The Sitka Assembly is on notice that there’s another difficult year ahead for local schools.
When the assembly met on Monday (12-30-24), School Board President Phil Burdick said even if the legislature increased the base student allocation, the district would be in a tough spot.
“Right now it looks like even if the legislature comes through with a $680 increase to the base student allocation, we’re still looking at about a $2 million deficit for the Sitka School District,” Burdick said.
$680 is the number most-often cited by school officials, since that was the permanent increase to the BSA the legislature approved last year. The governor, however, vetoed the bill. He later allowed a one-time increase of $680 to pass.
A new session of the legislature opens on January 21, with bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate. Former Sitka teacher Rebecca Himschoot will co-chair the House Education Committee, which could come up with an entirely new funding proposal for Alaska’s schools.
Burdick told the Sitka Assembly that advocacy would be as important this year as last year, but the board would be doing community outreach a bit differently. He said they plan to hold listening sessions at each school, presenting the financial situation to parents and getting feedback.
“So we’re crafting some questions that will help guide those listening sessions,” Burdick said, and shared some examples. “When you think about your student and their education at insert school, what’s the most important thing for your family? How many students is too many in a classroom? What do you want from you or from your graduates in terms of skills and habits of mind? And how can we how can we graduate the students that we need for the workforce, that we need for the city to continue to be a strong place to live, for everybody?”
Burdick said the board would submit a more complete view of its budget at a joint work session with the assembly on January 16.
