Riley Soboleff, an incoming sophomore at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé who attended Thunder Mountain High School last year, expressed mixed feelings about the start of the new school year on her way to a newly merged high school swim practice Monday afternoon.
She said the swim team has not been a difficult change since many of the athletes have been swimming together for years through Glacier Swim Club outside of the high school season, but she is frustrated when it comes to the beginning of classes this week.
“I’m frustrated about how the school board has caused every school in Juneau to have major changes and the amounts of students to teachers because of the changes,” she said. “As a student who is looking out for their education with a supportive family I am not worried as much about how I will do, but I’m worried about the kids in the back of the class who need teachers there pushing them to be in class and get their work done.”
Jim Sheufelt has taught history at JDHS for the last three years, making him one of the least affected teachers in the consolidation. He said it’s important to him to make sure every student receives attention even in a bigger class size.
“That’s going to be our challenge is to keep that kind of small community feeling,” Sheufelt said. “To build that community feeling — I think it’s just gonna take a little time.”
Lumi Fermin, an incoming sophomore at JDHS who attended TMHS last year, said the consolidation’s uncertainty has brought her stress.
“It’s frustrating to see teachers losing their jobs and trying to stay positive for us all as they face major changes as well,” she said. “After attending orientation at JDHS I felt nervous for school after seeing how packed everything was and imagining the halls during passing periods. I think because everything has been happening so fast it’s just hard to process.”
A sign outside Thunder Mountain Middle School still reads “Thunder Mountain High School” on Monday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Fermin said now that school is starting again reality is starting to hit everyone. She said she was concerned when she saw one of her classrooms during orientation on Friday.
“I’m not certain if that’s how the class will look when school starts, but it’s still a little concerning to see the room so empty days before the first day of school,” she said.
Fermin said she hopes the school year goes smoother than students are expecting. She added she hopes more funding will come since last year her classes limited how much printing of paper could be done per student.
“Consolidation, to me, is not a concern so much as it is kind of like the overall budget situation,” Nathan Adams, a special education teacher at JDHS, said. “We got the funding that we needed, but it’s one of those things where if districts had an assurance from Gov. Mike Dunleavy in February that the $175 million above previous levels of funding was going to happen, districts would have been able to prepare.”
At the July 6 special meeting, the Juneau Board of Education approved the reinstatement and addition of some classified and certificated positions, following Dunleavy’s approval of additional one-time funds.
A primary concern entering the school year is hiring additional teachers where there are shortages, said Chris Heidemann, president of the Juneau Education Association, the union representative for the district’s instructors.
He said “right now JSD is trying to hire for 20-plus positions, but there’s just nobody there to hire.”
“I’m especially worried about elementary schools right now,” he said. “We did not have enough qualified elementary candidates and we have large amounts of vacancies at elementary schools, and I’m worried about that and special education as well.”
Heidemann said the root cause of that is the years-long flat funding by the state for schools, which played a major role in the budget-slashing consolidation this spring. The one-time increase of about 11% in per-student funding signed by Dunleavy came well after the school board had approved its budget for this school year.
That meant trying to hire staff on short notice for jobs that may not be funded in next year’s budget was a tough sell, Heidemann said.
The district had planned to lay off about 50 teachers before the increase was approved, but instead cut fewer than five positions — however, that was primarily due to the unplanned resignation of roughly three dozen employees during the spring, according to District Superintendent Frank Hauser and other administrators.
There were 13 employees who at the end of the school year lost jobs they hoped to keep, but the extra funding meant all but a few were hired back, Heidemann said.
Surplus items such as textbooks and classroom supplies are free at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé commons on Monday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
On Thursday, Hauser delivered a speech to the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce about the upcoming school year, noting the consolidation stemmed from a long decline the district’s student population and real-world funding due to the eroding effects of inflation.
“Since the year 2000, the Juneau School District has lost 1,533 students, 27% of its student population,” he said. “The only change to the district footprint since 2000 was the addition of a high school.”
Hauser said the district had largely maintained the same infrastructure despite a near 30% enrollment decline in near flat state funding for almost a decade, and JSD has been operating at a deficit for years.
The district’s financial crisis was revealed publicly in early January, with a projected deficit of nearly $10 million in a roughly $77 million operating budget for the 2024 fiscal year, including a carryover deficit of nearly $2 million from the previous year. Faulty accounting by a previous district financial officer totaling millions of dollars in both revenue and expenses was blamed as part of the reason for the oversight and sudden exposure of the problem.
Furthermore, the district was facing similar deficits for the current and future years without major structural changes to its budget, according to Hauser.
By April 5, the Juneau Board of Education had completed a budget revision to balance those historical deficits for fiscal 2024, and submitted a balanced budget to the City and Borough of Juneau for fiscal year 2025.
“It was possible because the board and administration took immediate action to implement measures to address the deficits and conduct an unprecedented public outreach campaign to garner community input on the path forward,” Hauser said in regard to balancing the FY24 and FY25 budgets.
Hauser said there are new courses available for both JDHS and former TMHS students through the consolidated high school, such as career technical education classes.
Jake Jacoby, JDHS’ Woods and Intro to Trades teacher, said he is excited for a bigger population of students for his shop classes because it means the program can grow.
“I had a really great year last year and excited as any year to come back and start teaching again, mainly because I get to work in awesome shop spaces,” he said.
He said he doesn’t notice a difference between TMHS and JDHS — they’re all students. Jacoby said last year when the consolidation plan was being decided he heard TMHS and JDHS students complain about each other, and if the problem comes up in class he will be prepared.
“Just reminding them that we’re all Juneau kids and that I was a Juneau kid,” he said. “I went to school here when it was just one school. And it’s understandable to have some growing pains and some sadness or friction around merging two populations of kids back together. But in the end, we’re all just students going to school in a small town. And we’re Juneau kids, so don’t think of yourself as a Thunder Mountain student or a Juneau Douglas student.”
Kristen Wells will be teaching Marine Biology and Project Lead the Way: Intro to Engineering Design.
She moved from TMHS into two different classrooms at JDHS and was still unpacking boxes on Monday. She said her summer was spent transitioning schools.
Her first year with JSD was teaching chemistry at JDHS and then she moved to TMHS shortly after it opened in 2008. JDHS was founded in 1955.
Wells was asked her thoughts on potential clashes between the merging high schoolers.
“I’m excited for our new community,” Wells said. “We’re here for the students. I think if kids feel supported, those problems will not come up.”
TMHS is now known as Thunder Mountain Middle School. TMMS Assistant Principal Laura Scholes said as of Monday afternoon there were 600 students in grades 7-8 enrolled and she is excited to welcome them.
The first day of school for students in grades 1-12 is Thursday. Kindergarten students start Aug. 20, Integrated Pre-K students start on Aug. 22, and Kinder Ready begins on Aug. 27. All classrooms and schools have been moved to their new locations. In addition, the District Central Office has moved to TMMS.
Boxes labeled “Thunder Mountain Middle School office” wait to be unpacked underneath a whiteboard inside TMMS on Monday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
School Tours:
• Juneau Community Charter School: Open House, Aug. 13, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
• Thunder Mountain Middle School: School tours, Aug. 13, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
• Montessori Borealis Public School: Ice cream social, Aug. 14, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
• Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School: Open House, Aug. 16, noon
• Thunder Mountain Middle School Open House, Aug. 22, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
• Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, Open House, Aug. 27, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
• Elementary School Open House, Sept. 5, 5:00-6:00 p.m., at Auke Bay, Harborview and TCLL, Kaxdigoowu Héen, Mendenhall River Community School, Montessori Borealis, Sayéik: Gastineau Community School, Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx – Glacier Valley.
School Start Times:
• Elementary Schools (PreK-6) 8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (30-minute early release on Mondays)
• Thunder Mountain Middle School (7-8) 8:45 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.
• Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé (9-12) 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Dzantik’i Heeni Campus 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Juneau Community Charter School (30-minute early release on Mondays) ; Montessori Borealis Public School (30-minute early release on Mondays); Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School; Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy Program (K-8) 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (30-minute early release on Mondays)
School Meal Updates:
Universal breakfast will be free for all students at all schools during the first semester of the 2024-25 school year. After winter break, students eligible for free or reduced meals will continue to receive free breakfast for the entire school year. Students who pay for meals will be charged $4.00 for breakfast starting on Jan. 8, 2025.
New Prices:
Student Paid Lunch $5.50
Student Reduced Lunch $0.40
Adult Lunch $7.50
Paid Breakfast starting Jan. 8, 2025 $4.00
To receive free or reduced-price meals, visit SchoolCafe to fill out an application.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356. Juneau Empire Editor Mark Sabbatini contributed to this story.
