As shutdown starts, school funds presently secure

A federal bill allocating at least a quarter of the school system’s local funding passed the Senate and House of Representatives this week.

The Secure Rural Schools program provides Wrangell Schools with $1.3 million per year, which represents roughly 25 to 30 percent of the school system’s budget, according to Superintendent Rich Rhodes. Local officials and the borough’s lobbyist expressed concern for the fate of the bill among the widely reported atmosphere of fiscal belt-tightening in Washington. The bill awaits President Obama’s expected signature sometime in the next week.

“For us, it’s a very significant amount of money,” Rhodes said.

Local school officials have taken steps to insulate the schools from the effects of any potential failure of the bill’s passage, Rhodes said. Officials have created a reserve to insulate themselves from the effects of a shut down, Rhodes said.

The school board has also eliminated some positions through attrition, said Rhodes, who assumed the duties of principal at Evergreen Elementary School this year.

“The key impact isn’t really as much for us,” he said. “Where it becomes an issue is in places like Kake and Klawock.”

In smaller communities, the secure rural school funds can account for up to 80 percent of the budget, he said.

The measure was secured after a bill to privatize the government’s reserve of helium generated $500 million worth of spare revenue, according to Robert Dillon, a spokesperson for Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office.

“In dividing up that money, a lot of it went to deficit reduction, but Sen. Murkowski was able to secure a one-year extension which would provide $16 million to Alaska,” he said.

The $16 million gets divided up among communities all over Alaska, Dillon said.

“$1.3 million is one of the larger amounts that comes out of the Secure Rural Schools fund,” he said. “It can be up to $1.5 or $1.6 million.”

If the bill had not passed, or if the federal government shut-down stays in effect, it would have been one additional piece of financial bad news for the school system, which is already trapped between rising expenses and declining state and federal contributions to its revenues forced by declining enrollment.

“It’s been difficult,” he said. “We’re kind of hanging on.”

A shutdown could effectively hold up the federal funds which had already been set aside. However both Rhodes and Dillon said a shut-down was unlikely.

“I got a feeling they’re going to have a stopgap,” Rhodes said. “They’re going to continue with it, even if they have to sign this thing outside of the federal budget.”