By Jordan Lewis and Jasz Garrett
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – The Board of Education adopted a plan for school reconfiguration on Thursday night. The Juneau School District has been struggling with a current year $9.5 million structural deficit.
School Board President Deedie Sorenson spoke on what led to the two options that were presented at the meeting.
“We narrowed it down to looking at maintaining both of our larger facilities and then asking our staff to determine how small a footprint we could have in remaining buildings to create the most cost-effective configuration that we believe will be able to provide a high-quality education for our students,” she said. “And then potentially as more revenues perhaps become available from the state, we will be able to then enhance those models that we have decided. So, that we can continue to advance the quality of education for all of our students.”
Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said these factors led to eliminating the middle schools and shifting that student group to Thunder Mountain High School.
“One, looking at the facility and the newness of the facility or the use as an academic facility for whether it’s middle school, elementary school, or high school. And in looking at the two larger facilities, Juneau Douglas High School and Thunder Mountain High School, TM being one of the newer facilities that have been constructed, and seeing from a costing perspective too,” he said. “Because a number of our buildings have deferred maintenance and potentially need to have remodeling taking place. And so, that was a factor that went into the decision around that. And then of course, school size and the capacity of the buildings is also a factor when looking at potentially moving and dividing grades up and looking at kind of that delivery model for specific grade levels.”
By the end of the meeting, which lasted several hours, the board voted to adopt the following reorganization plan for the next school year:
Elementary: K-6 grades at neighborhood schools
Middle School: 7-8 grades at Thunder Mountain High School (TMHS)
High School: 9-12 grades at Juneau-Douglas Yadaa.at Kalé High School (JDHS)
Alternative/Optional programs:
- Montessori Borealis, Juneau Community Charter School, Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School (DHMS)
- Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy at Harborview Elementary School
- HomeBRIDGE at TMHS
- District Office at TMHS, Harborview, or DHMS
Close 3 facilities:
- Close Marie Drake and release back to the City and Borough of Juneau
- Close Floyd Dryden Middle School and release back to CBJ
- Close the district office and release it back to CBJ
Reconfiguration is intended to maintain as much support, opportunity, and programming for students as possible.
Declining enrollment, reflecting statewide demographic changes; rising costs; and relatively flat state funding have been tightening the school district budget for years, according to a release from the Juneau School District.
Next steps
- Present a Fiscal Year 2024 winter budget revision
The Board of Education must take action to revise the current budget, and that budget must balance.
- Develop a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2025
The board must develop and approve a budget for next year to be submitted to the CBJ Assembly by April 4, 2024.
Upcoming meetings
The Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting on the FY24 and FY25 Budget Discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 27, from 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm.
Zoom: https://juneauschools-org.zoom.us/j/83428958356?pwd=Vmo3TStVRlRtWnlxakZ5OUJTN2ZHdz09
In addition to cost-saving measures and consolidation, a critical part of the strategy for JSD to become fiscally stable is financial assistance from the City and Borough of Juneau.
This assistance comes from CBJ fund balance in the form of 3 ordinances: 1) a $4.1 million loan; 2) a one-time payment for the current year of $3.9 million; and a one-time payment of $1.6 million for the next budget year. The Borough Assembly is working to pass these three ordinances by March 4 for the District to make its budget deadline for FY2025.
The public will be able to comment on all three of these ordinances at the Assembly Committee of the Whole Worksession on Monday at 6 p.m. and at the Regular Assembly Meeting on Monday, March 4 at 7 p.m.
You can comment by signing up at clerks.office@juneau.gov by 4 p.m. on the day of the hearing to testify over Zoom; sending an email to borough.assembly@juneau.gov; or testifying in person at City Hall Assembly Chambers.
If you plan to watch the meeting remotely but do not intend to provide public testimony, you are encouraged to use the CBJ YouTube livestream. This will help ensure that the Zoom meeting has enough capacity for all those participating, given the high degree of interest in this topic.
Zoom information is available at juneau.org/calendar. Meeting agendas will be posted to juneau-ak.municodemeetings.com as soon as they are available.
Ordinance 2020-14(b)(AD) – $4.1M Loan to the JSD
Ordinance 2023-14(b)(AB) – $3.9M to the JSD for non-instructional costs in FY24
Ordinance 2023-01(b)(A) – $1.65M to the JSD for non-instructional costs in FY25
