ironic that Supt. Gelb. recommends only cutting $452k - 3 jobs- from admin, yet cuts 26 full time teachers and 36 full time teacher supports? That 452k doesnt even cover the admin jobs created for those 'special people' that JSD didnt want to fire because they were nice people and they needed to be employed yet totally incompetent for what they were hired for. Parents, are you happy that JSD hasn't been run like a business and now your children have to suffer because JSD didnt have the intestinal fortitude to tell someone that they were not effective in a job and offer to pay them more money to shuffle papers between two other not completely necessary JSD admin positions?
If 452k is 17% of the administrative budget, then the full admin budget is 3.6 million. Gee, just get rid of the administrators and the budget problem is really close to fixed without taking the teachers out of the classroom...
Juneau needs a 3rd High School
Juneau needs a 3rd High School with an Olympic stadium. No it's for the kids ! "We'll lose state money if we don't act.." we can always cut more bonds - it's for the kids don't you get it ?
Fume is right!
Fume is right! If we want it, we have to pay for it. What I want is quality education for all of Juneau's kiddos, even the ones who need extra special help given their special circumstances. I also want a healthy local economy. Even if there is too much "administration" in education, cutting those positions isn't necessarily the best for Juneau. Didn't anyone else notice the part of the article that spoke to the multiplier effect of cutting $3-6 mil from the school budget having an $11 mil impact on the local community?
Hilarious
@Nimby, your comment helps me picture some hidden office somewhere where all the pathetic people who couldn't help kids still work for JSD making money and collecting benefits. Where are they hidden?
"JSD didnt have the intestinal fortitude to tell someone that they were not effective in a job and offer to pay them more money to shuffle papers between two other not completely necessary JSD admin positions?"
JDS needs to trim like everybody else
Howling socialists will spend until they're told no.
Comment
First, this is a better article than the one yesterday - more comprehensive, and it's organized very well. However, it's unclear to me if all the so-called cuts come from a reduced demand for services (fewer students), and if the total number of students now and anticipated is in the article then I overlooked it. I am skeptical that the state will reduce the foundation formula but that is what is implied by the school board members and principal. I think instead that fewer students simply mean less state funding (as it should).
It appears that the "cut" includes an increase. The $3.6 to $5.9 million "cut" has a $3.3 increase buried in it so the real cut is from $0.3 million to $2.6 million, or from approximately .4% to 3.4%. That is a tiny reduction in what has been a huge and growing bureaucracy, and including an increase in a cut is the bureaucratic-speak that has helped put this nation in fiscal peril.
There is an underlying assumption in statements by officials that state funding of education is correlated with results. Whenever I look at state funding across the nation it appears that some of the states that fund at the lowest per student rates have the highest levels of student achievement. Possibly school districts that have lower costs and superior results make better decisions (including perhaps, being more honest with taxpayers and not building huge and unneeded high schools). Let's compare our costs with costs in other parts of the country and see what JSD is doing wrong.
The statements by Choate and Gelbrich are so off-base that I almost cannot believe they are not made in jest. Two to three fiscal years from now the state will need $125 oil to break even with state spending (at current state spending levels, let alone any increase) so every municipality needs to prepare for a persistent and long-term decline in state funding that is about to begin. How will the JSD budget look if the state soon requires school districts to pay down their unfunded TRS liability (as the state is weakly picking away at that now)?
How would the budget look if we closed one high school? And let's take a look at cutting the superintendent's office back to Gelbrich, one secretary and contracting out accounts payable and payroll, and doing away with all assistant principals. That would likely give us a budget surplus without cutting one teacher.
Cutting the paras...
First it started with the Rally program and now it's a whole different ball game. If they cut the paras...no offense to the teachers out there...but the teachers are going to be overwhelmed! Those kids get more and more difficult every year. They need the one on one time with the paras in order to make it through the day...give it half a year and they will be begging for the paras to come back!
Needed Cuts
I think that JSD is moving in the correct direction with the proposed budget cuts. There are several areas that I can see being eliminated for the purpose of efficiency. One comment asked about the hidden office with the inefficient people. Here are some areas to think about and unless you are one of those being cut, the eliminations of these positions should make a positive difference.
The teacher’s coach positions have always bothered me. I do not understand why JSD needs people at the Master’s Degree level (and salary) to coach teaches who as suppose to be professionals at their jobs. What happened to the continuing education requirements? Since teaching is always noted as a profession, it should be treated as such and there is no need for the overpriced coaches.
Given the efficiencies of communication and networks, I do not see the need for duplicity at certain levels of support staff at each school. Record keeping and many other chores can be done by single technicians who enter raw data into a system that could be centralized at the administration building. I am guessing that there are several positions that could be cut due to duplication of services being done. My thought; think Houston or LA or Seattle, or any other school system with large enrollments. Those organizations have methods that could be copied and employed by JSD at a smaller scale that would result in cost saving and return the same outputs.
There are many other areas of the budget that could be cut, eliminated, or improved if leadership is ready to make the changes. Otherwise we will remain stagnated as things are now with no one wanting to take charge of natural organizational progressions and instead, falling back on the tired mantra “but it’s for the kids.”
"1 FTE from a non-union,
"1 FTE from a non-union, non-cabinet position for $123,000 at 6.25 percent."
what position is this?...I'd like to be able to make $123 grand a yr
I'm bummed they're cutting
I'm bummed they're cutting $20,000 from HomeBridge. This program seems like a no-brainer to fund since the parents are doing the teaching so JSD has little overhead aside from the couple of employees who coordinate it.
This is really scary.
It's about fiscal responsibility. Juneau doesn't have it. Even with all the jobs mentioned here, the kids are still not getting a good education. I really don't think it is the teacher's fault.
It's about attitude. Juneau really is about easy money, yuppie lifestyle, driving a new car, having a extra nice school and a extra nice pool, with paid holidays.
What is scary, is there are probably 3 to 5 thousand extra people with extra well-paying jobs hanging around in Juneau, and they are not effective in getting the job done. Every year another year goes by, another budget, 12 more mortgage payments, and very little real progress. Perhaps there is more to being a professional than financially treading water and spending money for a living.
The clock is ticking folks!
The Good News....
Since retiring in 07, I've returned for brief teaching stints at both high schools four times - twice each at TMHS and JDHS.
Each time, I've been truly inspired by the staff at each school doing what they do best, each and every day--teaching and touching the lives of Juneau's diverse students, in spite of the hurdles and obstacles placed before them of late. Bravo!
Anyone with more than a few years experience around these parts understands that these are dark days for Juneau’s high school students.
Instead of more students (2500!) and more choices (Themed Academies!) and more money (From Heaven!) and more joy (For Everybody!) as we were promised by our breathless, visionary, temporary leaders, there are now fewer students (1500?) and fewer choices for students, other than which programmatically impoverished high school at opposite ends of Gastineau Channel to attend.
You remember the Next Generation Plan -- the Solomon’s Decision model for running two big high schools.
And it’s not like lots of folks didn’t see it coming.
Regardless of how we got here, Juneau now has two excellent high school facilities. Juneau ought to have two excellent high school programs. But we won’t get there by maintaining two mediocre mid-sized schools that have to compete with each other for limited resources. Such an approach was always destined for failure.
And now five years on, the dismal failure of the Next Generation Plan is painfully obvious. It’s past time to admit it and move on to something better.
Why not one big traditional school and one new innovative small school, thus giving Juneau's families, students and teachers a real, meaningful choice?
And maybe save JSD some much needed money.
That's my $.02
Not Good
FYI....Though I occasionally share some of the perspectives of the above posts made by "Good", I am not that person.
Spoorprint, I'm just glad
only one year goes by every year....and scary is right, they're everywhere. Wind blowin' through their ears...
Where are the union cuts!
Looks like JSD is run by the teacher unions. Where are the slashes to these positions. I see a lot of cuts proposed to administration, maintenance and para-educators. Oh and we do need a 2nd high school! about time Juneau comes to grips with the cost of a 2nd high school with decreasing enrollment. Sugguest making JD high 9-10th grade and Thunder Mtn 11th-12th. Seems like there is an awful lot of administration and not enough teaching going on.
So far, so good
So far, the cuts seem to be in-line with what a reasonable administrator would look at and do. Many of the cuts surprised me because they mirrored what I thought for a long while to be the right places to balance things out.
It is too bad that there is not some way to have someone without connection to JSD internal influences to be able to wield the budget and performance pen. More is needed. We have an overpriced school system that is not meeting reasonable expectations or results.
I am pleased that someone at JSD is taking note of reality instead of the worn out approach of pumping money into programs as the univeral fix all.
@ CaptNoah
How can you say cut teachers, then say there's a lot of administration and not enough teaching? Teachers teach and administrators....well, they administrate. My kids don't see them.
Unions have nothing to do with this. Just because you hate unions, you want the district to lay off teachers? That's not what is best for our children.
The district realizes that without teachers, our kids are not being taught. They are the most important people to our children.
Progressive behavior does not
Progressive behavior does not co-exist with fiscal sanity.
Take a look at the elected politicians all up and down the spectrum in Juneau. You get what you ask for...
This pretty much sums up the dilemma the district faces - "the district is currently negotiating with its two largest unions".
At present, what percent of the budget goes for union salaries and legacy costs?
This is absurd! Eliminate
This is absurd! Eliminate six of 10 full time school nurses and replace them with health assistants?? What's going to happen when a child dies from an athma attack or Anaphylactic shock?! Overdoses in the highschools, or trauma from fights? Which school will get sued first? Then will it be worth exchanging our good nurses for "health assistants" come on folks we need some help here! will the health assistants be able to keep up on vision and hearing screening? imunizations? how many children will fall through the cracks?? How many children could potentially die without properly trained health care personel? Who's idea was this anyway? I'd like to know who thruough this one out on the table? you should be ashamed! and obviously don't have children of your own!
This is absurd! Eliminate
This is absurd! Eliminate six of 10 full time school nurses and replace them with health assistants?? What's going to happen when a child dies from an athma attack or Anaphylactic shock?! Overdoses in the highschools, or trauma from fights? Which school will get sued first? Then will it be worth exchanging our good nurses for "health assistants" come on folks we need some help here! will the health assistants be able to keep up on vision and hearing screening? imunizations? how many children will fall through the cracks?? How many children could potentially die without properly trained health care personel? Who's idea was this anyway? I'd like to know who thruough this one out on the table? you should be ashamed! and obviously don't have children of your own!
@alaska77 - call 911 (if your
@alaska77 - call 911 (if your rant is serious).
That's the conservative way!
That's the conservative way! An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, but their children will have to pay for that pound, so Calypso saves an ounce!
Am I missing something?
$75 mil. 5,000 students. $15,000 per student. $375,000+ a class. And we can't teach our kids for that?
Let's see, $100k for the teacher and $125k for their boss and we still got $100k to build them a new class every year and $50k for janitorial and other expenses....
Must be those pesky textbooks and pencils that are breaking us. Darn criminal publishers.