Juneau School District approaches decision on annual district budget

The Juneau School District Board of Education is expected to pass a budget at a special meeting Thursday. 

The board made last minute changes at its Tuesday meeting and now needs to rebalance the proposed budget. 

The previous budget was based on savings from unfilled staff positions this year and assumed 3% of next school year’s positions would be unfilled.

But on Tuesday, board members took that assumption out. That’s because anticipating a set vacancy rate could jeopardize a financial buffer for the following year. Board President Deedie Sorensen was the only member who voted against the change.

The financial ins and outs are complicated, but what it means is savings that come from vacancies are unreliable. Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon said she prefers to base the budget off of known savings. She said planning for vacancies ahead of time could leave fewer savings that can go toward the following year’s budget.

“Let’s utilize the previous year’s known vacancy savings. And next year we will utilize FY26 but we won’t be like, ‘Oh, it’s 99% of this year’s because we put 1% of it in, right?’” she said. “So let’s, as a practice – because we’re starting this this year, which I think is a good practice – let’s be clean about it and utilize the previous year’s vacancy factor.”

The change would throw the current proposed budget off by more than $700,000. But savings from this fiscal year mean the district has only about $100,000 to make up for a balanced budget.

The board directed the district administration to find things that can be paid for ahead of time with savings, and to find places to cut.

The budget is still based on a $400 increase to the state’s per-student allocation. The Alaska House passed a bill Wednesday that includes a $1,000 increase, which still needs to go through the Senate.

The school board is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m.Thursday at Thunder Mountain Middle School.