A large crowd of students, parents, and teachers attended last week’s Mat-Su Borough School District board meeting. The public voiced multiple objections to the proposed school budget for the following school year. KTNA’s Colleen Love has more.
The Mat-Su School District presented its proposed school budget to the public last week. During the presentation, they said they are grappling with a $23 million shortfall. In response, they are proposing to cut three elementary schools for next year; Larson Elementary, Meadow Lakes Elementary and Glacier View Elementary. At the school board meeting, supporters of those schools pointed out a multitude of reasons the school district should reconsider their decision.
Another controversial proposal in the budget is for the reduction of school librarians and nurses across the district. Advocates for school nurses said they are essential for treating on site emergencies. Existing nurses relayed stories of performing CPR at school and of treating life threatening situations, such as anaphylaxis and asthma. Teachers testified that they do not feel qualified to treat those types of medical emergencies.
A third proposal involves the elimination of transportation funding for after school activities. This could result in drastic changes to competitive sports at small schools like Susitna Valley High School.
Being a small school, Su-Valley’s sports teams travel long distances to play other small schools. Relying on coaches or parents to transport student athletes to places like Tok, Delta or Ninilchik, may prove unrealistic.
During the meeting, Superintendent, Dr. Randy Trani, stated that a five fold increase in parent paid sports fees would still not be enough to make up the cost of transporting athletes. The current participation fee for high school sports is $300, per child, per sport. According to Trani, charging each student $1,500/per sport would still not be sufficient.
The District has evolved to this financial situation over time. They’ve been cutting surplus positions and programs for years, in an attempt to reconcile a flat funding source with increasing yearly costs.
At the meeting, Dr. Trani said, “We don’t have a spending problem; we have a revenue problem.”
But parents pushed back. They challenged recent increases in Dr. Trani’s salary. One parent asked, “What specifically are you doing to raise revenue? Are you going to fight? If not, step out of the way and let a group fight for you.”
The budget discussion did not include specific action items by the district, to press for more funding from the state. In contrast, two Alaska school districts—the Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kuspuk—sued the state in January, alleging “woefully insufficient” education funding.
Dr. Trani said his goal for this year’s budget is to avoid cuts to classroom instruction. However, when pressed, he admitted that, if nothing changes, then next year they will be forced to make cuts there as well.
The school board plans to continue the budget discussions at its next meeting, which is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, March 18th.
For KTNA, I’m Colleen Love
