Wrangell’s Public School Board approved a second draft of its Fiscal Year 2017 budget during a special session Tuesday evening.
Several sizable changes were made to both its expenditures and revenues, reflecting previously unacknowledged items.
Driving the change was a reduction of $53,871 to the district’s Foundation Support revenues, due to expiry of Wrangell’s “Hold Harmless” provision with the state.
Hold Harmless addresses declines in a district’s size-adjusted ADM, temporarily increasing it where a district has lost five or more percent of its students. The goal is to cushion districts against the financial impacts of lost enrollment.
For Wrangell the provision took effect on July 1, 2013, to end after three years.
“We’re in year four now,” Wrangell schools superintendent Patrick Mayer said.
Several modest additions to revenues were in the eRate, Teachers Retirement System, and Impact Aid items, for $2,929. Further reductions to anticipated revenue in the amount of $259 were made to the QSI grants and Public Employee Retirement System items. In all, the budget anticipates approximately $5.8 million in revenues for the coming year.
This projection bases itself in part on a student count of 270.85 and a flat base student allocation. A $50 increase to the BSA was proposed by Gov. Bill Walker and is being considered by the Senate, but has not been factored into Wrangell’s schools budget.
On the expenditure side, $40,000 was removed from the Electricity budget item, due to the high school switching over to oil for cheaper heat.
Another adjustment reducing expenditures to payroll and benefits in the amount of $11,226 was due to a staffing change. Whereas previously one member of staff’s benefits cost had been covered under general fund monies, their move to a grant-funded position meant those benefits would be covered by the grant program.
Increases of $6,246 and $3,550 were made to the Director and Teachers Salaries items, reflecting an increase in the activities director salary and language program grant funding, respectively. The new principal salary was increased by $2,574, and the item for aides was bumped up by $677.
In all, expenditures are expected to run to just under $5.8 million, with $7,456 expected for operating capital. This upcoming year’s budget will have about $30,000 more to work with over the current year’s, with roughly $37,000 less in expenditures. The school district has until May 2 to provide the City and Borough with a draft budget, though alterations may come once a final state budget is approved.
“This is it until then,” Mayer said. The current draft was largely put together by Mayer and business administrator Pam Roope.
“We believe that our current assumptions are accurate,” he went on to say. “It’s a struggle when we don’t have clarity from the Legislature,”
A regular school board meeting followed the special session. Prominent among items to be discussed were proposed changes to the calendar, with classes to have a late start on Monday mornings rather than let out earlier in the afternoon. This year Monday classes were cut short for students, allowing faculty and school staff to spend most of the afternoon in In-Service Training sessions.
Attendees to the board’s March meeting recommended that the schedule be changed in order to allow students the time to get after-school assistance on Mondays if needed. It was pointed out that many students are traveling for activities during the weekend, and for some Monday is the only time they have to seek extra help and catch up on testing.
After receiving feedback from students, parents and members of the faculty, the board decided in a narrow 3-2 vote to move the IST period instead to Friday afternoons. The early release would give most students a slightly longer weekend and would mean less class time missed for those already traveling for extracurricular activities.
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