Lean times are ahead for the Wrangell School District, according to the budget that was adopted on April 30. Funding for the district has been a topic of much concern ever since Governor Mike Dunleavy released his proposals for the state budget. One of his proposals was a major cut to the Base Student Allocation, a program that gives schools money for every student in their district.
It has been very challenging to prepare a budget for the new school year without knowing for sure what was going to happen at the state level, said Superintendent Debbe Lancaster. According to her, the budget that was adopted by the school board last week is as close to "no fat" as possible.
"The budget that was adopted Tuesday was a conservative and hopeful projection," she said. "We made significant cuts to be sensitive to the struggles that our legislators are going through to look at ways to reduce expenditures. We've kept that in mind, and we've streamlined as much as possible with limited information. It's been an all consuming process."
The FY 2020 budget has about $6.34 million in expenses. The largest expense is teacher salaries at about $1.74 million. The district is also paying $885,005 for life and health insurance, which is a three percent increase from last year. Another expense category that has seen a rise is in travel for student regional activities. At a total of $190,900, Lancaster said that they added roughly $70,000 to this part of the budget. The extra money would be to cover jet travel, she said, as the ferry system is in danger of shutting down from lack of state funding come October.
As far as revenues go, the school district is looking to break even with $6.34 million coming into the school system. Lancaster said that they are asking for $616,689 from the City and Borough of Wrangell for the 2020 budget, which she said was the minimum contribution they could make. With Wrangell in a similar situation as the district, trying to form a budget in spite of economic uncertainties at the state level, she said it would not be right to ask for more.
"This year we budgeted to only ask for the minimum from the city," Lancaster said. "The minimum contribution, because right now the state is struggling with their budget and we're still all up in the air about what our budget may end up looking like."
The district's projected revenues are also based upon what Lancaster pointed out was a major assumption: That the Base Student Allocation would not be cut at all, despite the governor's wishes. With a predicted 316 students in the school system, the district is projecting that over half of their revenue will come from the BSA, at roughly $3.9 million. If there are cuts, Lancaster said that they would obviously have to respond and make cuts in their own budget. As they are already at bare bones, she said that this would necessitate numerous meetings with school staff, the city, and even town hall meetings with the wider community.
To achieve a "no fat" budget, there were numerous cuts made. One that Lancaster pointed out was that Evergreen Elementary would not be hiring a new principal. With the recent resignation of Principal Virginia Tulley, Lancaster said that the school's head teacher will act in the role of an assistant principal. The district will also not have a full-time guidance counselor anymore, though Lancaster said that staff are working to find different solutions or alternatives for this. Another idea that had been floated in previous school board meetings was for Lancaster to take on the role of special education director, as well as district superintendent. She said that this idea had been tabled for now, but depending on how things play out she may take on the role for no pay increase. The district is looking hard for ways to save money in any way possible, she said. Any savings that they are capable of making will go straight into reserves, as a holdover for the future, she said. As a hypothetical example, she said if the ferry system did not shut down, that extra $70,000 budgeted for student travel would be put into the nest egg.
"For instance, if we get additional funding from somewhere, we are allowed by law to carry over 10 percent for the next year, our carryover funding," she said. "It's important to have that carryover funding in case anything happens and if, for some reason, you can't make that first payroll. You've got to have the carryover funding. At this point, in this budget, right now we've got about $132,000 to carry over to next year. What that means is we would not go in at our 10 percent, so we're going to be looking for every possible fiscal advantage."
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