The Juneau School District Budget Committee Tuesday asked the district to use transportation funds to hire two nurses and partially reinstate school drug testing programs for 2013-14.
After weeks of meetings the Juneau School District Budget Committee has made its recommendations to the school board for changes that can be made to the district administration’s draft budget.
Budget Committee Co-Chair Brian Holst helped create the committee’s report.
He said the committee process was “unwieldy in certain ways having so many people involved.”
Holst was one of 17 committee members. He said the committee commiserates with the education board in the difficulty crafting a budget.
The committee met seven times.
The committee recommended a one-time transfer of around $100,000 from the transportation fund to the general fund.
“Put transportation funds to work in the school budget,” Holst said.
The extra funds could hire two nurses at an increase of $140,000, remove the need to increase the pupil-teacher ratio and add back half of the drug testing program.
Not all changes the committee recommended were to reverse cuts to programs. Committee members suggested reducing the district’s IT services by $50,000 and removing some “non-essential” professional technical items to the tune of $13,000, among other cuts.
“We considered many, many, many more cuts,” Holst said “It was a series of difficult choices.”
Holst said the committee would like the district to look into the optimum amount of time students should spend on assessment testing.
”Many of us and many members of the community would like the board of education look at that … the amount of time spent out of the instructional classroom,” Holst said.
JSD Board Member Sally Saddler said she thought the committee worked well, considering its limits.
“We all wish that we had more money,” Saddler said.
Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich and his administration budget team will consider the committee’s comments over the next week and report its findings on March 11.
Gelbrich said his team will look for specific kinds of recommendations.
“Is there something in the proposed amendment that strengthens the budget proposal?” Gelbrich said. “Anything that perturbs our thinking that we should have thought of something else. We may not agree with the budget committee, but we have tremendous respect for the work of the committee. It was very constructive.”
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (14)
Add commentooopps Typo!
"Brain Holst" should that be Brian?
Typo
ooopps? One typo deserves another?
transportation transfer
The transfer from the pupil transportation fund is a one time transfer of $100, 000.
Stephanie Allison
budget committee member
Non essential
Drug testing or even half the testing program is fluff an has no bearing on education. What are you going to do with test results? Kick them out after you used their numbers to increase your allocation? That'll 'learn 'em"! Nurses- yes. Drug testing- no.
Property
I think monies made from the sale of seized property (resulting from drug busts) should be directly allocated the the drug testing in the schools.
Typo
Hi all,
I have corrected Brian's name so it reads correctly.
Thank you, readers!
Abby
Why not drug test all the
Why not drug test all the teachers while they're at it, too! I remember when my old teacher got arrested for stealing Ritalin from the school nurse's office. I just looked it up, the JSD paid him almost $7000 to resign after he was caught on video. It might get rid of some of the fat cats to make room for fresh hires at a lower overall cost.
IT and activities...
My son attended this meeting to observe government in action, a class requirement. He reported to me that while IT is being reduced, and extra curricular activities are already being cut/reduced, they voted to put wi-fi on the ferries... Could it be that he misunderstood?? WHY would JSD fund traveling wi-fi and especially when they've cut IT and activities??? Anyone...
Internet & Ferries
JunoAn,
He misunderstood. There was a resolution in support of ferries having high speed internet access. No funding would come from the JSD.
Stephanie Allison
Thank you
Stephanie, thank you for the clarification.
Abby
I posted a comment explaining the committee's justification for re-instating drug testing. I also included a link to the JSD website for the full document of committee recomendations.
The post has been removed, could you tell me why?
Thank you,
Stephanie Allison
Only 17 members? We can do better than this.
***
Committee Members
Mr. Dunker,
This was a very large committee, especially to reach concensus. Each school/program had a representative, there was a representative of each of the JSD unions, and there were 3 at-large members.
Do you think more people would have been better?
Stephanie Allison
Drug testing is not...
anonymous or random. Any of you who think it is are in denial.
3 examples...
1) my child had their wisdom teeth out and instead of contacting us the tester said something to the office staff and they told the office who told us. The office staff never should have known! Luckily for us the staff knows my family and knew about the medication however what if this had been a child that may already have issues and not the staff is privy to knowledge that could result in unfair judgement.
2) I have 3 children who are in after school programs that require random testing. Only my native child gets tested and that's weekly.
3) When I complained about 1 & 2 my child has not been tested again. Just a coincidence? I don't think so!
I believe if they want to drug test our kids they should do so prior to an even or travel only. If they are dirty they don't participate and/or they don't travel.
What is good for our students should be good for the staff, teachers and coaches. How about testing the people in charge of our children's care and safety?