Anchorage

The Anchorage School Board wants more counselors and reduced class sizes in younger grades next school year

Anchorage School Board members want next school year’s budget to include more counselors and reduced class sizes in younger grades.

It’s still early in the Anchorage School District’s budget planning process, but the board member’s guidance on Monday night provided a look at what they want to prioritize in the face of anticipated budget constraints.

District officials are projecting a roughly $10.4 million funding gap in next school year’s budget if the district provides the same level of services as this year, said Andy Ratliff, the senior director of the district’s Office of Management and Budget. The budget year begins July 1. Group medical coverage continues to drive increasing costs, according to a district budget document. Other increasing expenses include utility bills and fuel costs.

The early budget estimates account for the increases to salaries and health care contributions in the new, three-year contract agreement with the Anchorage Education Association teachers union, Ratliff said. They also account for a drop in “average daily membership” — an annual student headcount used in Alaska to determine school funding. The Anchorage headcount — a tally of students based on their hours in school — is projected to drop by about 580 full-time equivalent students, or about 1.3 percent, next school year, a budget document shows. That number could change.

Fewer students would translate to less funding.

Exactly how much state funding the district will get for next school year’s budget isn’t yet certain. The district’s annual budgeting timeline doesn’t align with that of state lawmakers.

Anchorage district officials are crafting next year’s budget based on the assumption that the district will receive the same amount of per-student funding from the state as it did this year. They’re also anticipating one-time money from the state outside of the student funding formula. The Anchorage School District’s slice of that funding would amount to about $8.4 million, plus $1.9 million in additional local tax revenue, according to a district budget document.

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“It’s in statute and it’s up to the Legislature to appropriate money for it,” Ratliff said about the one-time funding. “We remain hopeful that it will come in.”

In total, the state’s largest school district is projecting revenues of about $789 million next school year.

Some Anchorage School Board members said at their meeting Monday night that they’d like next year’s budget to account for reduced class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. Some, however, also expressed concerns about what they’d have to take away to afford lowering class sizes.

“I think, as the board, we have a responsibility to know what the negative side is,” said board member Andy Holleman.

In a 4-2 vote, the board passed an amendment to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. Board members Dave Donley and Alisha Hilde cast the dissenting votes, with board member Elisa Snelling absent. The amendment, introduced by board president Starr Marsett, will serve as guidance to district officials creating the budget.

Later in the meeting, in a 5-1 vote, board members passed another similar amendment that said it was a priority to not increase class sizes in those younger grades. Marsett voted against the amendment.

Board member Donley introduced the amendment and described it as a “backup.” Reducing class sizes “is unrealistic,” he said. “It’s not going to happen.”

Class sizes vary across the district, said Michael Graham, district chief academic officer.

The district has student-to-teacher ratios to inform staffing levels and budgeting, he said. Currently, those ratios have 21 students in an Anchorage kindergarten class, 22 students in a first grade class, 24 students in a second grade class and 25 students in a third grade class. Those numbers aren’t class-size caps, Graham said.

“We know that some are going to be over and some are probably under,” he said.

Board members didn’t say by how much they’d like class sizes reduced.

Board members said Monday that they’d also like the district to have at least a part-time counselor in each of its dozens of schools.

“I think it’s more important than ever that we do have counselors in our schools,” Marsett said.

Marsett introduced the counselor-focused amendment. It passed in a 5-1 vote with Hilde voting against it.

Currently, the district employs 114 school counselors, said Diane Lemon, district counseling coordinator. All of the district’s comprehensive high schools and middle schools, as well as most alternative schools have a full-time counselor or a team of counselors depending on their size and need, she said.

But at the elementary level, it’s different. There are 33 counselors — 13 of them are assigned to a specific school, 11 split their time between two schools, five are assigned to a special program, three are part-time and one serves students in the Migrant Education Program.

Another four elementary schools have an open position for a school counselor, Lemon said on Tuesday. There are 20 elementary schools that don’t have an assigned counselor at all, she said. If there’s an emergency, the school principals can request a counselor, usually meaning one is pulled from another school, Lemon said.

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Ratliff said he didn’t have information Tuesday about how much it would cost to have at least a part-time counselor in each school.

The board also unanimously passed another amendment Monday night asking the district to prepare a plan to close a $3.8 million gap in its student transportation budget. The rest of the anticipated budget gap — the roughly $6.6 million — is in the district’s general fund budget, most of which pays for salaries and benefits.

District administrators are expected to present a balanced budget proposal to the school board in February. The board must approve the budget and then send it to the Anchorage Assembly for approval by the first Monday in March.

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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