The budget picture just got a little brighter for Sitka’s schools next year.
Superintendent Mary Wegner rolled out the news during the school board’s regular meeting Monday night (3-14-16) at the ANB Founders Hall.
“We have a 15-percent increase in our health insurance, rather than the projected 25-percent. That lowers our deficit from $1.6-million to just over $1-million. So that’s a huge benefit to our budget.”
Having a deficit of only $1-million feels like good news: The district started its budgeting process last year about $3-million in the hole. Some steep cuts, plus a last-minute infusion of cash from the Sitka assembly helped make ends meet.
But with the city looking at deficit of its own, it’s likely that no similar rescue will be coming this year.
In any event, the district has more than enough money in the bank to cover the $1-million dollar shortfall. But board members prefer to use savings for those rainy-day emergencies, rather than making up losses.
At a work session last week (3-9-16), board member Jennifer McNichol urged the board and the public to stand up for schools.
“It’s funding. We need funding. The source of that would be the state legislature and the city — that’s where you may also want to address your attention. Especially with the Citizen Task Force proposal that talks about cutting $200,000 from city funding to schools for the next three years. Zero cuts to the hospital, which I found interesting.”
The Citizens Task Force is chaired by Sitka Community Hospital CEO Rob Allen.
Board member Eric Van Cise also urged school advocates to frame their arguments for funding around humans, rather than inert objects.
“We’re looking at children’s education. You can look at the money. You can have the mayor say, Where are you going to make your cuts? Well, are we talking about cutting a piece of machinery, or are we talking about cutting out a kid’s education?”
The first public hearing on next year’s school budget will be 7 PM Wednesday March 23 in the Sitka High School library.
