The Wrangell School Board met last Monday evening. During the meeting, Superintendent Debbe Lancaster provided the board with a brief recap of a recent public meeting the district held on school safety. For those unaware, concerns were raised among parents in the community after an unnamed student made threats against the school on Snapchat. The district contacted the police on the matter, who determined there was no threat, and then they informed parents of what had happened. The meeting was called to discuss the safety protocols the district already had in place, and to receive input from the public on how they could improve.
“Based on the concerns that were brought up in that two hour and fifteen minute meeting we acted immediately, well, the next morning on some of the things that had concerned some of the community members,” she said.
The school district is tightening its policy on locking doors and limiting access to the schools from the outside, she said. They are also working on educating parents and visitors on the importance of going to the main office to sign the visitors’ sheet. In response to several parents missing the notifications from the school during the event, they are also working on updating their emergency contact system. Secondary school students will be undergoing ALICE training in April, she added, and teachers will also have some training on ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) in the near future. Safety booklets, outlining what to do in various emergency situations, have been placed in classrooms, too, and they are looking into ways to procure the funds for new security cameras.
The second draft of the school district’s proposed budget was also discussed in the meeting. The proposed budget for FY 2020 is trying to take into account some deep cuts to education funding proposed by Governor Mike Dunleavy. The first draft was shown on Feb. 18, proposing the school have a revenue of $5.37 million and expenditures of $5.34 million. The new draft has revenue set at $5.94 million and expenditures at $5.9 million. Georgianna Buhler, who put together the draft budgets, said that the second draft was designed on the prediction that the governor’s budget cuts will not be as harsh as initially proposed, after the state budget is negotiated and adopted. This is a belief that is shared by other schools who are in the same situation as Wrangell, she said.
“It seemed like the general consensus from most of the schools … and particularly from Southeast Schools was that they were aiming that there was going to be a reduction, but not a reduction like the governor had been promoting,” Buhler said. “So this budget was based on, instead of a 23 plus percent decrease in the revenue, this budget is based on 10 percent.”
Some of the particular changes to this budget draft, compared to the last one, is an increase in funding for student athlete travel from $17,325 to $20,000. Teacher salaries were decreased slightly by $699, to a total of $1.64 million. This draft has also budgeted for a 10 percent increase in health insurance premiums, almost doubling the budget from about $444,000 to about $846,000.
Board member Aaron Angerman had some questions about several student activities that the draft of the budget proposed cutting. These include baseball, softball, high school and middle school drama, FCCLA, and BPA. This is a decrease in the budget of only $2,163 Buhler said, but they need to save money where they can.
“Those specific ones are ones that have been low utilization or no utilization in recent years,” she said.
Other items covered in the meeting include adoption of the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school calendars, and a decision to research the formation of a Parent Teacher Organization. Middle school and high school students will also be undergoing state PEAKS testing next week, it was announced at the meeting.
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