Alaska News

Anchorage Assembly members want 5-year fiscal plan from school district

The Anchorage Assembly will consider a resolution Tuesday that asks the Anchorage School Board to submit both a five-year fiscal plan that takes into account possible cuts to funding as well as an alternate budget for next school year that includes elimination of one-time grant money.

Assembly members Patrick Flynn and Jennifer Johnston submitted the resolution after the Assembly approved the Anchorage School District's 2015-16 school year budget in an 8-3 vote last month. Johnston said Friday she wanted ASD's $784 million budget to reflect potential cuts to school funding. ASD has said the budget reflected what was in law.

At the time of the Assembly's vote, Gov. Bill Walker had proposed cutting one-time grant money next school year, and the House kept the cut in the budget package it passed. Since the Assembly's vote, the Senate passed a state budget that deepened education cuts, slashing 4 percent from the per-student school funding formula.

In total, ASD said, it could lose about $29.9 million in funding next school year.

Flynn said he and Johnston worked with ASD to write the resolution, which the Assembly must vote on.

The resolution requests that ASD's five-year fiscal plan include three versions: one based on statute, one without the one-time grant funds and one that includes potential reductions to the per-student funding formula as well as the one-time grant cuts. It also requested that the School Board prepare a 2015-16 school year budget the eliminates the one-time grant money, about $11.8 million.

School Board President Eric Croft said the board will provide the documents requested, as well as a five-year fiscal plan that includes the level of funding necessary to avoid cuts.

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"What would be most helpful is to actually know which of the scenarios is going to happen," Croft said. "Then we can do not just projecting, but real planning."

Municipal code requires the School Board to submit next school year's budget and a six-year plan for capital projects to the Anchorage Assembly each year. It does not require the School Board to submit a long-range fiscal plan.

"This has been my concern since I got on the Assembly, that there was no one looking down the road," Johnston said.

Mark Foster, ASD chief financial officer, said the School District regularly provides the School Board with three-year budget projections.

He said he worried that submitting three versions of a budget that included cuts would hurt ASD's ability to hire.

"Among other things, if you continue to issue pessimistic reports, you cut off a large supply of potential employees," Foster said.

Johnston said she hoped the long-range plan would help the School Board make more site-based decisions when cutting the budget. Flynn said the alternate budget for next school year would also help inform the municipality's budget discussions. The municipality's contribution to the School District is capped, so a decrease in state funding would likely mean a decrease in local funding, which could affect property taxes.

The Assembly is scheduled to set the mill rate on April 28, Flynn said. The resolution says the School Board should submit all budget documents to the Anchorage Assembly no later than April 21. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn April 19.

Last week, ASD presented a preliminary list of potential budget reductions for the 2015-16 school year to the School Board that included cuts to teacher positions and pre-K classes.

Tegan Hanlon

Tegan Hanlon was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News between 2013 and 2019. She now reports for Alaska Public Media.

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