The Anchorage School District has proposed eliminating 70 teacher positions from next school year's budget, along with four pre-K classrooms and team planning time for middle school elective teachers, among other staff jobs and programs.
Superintendent Ed Graff on Thursday presented a budget amendment that detailed what the School District would cut to reduce its $784 million 2015-16 school year budget by nearly $16.7 million in response to proposed cuts from the Alaska Legislature.
"This budget amendment is something I hoped we wouldn't have to do," Graff said at an afternoon press conference. "We built our budget based on the Legislature's promise of education funding and now we're having to reverse that."
In February, the School Board passed a 2015-16 budget bolstered by $17 million from the School District's reserves. The reserves grew this year after the district didn't hire as many teachers as planned and hired more young teachers with lower salaries than budgeted.
The injection of the reserves allowed the School Board to shrink an anticipated budget gap and add positions next school year, including 22 teacher positions across the School District and funding for 1.5 positions to develop world language programs. It also added 20 middle school positions so the schools could reinstate team planning time for elective teachers.
But Graff's budget amendment reversed nearly all of those additions and more. Under the amendment, the School District would cut the 20 new middle school positions and middle school elective teachers would not get back their team planning time. These positions had not yet been filled, said Heidi Embley, School District spokeswoman.
Graff also proposed eliminating 20 teacher positions across the School District along with the new world language positions. The budget amendment would cut three maintenance staff positions, which are currently filled, and eliminate the bonus for substitute teachers that started this school year.
"I think they did try to focus on cutting positions that weren't filled yet, and that's one reason the restoration of middle school elective planning time bottled up," said Andy Holleman, president of the Anchorage Education Association teachers union.
Holleman said the union did not agree with cutting the planning time next year, saying it created an inequity within the middle schools since core teachers still have that time.
Graff said the district had to make "very difficult choices" when deciding where and what to cut, but it had to start making those decisions as the Legislature continues to grapple with a state budget.
"We can't wait any longer to make amendments to our budget," Graff said. "Not only must we meet the regulations for staff layoff notices, but we also owe it to our staff and their families."
The School District must notify tenured teachers of layoffs before May 15. Non-tenured teachers must be notified on or before the last day of the school term, Embley said.
However, uncertainty still exists around how much funding the district will receive from the state. This week, Gov. Bill Walker called the Legislature back into special session and submitted a new budget proposal that adds back some education money.
Graff based the proposed budget amendment on the elimination of one-time grant money and a 1.4 percent reduction to per-pupil state funding.
Under House Bill 278, passed by the Legislature last year, school districts would receive the grant money for three years.
In the budget amendment, Graff cut all three-year pilot programs funded by the grant money. This included 12 early literacy coaches and 14 early literacy classroom teachers -- positions currently filled. He also eliminated three pre-kindergarten classrooms and their teachers and teacher assistants. The pre-K classes are at Mountain View Elementary, Lake Otis Elementary and Tudor Elementary. A fourth pre-K classroom set to launch next school year was also eliminated.
Among other cuts, the list included the elimination of a behavior specialist, funding for new staff computers and supplies. Budgets were reduced for Central Services, which includes Human Resources, Information Technology, Business Management and the Superintendent's Office.
The School District's charter schools would lose nearly $840,000 next school year. In the budget originally passed, charter schools had money to add 21 new teacher positions. Graff said it is up to the charter schools' academic policy committees to decide what to cut.
Earlier this month, Graff presented the School Board with a long list of potential cuts for next school year. Cuts that did not stick included outsourcing school sports and reducing building safety and security staff, among a host of others.
The School Board still must vote on the budget amendment. On Monday, Graff will present the amendment to the School Board and the board will take public testimony at its 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. meetings.