The Wrangell Borough Assembly held a special meeting Thursday, April 16, to consider their local contribution to the Wrangell School District's budget. According to the meeting's agenda packet, the city can provide the district anywhere between $583,830 and about $1.6 million. The district's current budget for FY 2021, which was adopted on March 19, has revenues set at about $5.68 million and expenditures at about $6.08 million. The school district was requesting the same contribution as the city provided last year: $1.3 million for district operations, plus an additional $100,000 in reimbursement funds for school maintenance.
"First of all I would like to thank you for this opportunity for us to just meet," Superintendent Debbe Lancaster said. "We have met more this year than we did the year before, and it's definitely helped us foster a good working relationship between the borough and the school district. I want to continue to move along that path as we work together for the benefit of our children in this community. As City Manager Von Bargen said, in addition to the $1.3 million that we received last year, and we appreciate that, to support the school's general budget, I want to request that the assembly consider reimbursing the school district for $100,000 as you did quite generously this year."
Aside from Dr. Lancaster, the assembly also heard from several teachers and other staff members from the school district, and received multiple letters, requesting that the district receive the full contribution it was asking for. Several assembly members also declared conflicts of interest on this matter, as they or family members were employed by the school district. The majority of them were told they did not have a conflict of interest, however, as their families would not be directly receiving any financial benefit from voting on this decision. The only person who chose to abstain was Assembly Member Patty Gilbert, who also serves on the school board. Mayor Steve Prysunka ruled that she did not have a conflict of interest on voting for the local contribution, but that she was free to abstain from voting if she wanted.
The borough has different funds available to pull its local contribution from. According to Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen, the city has access to a sales tax fund and a Secure Rural Schools fund. The sales tax fund, as the name implies, comes from sales taxes. According to city code 28 percent of annual sales tax revenue must be set aside for "education, health, and sanitation." The Secure Rural Schools money comes from the federal government. SRS funds come from national forest receipts, given to communities that have limited opportunities for economic growth due to their location near or on national forest land. According to the agenda packet, Wrangell has about $1.3 million in the sales tax fund, and a little less than $3.5 million in the SRS fund.
There are unique considerations for each fund, Von Bargen said. The SRS money is not guaranteed to be around forever, as the program is only funded through FY 2021. The city is also predicting limited sales tax revenue for the near future, due to the COVID-19 virus. This, plus other projects that fit under the "education, health, and sanitation" description for how the funds can be used, mean that it could be a while before this fund is refilled to a substantial level.
"If I had to make a recommendation, Mr. Mayor, the recommendation would be the money come from the SRS fund again," Von Bargen said. "The reason for that is, to steal your term, the sales tax projections are 'squishy, at best.'"
While the assembly considered Von Bargen's administrative recommendation, Assembly Member Drew Larrabee, also a teacher at Wrangell High School, proposed that $1 million be pulled from the SRS funds and the remaining $300,000 be pulled from the sales tax fund. However, after some discussion, he rescinded this proposal.
The discussion went on for some time, largely about concerns of dipping into either particular fund too deeply, and what the future might hold for Wrangell financially. Eventually, Assembly Member Julie Decker proposed that the full $1.3 million be given to the district out of the SRS funds, as well as the $100,000 maintenance reimbursement money. After a vote to amend the assembly's motion to match the proposal, the local contribution of $1.4 million, in total, was approved.
"I'd just like to thank all of the school board members that came online tonight and your president, Aaron Angerman, thank you very much, and all the school staff that wrote in and participated telephonically," Prysunka said at the close of the meeting. "Again, thanks to the assembly. It's been a long couple of weeks so I really appreciate you guys making yourselves available."
Reader Comments(0)