FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Assembly Hears Optimistic School Report

By Sentinel Staff

“The School Board’s goals will drive everything we do throughout the district,” Superintendent Mary Wegner said Wednesday night at the start of her outline of a detailed FY 2018 education budget to the City and Borough Assembly.

The presentation was the roll-out of the district’s first “outcome (initiative-based)” budget, replacing the traditional “line item (roll-over)” method in a process that the School Board set into motion two years ago.

The effect of the “trend data analysis” method is a preliminary budget with a projected deficit of $95,926 instead of the $1,723,024 that would have been the result of the traditional method, Wegner said.

Over all, the preliminary budget of $19,852,714 represents a $1,166,162 decrease from the current year. The spending plan is based on district enrollment projected at 1,253, and a legislative commitment to “hold harmless” school funding based on enrollment.

Decreasing elementary enrollment will allow the district teaching staff to be reduced by two, with the cutback achieved by attrition, Wegner said. 

The school board, which had heard the presentation the previous evening, sat with the Assembly members to hear Wegner and district business manager Casee Olin present it again in the district board room.

Unlike previous years, when the School Board did not have a figure for local funding until late in the budget process, Wegner started this year with a working figure of $5,944,533, which is $239,229 less than the city provided for the current year. City Administrator Mark Gorman said he submitted that figure based on a percentage cutback that he will apply to other city expenses. There were no objections from Assembly members at the meeting. They will set the actual figure some time before the statutory April 30 deadline.

This year’s school budget took a $1,328,699 draw on district reserves. Wegner cited “fund transfers” instead of reserves as a key element of the new budget. These are carry-over amounts from seven categories of the 2017 budget, totaling $850,021.

The new budget takes into account a 1.5 percent increase in teacher salaries, a 12 percent increase in health insurance costs, and a $263,000 decrease in fuel and utilities based on “a 10-trend data analysis.” 

The projected decrease in the number of students who need intensive special education will reduce the number of paraprofessionals needed by four full-time positions.

In the “bottom line” comment section of the budget report, Wegner said “we reduced a potential FY budget deficit of $945,947 due to a mind-set that has been established throughout the district related to non-personnel efficiencies, coupled with a mild winter last year.”

The School Board is prepared for the upcoming public hearings on the budget by having, for the first time, detailed breakouts, complete with graphs, showing present, historic and projected funding, programs and staffing for each school in the district,

Wegner expressed appreciation for the work of district staff for setting up a new budget process that “is conservative, realistic and precise.” 

 

 

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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