Schools adopt $5.86M budget for 2017/18

Wrangell Public Schools has adopted a final draft budget for the coming year.

Meeting Monday evening at Evergreen Elementary School, the board voted to approve the third draft, which projects expenditures totaling $5,860,894. Attendance for the year is anticipated at 273 students. Costs since the first draft was put forward in February have come down by about $134,000 in expected benefits, due to lower insurance rates.

“It's fairly straightforward, which is not always the case for the budget,” school superintendent Patrick Mayer explained.

Some savings from the benefits item saw a reduction by $85,000 from $375,000 previously being allocated from the school's capital improvement fund, when factored into other adjusted items. The budget is still keeping things conservative, anticipating a five-percent cut to the state's Foundation Support for the coming year. The Legislature in Juneau is still negotiating a final budget plan, and the prospective cuts may not materialize.

Deadline for submission of a budget to the Borough Assembly is May 1. A workshop smoothing out further details was set ahead of the Assembly's meeting on Tuesday.

Board members also had to decide on a school budget for the coming year, but were torn on versions put forward by the Wrangell Teachers Association and school administration. Start and end dates for each were the same, but proposed work days and holiday breaks were at odds at points.

Members of the board could not come to agreement at the time, and proposed holding the matter of the calendar to the next meeting.

“There's valid points on each side,” board president Georgianna Buhler noted. Board member Susan Eagle recommended that a draft calendar be brought forward for consideration at least a month earlier next year, to give staff more notice to make arrangements for the summer.

Also discussed during

the meeting was formally adopting a policy that would limit the secondary schools' open campus policy. In

past years, students are allowed to leave campus on their breaks so long as parents had signed a permission slip. This year,

secondary schools principal Bill Schwan adopted a policy which no longer allows sixth graders that privilege, and explaining the decision to the board on Monday went on to say he would like to see that policy eventually extended to include seventh and eighth graders.

His reasoning had been in response to reports of students getting into trouble off campus, either fighting or getting into altercations with elders.

“When I came here I had heard the horror stories,” Schwan said. But the decision went beyond a few anecdotes; he noted that allowing younger students free rein to leave during lunch meant the school – which is responsible for their safety – could not account for their whereabouts.

“One of the things that takes kids off campus is the prospect of going downtown,” Mayer said, echoing the principal. “How are we supposed to know where they're at?”

“You guys hired me to provide safe education,” Schwan said. “Looking over this year it's been very successful.”

“I think it should be up to parents,” commented board member Tammy Groshong, citing precedent. “The middle school has always been able to leave with written parental permission.”

Schwan countered that the policy still allows parents to come retrieve their children for lunchtime if they wanted. He pointed out that relatively few students took advantage of leaving campus, and added that having them on campus has allowed the school to steer some students who need extra academic help into supportive programming.

Board members shot down the policy proposal, but agreed to take up the issue further as part of a public discussion.

On Monday the school board welcomed a new face to its ranks, Robert Rang. He was appointed to the board earlier this month by the Borough Assembly, replacing outgoing member Rinda Howell. At the meeting, Buhler presented Howell with a plaque marking her 10 years of service to the board.

“We want to tell our outgoing board member 'thank you,'” Buhler said.

Rang is currently the chief executive officer at Wrangell Medical Center. Mayer has been serving on the hospital's governing board since being elected in October.

Also approved during the meeting were non-tenured teacher contracts, extended to Laurie Brown, Patricia Gilbert, Matt Gore, Michelle Jenkins, Odile Meister, Matt Nore and Virginia Oliver.

An executive session held at the end of the meeting discussed ongoing contract negotiations with the Wrangell Teachers Association, though no actions were taken. Individual personnel matters relating to the content of that discussion could not be spoken to due to privacy and legal concerns.

Looking ahead to next year though, some concern was expressed that Evergreen Elementary School principal Diedre Jensen was being let

go. Her name was conspicuously absent among contracts being considered for

renewal.

During the guest input period, a couple of community members stepped forward in order to speak up in favor of Jensen, who has been principal at Evergreen for three and a half years.

“The school has become a family since she became principal,” said Arlene Wilson, a teacher at the school.

Another speaker called her a “passionate individual,” and spoke up for her efforts to improve school safety and reduce problems with bullying.

Explaining the board had a sizable agenda ahead of it, Buhler had limited public comments to three minutes per person, amounting to 12 minutes in all.

“When we have an executive session I have to be respectful of members of the board as well,” she explained later.

Monday's meeting was prefaced by updates from student groups. Wrangell's Student Government put forward some proposals for school administrators to consider, including class scheduling.

Girls from the Alaska Association of Student Governments reported on their trip to Juneau in mid-March. There they discussed proposals and resolutions with 300 students from 40 other schools around the state, voting on measures as a general assembly. They were also able to tour the State Capitol, meeting with legislators and listening to the governor.

Girls attending the Alaska Association of School Boards' Youth Leadership Institute and Legislative Fly-In in February also updated the school board of their trip. Students learned how to advocate for issues and speak with lawmakers, and lobbied for support for education funding and supportive programming.