Sitka’s school officials remain in a holding pattern of uncertainty and anxiety over funding for next year which — under a budget proposed by Gov. Dunleavy — could see 42 teachers, administrators, and staff laid off from the district.
Two members of the Sitka School Board and two administrators appeared on KCAW Monday night (3-18-19) for a 90-minute hearing on next year’s school budget. But, as KCAW’s Robert Woolsey reports, the time for creative thinking hasn’t yet arrived, as everyone awaits the outcome of the political struggle in the capitol.
Overall, testimony has been light this year during public hearings on next year’s school budget. The shock of potentially losing 42 staff members in the Sitka School District hasn’t really been absorbed by the public.
Superintendent Mary Wegner said there’s no point in going there yet.
“You know we’re talking about students’ lives,” she said. “Teachers’ lives. Administrators’ lives — all at stake. It is a weighty question that the board is going to have before it.”
That question will be: How deeply do you pare down the budget next year, when you’re unsure of where the legislature and the governor will settle on funding schools?
This on-air hearing — which has become a tradition on KCAW — received input from three members of the public, and only one call. (Note: For complete audio of the discussion, see the links below.) A retired teacher who suspected that the impact of the governor’s proposed cut to education was already being felt by students.
School funding discussion, Part 1.
You can find the Sitka School District’s response to Gov. Dunleavy’s proposed education cuts here, and a flat-funding budget scenario here.
“It’s really hard for me to see teachers’ morale in the school district,” said the caller, who identified herself as Patricia. “I worry about it, because it affects the way they teach. I know what it’s like when you’re sad and you’ve got to go to work every day, and how can you do your very best? And so sometimes when we talk about the costs of these insane things going on in our state, we don’t think about that it’s actually affecting our children right now.”
Superintendent Wegner didn’t want to downplay the hardship this year’s budget battle has placed on district staff. But she had faith that it wasn’t affecting education.
“As I’ve been in the schools since all of this started, our quality teachers and administrators working with students are focused on our students, and when they’re on the job they’re professionals,” Wegner said. “No doubt they are worried in their personal lives, but they are professionals first and foremost, and I appreciate that.”
Wegner and the board believe that Gov. Dunleavy staked his successful campaign last November on paying Alaskans a full Permanent Fund Dividend, without disclosing any details of what that would cost residents in other services. And now, as Wegner put it, “those details are finally coming out.”
Besides other high-profile cuts like the elimination of the Marine Highway System, Gov. Dunleavy has proposed rolling back statewide education funding by $300 million.
Board member Eric VanCise is not happy about this prospect.
“My initial reaction when you have something like this quite honestly is anger,” said VanCise. “But you have to pull back and figure ‘Is this a game, or is this serious business?’ And it has to be looked at both ways. But the ramifications are unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.”
VanCise thinks a more reasonable approach would have been to spread cuts over the four years of Dunleavy’s term, rather than dropping them all into one massive budget reduction. The prospect of the wholesale elimination of services like the Marine Highway is forcing even the most conservative politicians to think about raising revenues — school board member Elias Erickson among them.
“It’s especially worse now that we have a governor in office who isn’t afraid to make these cuts,” Erickson observed. “Because if you don’t make as much cash, you can either stop buying things or get another job. In Alaska, I would say that we need to get another job. We need to diversify our economy, and the legislature must figure out a way — and we as Alaskans must accept — that we need to seek out additional revenues.”
So far in budget hearings the board has discussed — but not really debated — cost-savings measures like closing the REACH Homeschool, transferring the Performing Arts Center to the city, and ending the subsidy for Community Schools.
Those debates will no doubt happen, however, as the board moves toward its April 17 deadline for passing a budget. In the meantime, board members like Eric VanCise remain focused on education.
“I’ve got Tim Pike’s permission to use this, and it’s so true,” said VanCise. “He’s got this phrase, ‘We have one shot at providing a child their education. And we’ve got to do it right. There are no retakes.’”
The next school board budget work session will be on March 27, with a public hearing scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 1, in the Sitka High School Library.
