Banking on the likelihood that the state Legislature won’t raise the amount of money paid per student, the Juneau school board Monday heard a first reading of a budget that contains $1.7 million in budget reductions.
The Administrative Team’s 2014 budget does not restore two full-time nursing positions as requested by the JSD budget Committee March 5, but does restore middle and high school Pupil to Teacher Ratios to the Fiscal Year 13 levels and adds back half of the district drug testing program.
The total proposed budget is $77,055,207.
The plan to bring in five health aides in addition to the district’s licensed nurses brought out several school nurses and some members of the budget committee to urge restoration of trained nurses.
Auke Bay school nurse Luanne Powers spoke of her disappointment at the last-minute nature of the nursing proposal’s unveiling, calling it “a little red herring,” a plan where the district is putting something very bad out there so a lesser cut later might not seem so bad.
Powers said nurses can prevent emergency medical calls as well as provide care for special needs kids, and may even need to assist staff members.
School nurse Maureen Hall, who covers two campuses, said moving to a health aide model will move the district toward providing substandard care. Health aides “sure don’t know how to be a school nurse.” She said the people making decisions about the nursing program don’t know the complete nature of their duties as school nurses.
Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich said there was a wide swath of district administrative representation involved in getting the current budget where it is now, and there was agreement about the nursing program.
Site administrators, as well as district office administrators, were on the review team. “Whatever it’s worth there was consensus this is the budget to bring forward.”
While the budget panel sought a $50,000 reduction in the district’s technology department, the district chose to eliminate one IT position but add two months to six 10-month IT positions.
That brought IT employee Leslie Antolick to the microphone with some cautions.
“By cutting positions, the administration is making the department short-handed during the school year when over 5,000 students and staff are looking for assistance,” Antolick said. “Yet there is an increase in personnel during the non-school months when there are about 250 persons needing assistance. This provides a ratio of one tech to about every 22 on-duty employees, many of which are on the administrative team. The administration working in the summer will enjoy a better ratio than the pupil/teacher ratio.”
The Administrative Team’s proposal accepted the budget panel’s advice and borrowed $100,000 from the Pupil Transportation Fund.
Board President Sally Saddler questioned the rationale of “kicking the can down the road” with this method of borrowing.
Superintendent Gelbrich said the administration realizes this is just a way to delay, “one-time money we can use if needed to fund other programs.”
Following public testimony, some board members had specific questions about liability and the nursing program change. Board member Destiny Sargeant offered some perspective.
“No matter what we do, it’s going to be painful for many,” Sergeant said. She noted that for everything someone wants to add back, something else must go. “If you want low PTR you can’t have everything.”
“This is a difficult situation” Saddler added. She said board members are taking the budget deliberations very seriously, and the final reading is on March 26. The final copy goes to the Borough on March 29. After that, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly has 30 days to let JSD know how much money will be sent.
Saddler told board members, “Do your homework.”
Comments (31)
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It would be interesting to see what other options for cutbacks were considered before settling on the ones chosen.
What are the cost projections looking forward? Do they see the budget climate improving over the next five years? When Parnell's $2 billion Big Giveaway goes through, what do they think the implications will be for the school budgets?
I guess I'd like to see more strategic thinking, but to be fair, it's kind of pointless to tell someone to install fire sprinklers in their building while they're fighting a blaze...
School Board Should Know Better
The School Board and community members of Juneau should know better than to blindly accept Superintendent Gelbrich's organization change of increasing IT staff during the summer months when there are NO STUDENTS at school while cutting a full time position when there are students at school. How sensible is that?
Maybe phrased this way: You own a tourism company. Now, would you want to be fully staffed during the busy tourist season so that you can accommodate the many needs of visitors or have fewer staff for 12-months and be short-handed during the times when you actually need to be fully staffed?
Seems like a "NO BRAINER" and it saves close to $50K!!!!
If you have any children attending the Juneau Schools you as parents should stand up and say, "NO". This is not prudent judgement especially when other programs are being cut and your child's opportunity for education is being affected.
Information
Latitude - a great deal of detail, including all cuts considered by the budget committee, can be found on the district website, http://www.juneauschools.org/district/administrative_services/our_budget
Homer - the proposal by the district administration is to increase several positions to 12 months AND reduce the total number of positions. The net affect of the restructure is a reduction in costs of $18,559.
Stephanie Allison
budget committee member
Do the Numbers
slallison--
While I respect your input, I have to ask you,"why add staff to a time period when there are no students"? and then also feel good about your decision to also "CUT" a position during the actual school year when students and staff are present and need the support"?
What does an IT guy do when
What does an IT guy do when he's unemployed two months out of the year?
but
An i pad for every kid, with the state picking up only 60% of the cost. Gimmie gimmie gimmie
Sad
"There was consensus to bring this budget forward" The superintendent is not listening to the advice of the staff - the nurses and the IT folks. The "consensus" is from the superintendent and his administrative staff. I'm disappointed that they did not take to heart the recommendations from the budget committee of citizens, as well as public testimony. I hope the school board members will consider input from those who are actually doing the jobs (nurses, IT staff) when considering budget cuts.
Response to Homer
While the position is being cut, the fact is that it has been vacant for the majority of the year.
My background and educuation is financial. So the first lense that I'm going to look through is the bottom line; in this case it is a reduction of expenditures.
Because I don't have a background in IT, the second lense has to be reasonableness. The case presented by the IT supervisor for restructuring was very reasonable and logical. That doesn't mean that the testimony by other IT staff was unreasonable.
In the end, the decision to restructure IT is a managerial decision and I feel that the administration has to be allowed to manage.
Stephanie Allison
One more thing
I am also disappointed that the district did not consider cutting the six instructional coach positions at the elementary schools. This cut could save the district up to $600,000. It seems that the majority of our current teaching staff are more than "well-qualified" and not in need of instructional coaching. When we are looking at district-wide cuts this severe, having an instructional coach in each school seems like a luxury that this district simply cannot afford.
I come from a much smaller
I come from a much smaller community as a child, in SE, and after visiting recently I was in shock to find the PTR in tr elementary school at less then 1:12. I asked how this was possible. I was told frankly the PTR is the most important thing when it comes to children learning. So the principle of that school, who had been a teacher for years, made that the focus. That was the one thing that was not negotiable and its been low since.
That school was recently one of only 3 Blue Ribbon Awarded schools for the state. The blue ribbon award is awarded to ALL schools including religious or private.
If the board is going to do their homework I think it's time to read up on WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING? And seriously how has the empire not done a report on it?
Empire analysis
I would like to see the Empire report the ratio of students to school district employees and to total CBJ employees each decade, say 1963, 1973,...2013. My guess is that the district and city government both have many more employees compared with the number of students than was the case earlier. If so then it says something about priorities, effectiveness of the school district staff, and about the inordinate amount of hand-wringing that goes on annually to make us believe these are tough times when in fact government has unprecedented amounts of money today.
I think that oil production will continue to decline and that soon not only Texas and ND will have higher production than AK but soon CA, PA, OH, and NY will be producing more than AK will produce by then. I don't see how that can possibly increase oil prices. The OPEC cartel gave Alaska a great ride but now it may be over. All state and municipal government needs a long range plan to deal with it. I recommend no new debt and paying down existing liabilities.
Instructional Coaches
The first item on the chopping block should be the Instructional Coaches. From the beginning, these positions have proved ineffective and the money spent on them could be spent adding a classroom teacher to each school. The pupil teacher ratio (PTR) is raised in each school that has a Coach. In a typical Juneau Elem. School, PTR is raised by 2 students per classroom by having a Coach in the school. Instructional Coaches were a bad idea from the start and need to be cut.
Funny how the IT staff all
Funny how the IT staff all say "this doesn't work, this needs to change," but since the IT admin disagrees, well he's got to be allowed to administrate.
It's the same with the superintendent. Heaven forbid the administration isn't allowed to administrate! Nobody ever says "no, this doesn't work, come up with something better." Not even the school board and that's supposed to be their job.
Notice none of the admin's pet projects are on the chopping block even though they make the most sense to cut:
The instructional coaches that have our best teachers out of the classroom when what we desperately need is more teachers in classrooms bringing down the PTR. This is the ultimate example of a good idea IF we have the money, and a terrible one if we're hurting like we are now.
The AVID program that helps kids choose their careers. Now they want to extend that down to elementary at great cost! Too bad it basically helps the kids that already are most likely to succeed. Our K-5 kids do NOT need this. What they need is a nurse. Or maybe a classroom with fewer than 28 students in it.
The MAPS testing on top of all the other testing. Oh goody another graph of data to show parents at conferences. Is it worth the massive investment of money, IT time, and instructional time?
Not to mention the utterly bloated district office administration. No cuts there. How do these people help our students? Nobody will ever know because nobody asks. Not the school board, no the budget committee, not the Empire. They're untouchable.
The whole charade is pathetic. "Each one, every one" is a sad joke.
Oh geedogs
Who cares what other states are producing? Is this some sort of peeing contest?
Are you really suggesting that demand for oil is going to decrease, that the price of oil will go down? Really? REALLY?? Would you be interested in buying my causeway to Douglas Island?
I know the solution to our declining revenue problem (which has actually been increasing, not declining) - let's give the oil companies $2 billion dollars every year for doing absolutely nothing. Then they can take that money and invest it in developing those oil fields in NY and OH and TX that you're talking about. That'll fix everything - our schools can double the number of teachers and have two nurses in every classroom.
Information
There were a number of items considered for cuts by the budget committee which are being mentioned on this board.
MAPS - the actual cost of testing is very small, I believe $34,000 a year. In the end, the committee felt that MAPS testing was very much tied to policy and asked that the board consider the policy of MAPS for assessments. The committees concern was related to lost instructional time.
Instructional Coaches - I believe the controversy behind instructional coaches is simply that they are used differently at each elementary school and have, therefore, varying degrees of success. Eliminating them entirely was not supported by the budget committee, however cutting from 6 to 3 was supported. I'm almost certain that the superintendent indicated that the elementary principals fully support maintaining these positions. Presumably, this means they support maintaining them even over reducing PTR.
AVID - was extensively discussed within the budget committee. The motion was to suspend AVID training for one year, recognizing that suspending training would likely effectively eliminate the program. As I understand it, this program is for marginal students, those who are not getting the grades that they should be getting. AVID teaches organization, note taking and time management. For some kids it is a reinforcement of what they have already been taught, for others it is entirely new information. The motion did not make the cut list for the budget committee. For myself, while the motion was originally my own, I voted against it after compelling public testimony. I do hope that there is a formal evaluation of the program in the very near future with specific expectations of success.
And finally, the JSD administration. It is frequently mentioned that this is an overly large administration. I scheduled out all personnel in the district who were: 1) general funded, 2) non-school based and 3) had no contacts with students. Of the 671 employees for FY14, sixty-seven met this criteria. The largest groups in the 67 are IT and maintenance personnel. I do not believe 10% is overly large. Admittedly, I've not had the opportunity to look at the salary of those 67, I hope to do so soon.
Stephanie Allison
Each one, Every one...
I see a lot of response to this article - great! How many of you actually enage in a productive way to facilitate tangible change?
Finger-pointing will continue as long as we are in the fiscal climate we're in... however, folks need to realize schools are businesses and would serve us well to realize this. What's next, only flush when you poop?
It does not bode well for Glenn to not heed the massive effort the 18 budget committee members proposed. I know personally they have exhausted countless hours over the last few months.
Juneau is NOT a huge metro area... as such, we need to realize that we must think outside the box with what we have. Example: We have two high schools, if a student desires an AP class that's not available at JD, but is at TM why not work with the possibility of making this happen versus reasons why it can't happen... we are all ONE school district! Time to start owning up to the "Each one, Every one" motto.
Coaches
Regarding the elementary principal support of the 6 instructional coach positions - of course they do! Glenn Gelbrich is their boss, and this is one of his pet programs. And, the instructional coach in many ways serves as an assistant principal, taking some of the load off the principal. This is not enough justification for instructional coach positions, in my opinion. Has anyone asked an elementary school teacher how they feel about the instructional coaches, or would they prefer a class size of 2-3 fewer students then they currently have? The reaction I have heard from classroom teachers is that PTR is the priority.
I urge anyone who feels this way to please contact the school board members by phone or email, ASAP, as they will be voting on this budget very soon. Community voices need to be heard!
@momofthree
Thank you for your comments! However... the school board does not recognize emails... You MUST put it in old school black and white or, go to the meetings (sign up to speak) and share your concerns.
Latitude
Yes, in real dollars the price of oil is likely to fall. There is today a huge imbalance between oil prices and the price of alternative fossil fuels. On top of that, North America is scheduled to be independent of imported oil by 2020. The cartel will become unimportant when that happens.
US government policies might bring high inflation (the US dollar losing value) which would keep the nominal price of oil in US dollars from falling very much but the real cost of energy from oil almost certainly has to fall. And yes, it matters that CA, the major customer for NS oil will soon outproduce Alaska in oil. How can that be anything but terribly bad for Alaska?
Latitude, you have a most provincial view of the world. At best it is quaint. At worst it is silly.
AVID is purely political
Any program that can kick students out due to poor grades is going to look like it's doing better than the classes of their peers. But then again, if every student got the resources and support that AVID students get, every student would do much better.
Also, if this AVID program is supposed to reach C and D students who are going to be first generation college students, then why are there multiple children of the board members in AVID? (see subject line above)
There is good reason a local native corporation pulled their grant out of AVID...
Evaluation of AVID - let's have it!
I'm skeptical of AVID and would also like to see its effectiveness in Juneau evaluated. It is intended to provide a boost to middle of the road students and potential first-generation college students. I was ok with it when it was grant funded, but now it takes resources from other programs. When HS teachers were given AVID classes to teach, class sizes for other teachers went up to compensate. I do believe it reaches the intended audience, I just don't know that it makes a difference, and I don't think resources should be taken away from other students to cover it.
More Information
Chelsea_s: The budget committee asked many questions of the administration. At each weekly meeting the administration would produce a written document answering all questions. Each of these documents is on the district website. I don't think it is accurate to say that no one is asking questions.
MomofThree: I did talk to teachers about coaches. My "sample group" wasn't large but the responses were extremely varied. This is what leads me to believe that instructional coaches have varying degrees of success. At one school the instructional coach was highly praised, at another school, yeah...not so much praise.
Stephanie Allison
@GLACIERDOGS...
I thought we were discussing fiscal issues with the Juneau School District????? Not sure where oil and the JSD budget merge??
I read all of the
I read all of the question/answer documents and followed the budget process closely. I submitted my own suggestions. At no point did anyone seem to address the bloated admin. They created a brand new admin position, what, four years ago? And we're supposed to believe that position was vital and we can't live without it?
It's just super frustrating because I watched the budget committee come up with some good ideas, for example cut AVID and use the $ to reinstate a nurse, then admin would say "nope, we don't like it" and poof it'd be off the table.
Similarly the school board will just rubber stamp whatever the administration comes up with as they always do. What's the point of a budget committee or a school board if they just roll over to whatever the admin says (even when that admin's OWN STAFF is vehemently saying 'this does not make sense!')? It's a farce.
How much do we spend per pupil again?
JSD Budget $77,055,207 divided by 5000 Students = $15,411.04 per pupil.
FYI Juneau School Board. You have nearly 50% more dollars per pupil at your disposal than the national average. Quit whining there isn't enough money, get your priorities straight, cut the fat and allocate the $15,411.04 per student at your disposal to the CLASSROOM. The only budget issue present is a lack of intelligent resource prioritization and allocation.
Highest Average per-pupil spending:
Washington, D.C. - $18,667
New York - $18,618
New Jersey - $16,841
Alaska - $15,783
>>>>>>>>> JUNEAU ALASKA - $15,411.04 <<<<<<<<<
Vermont - $15,274
Wyoming - $15,169
Connecticut - $14,906
Massachusetts - $14,350
Maryland - $13,738
Rhode Island - $13,699
U.S. NATIONAL AVERAGE Per-Pupil: $10,615
Lowest Average Per-Pupil spending:
Utah - $6,064
Idaho - $7,106
Arizona - $7,848
Oklahoma - $7,896
Tennessee - $8,065
Mississippi - $8,119
North Carolina - $8,409
Nevada - $8,483
Florida –$8,741
Texas - $8,746
http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/21/which-places-spent-most...
juneoboy and geedogs
j-boy, if you don't know where oil revenue and school funding are connected...I suggest that you wake up. If you think that your budget woes are bad now, just wait until Governor Parnell's $2 billion PER YEAR tax giveaway gets rubber stamped by the legislature. You ain't seen nothing yet...
geedog, I'm not the one being provincial here. You seem to be operating under the illusion that the oil companies are American companies selling American oil. They're not. They're multinationals, selling a commodity product on the world market. We'll pay the going world market price, or China and India will. Those import terminals and tankers and pipelines we've worked so hard to secure...they work just as well in reverse.
And BTW, those tankers from Valdez, no reason why they couldn't head west. We're perfectly positioned to take advantage of the world oil market...though of course it's not our oil, is it?
Alternative funding sources
I have been able to review the district budget as a site council member at one of the schools and my first thought was: "Why doesn't the school fund an full time grant writing position and seek out alternative funds for things like sea week and the voluntary drug testing (EPA, Sierra Club, Dept. of Justice offer funding opportunties for school districts and non-profits). Many of the things that were slated to be cut from the budget are things that could be funded through grants. I could foresee an initial cost to the district (recruitment, hiring of grant writer) that would decrease within one fiscal year (cost of grant writer can often be written into a grant) enabling the district to re-assign funds currently designated for existing activities/programs that face being cut due to budgetary concerns.
Alternative funding sources
I have been able to review the district budget as a site council member at one of the schools and my first thought was: "Why doesn't the school fund an full time grant writing position and seek out alternative funds for things like sea week and the voluntary drug testing (EPA, Sierra Club, Dept. of Justice offer funding opportunties for school districts and non-profits). Many of the things that were slated to be cut from the budget are things that could be funded through grants. I could foresee an initial cost to the district (recruitment, hiring of grant writer) that would decrease within one fiscal year (cost of grant writer can often be written into a grant) enabling the district to re-assign funds currently designated for existing activities/programs that face being cut due to budgetary concerns.
Non-classroom Employees
There are now three times as many psychologists councilors and other non-classroom high salary employees now than there were in the 1970s but the student teacher ratio is higher. JSD favors make-work jobs over teachers. Half of the staff at the central office could be layed off and the kids wouldn't be effected at all.
@Laittude58
You made the comment to me "j-boy, if you don't know where oil revenue and school funding are connected...I suggest that you wake up. If you think that your budget woes are bad now, just wait until Governor Parnell's $2 billion PER YEAR tax giveaway gets rubber stamped by the legislature. You ain't seen nothing yet..." So, please help me to"wake up"...
I ask again - where does the JSD budget and oil merge??
Honestly, regarding our Governor - he's not a good-looking skirt like Mrs. Palin, but... he would represent our country WAY better than she did AND have credibility, to make a run against BH.